Photo by Aphiwat chuangchoem from Pexels
This article is in continuation with my previous blog on ‘5 Product lessons Tennis taught me‘. There is so much to learn from sports that directly applies to product and life in general. Sports gives a chance to learn, fail, experiment, win, celebrate, coordinate, and more, and this blog is expanding on the same lines.
You play to win
You enter the arena to win and give your best. By all means, ‘Play to Win’ is a great attitude. You define the strategies, tactics, execute them and correct the course as you play the game. A positive attitude to give your best is a must. The same is required as a product person. You enter new territory, new people, new products, new competition, and thus a new challenge. Fear not – Learn, plan, build, iterate execute, to win.
A game lost doesn’t count; lessons learned do.
As I play tennis almost every day, I win, and I lose. Team changes, dynamics changes, and there is no secret sauce for the win. I do carry the lost game home and get a bit frustrated on my own game or team play – emotions come out. Do we stick with that lost game forever? No. The new day brings in new hopes to try our best and address the mistakes of previous days. That’s what counts in sports and in the product. You can’t live in the past; however, you learn from it and correct the course. To build the sporting spirit what’s best than playing the sports itself.
You build an appetite to digest failure.
You play every day, you win, and you lose. Getting that feeling of the lost game is essential to make you compassionate. Makes you a mature person to handle your own failure or your team’s failure. You know failure was the game and not the person. You give yourself and others room to be themselves. It’s going to be OK if we lost; let’s move on quickly. As a product leader, if you are not going to have this appetite for failure, you will create an unhealthy environment for the team to operate, resulting in more damage.
You get a ground for experimenting and failing without huge risk.
On the playground, you learn new tactics, experiment a lot, and try new ways to surprise the opponent. You may win or lose. And all of these are at zero financial risks (unless you are in betting sports). The core value to experiment and be ready for failure is critical for a product person. You may not experiment or innovate or take bold steps and then wonder why I lost. Have room to experiment and innovate.
You become a better team player and leader.
Take any sports, and you see so much action goes in a short time. You need to be on your toes to move fast, play fast, play right, be the best team player, utilize the best team talent wisely, play tactics, be dynamic, and most importantly, lead. Playing a sport daily/weekly will make it a habit to do the drill and apply the same principles to your product role.
You learn to celebrate small and big wins.
Every point you make on the scoreboard counts; it lifts the spirits, gives a sign of moving towards a win. You cheer and hi-fi. It shows up on your face with bright eyes and a smile; your hands make those ‘got it’ gestures as a reflex. Now you know what to do when your product team gets the point – Lift the spirits! Cheers 🍻
Mangesh is Product Leader
Full Bio here – https://mangesh.bhamre.in
