Chamber comment: Toowoomba businesses can learn from Australia’s Olympians
“Watching the swimming finals on Sunday, the stories of the athletes resonated with me. Their inspirational stories I believe have a direct correlation to business growth and success.”
Opinion
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With Olympic fever gripping not only Tokyo, but Brisbane, I can only imagine the many tests, many failures and many sacrifices individuals have made to just be selected in an Olympic team, let alone the joy of standing on the podium.
Watching the swimming finals on Sunday, the stories of the athletes resonated with me.
Their inspirational stories I believe have a direct correlation to business growth and success.
Sure, they show resilience, perseverance, and a desire to be the best in the world.
But what they also showed, was the importance of team and failure.
Firstly, what was clear is swimming (well any sport) is not an individual sport, but a team sport.
Those exceptional athletes have a big team around them.
Coaches, physios, psychologists and family, just to name a few, all giving 100% to support a common goal, to produce the best athlete possible.
They are all striving for the same goal.
It is my view that collectively and through collaboration, that the combination of these different skill sets and knowledge would bring new ideas, innovations and shared responsibility, resulting in gold, silver and bronze.
What would happen if one of the team deviated from the goal?
Is this any different for business?
In business, we rely on our team or network of contributors depending on the nature and scale of our business to drive achievement and to push for success.
A team that is aligned to a common goal and with a clear understanding of the goal, no matter how big or small a business is, whether private or public sector, is critical to driving success, don’t you think?
What is your business goal? Is your team aligned and on board?
Secondly, it is my view that you must become an expert on failure to be successful.
Let’s face it, we all experience failure.
It is what we do with it that is important. Right?
I think it is mind boggling to comprehend the number of times these athletes and their teams would have made mistakes which have been critical to their success.
Many articles have been written about the art of failure.
The need to fail and recognise they we all fail.
What is so important about failure is acknowledging it and learning from it.
This learning can lead to success.
Are you an expert on failure?
Share your thoughts with the Toowoomba Chamber by emailingadmin@toowoombachamber.com.au.
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