What Was The Defining Lesson You Learned From Sports?
First up was Kiyosaki as usual. For the most part, he talks about how he developed his intuitiveness and the ability to persevere in extremely difficult situations from playing sports. One interesting example of a defining moment that he gave was how when he played football it seemed like he was always on the bench as the coach wouldn’t play him. One day, the assistant coach asked him if he knew why he wasn’t being played and Kiyosaki said no and couldn’t understand as he always showed up for games and is arguably better than the person in the starting line up. The assistant coach actually agreed with him and told him how while he had better skills and talent than the starter, what that guy had over Robert was that he had more heart and wanted the position more badly than Robert did. That was a revelation for him as he realized that if he wanted something it was entirely up to him and that having the desire is not enough. He started to work harder than before and as it turns out he got his big break. He used a quote which I thought was interesting which was “Life is a rip-off when you expect to get what you want.†Basically, it’s one thing to expect things to happen for you and another to make it happen for yourself.
Robert then talks a lot about golf and how he admires the sport and uses it as a business tool. He mentions how a person plays the game of golf is a good indicator on whether or not they would be a good business partner. For example, the way they compose themselves, whether or not they cheat, etc. He then talks about how he was taught that a lot of business deals are closed on a golf course due to its relaxing environment and was told a quote which said “More business deals are done on the golf course than in the boardroom.â€
Donald Trump says that the main thing he got out of sports was improving his instincts. Like Robert, Donald talks about how he uses golf as a way to examine a person’s true character. Overall, it is precision, instinct and tempo that he believes is necessary for one to be successful in sports and that same thing can be applied to business.
In my opinion, these last few chapters have all kind of revolved around the same message in a different form. Basically, learn from experiences and make yourself successful. About the closing deals on a golf course statement, the concept of it has been true for me many times where important business deals are closed in relaxing environments whereas most people think if it is a large deal you have to bring the person into the most luxurious place possible. There is a saying that I heard before which was something like “People do business with people†which essentially means that the more you know, trust and respect a person the more likely you will do business with them as oppose to solely determining a partnership based on say one’s financial portfolio.