5 Great Business Tips from a Champion Boxer

Business  is like a game. There are winners, there are losers, and there are considered champions. Entrepreneurs face a lot of opponents and challengers. Business owners encounter many competitors, which include companies, people and even oneself. Yes, you can be your own worst rival in business. Your own indolence, ignorance or greed can be your own business competitor that is hard to beat. Thus, you need to pay attention to other people and to yourself to ensure success in your business. In achieving business success, we can learn lessons from boxers who are literally warriors and great fighters inside the ring. As I am a boxing enthusiast, I carefully study how a boxer becomes a champion. It takes extraordinary qualities to become the king of the ring. The following are 5 great business tips I learned from a champion boxer.

 

1. Have a great coach… and listen

We should admit that we don’t know everything, and we cannot achieve success relying only on our own talent, skills and wit. To succeed in business, we need to have a better coach, mentor or teacher who will teach us important business tactics and techniques that we don’t usually see and realize. Further, we also need someone who will always there to motivate and wake us to continue the tedious and difficult trainings we need to execute our business procedures. There’s always a saying that two heads are better than one. Also remember that behind every champion, there is a great coach or trainer.

 

2. Have a strategic game plan

Champions and winners, with the help of their coaches, always compete with a great plan. A business plan, marketing plan, and other strategic plans related to business operation are vital in ensuring that we are heading in the right direction and reaching the right destination. These plans include our specific objectives with their corresponding steps and procedures to accomplish them. Thus, we should not become hasty and reckless in our business dealings. We should instead invest time, energy and even money to come up with an effective plan. Take note that boxers are not only great warriors, but they are also tacticians who know how to think ahead of time.

 

3. Condition yourself; practice harder

Having diligence and patience is not a strange advice to succeed in any undertakings. However, if we will observe how boxers train hard, we can see a lot of sweat, pain and even blood. These athletes do the literal meaning of hard work. They wake up early morning, run for a mile, spar with several rounds, and have a diet that needs a lot of patience and self-discipline to catch their weight. Now, if you want to become a champion in business, you should also possess these kinds of patience and diligence. You should also mix it with self-control and consistency. But this doesn’t mean you should work and not rest to become more productive. You should condition your body like the boxers. Business people should always take care of their health to become healthier, more efficient, and yes… more productive. Don’t get yourself knockout with stress and other diseases.

 

4. Focus

This is one of the most important factors that make anyone a champion – concentration. Well, if you’re in the ring and fighting your opponent, you need to focus, or else, you will get caught with a devastating punch that can send you on the canvas. A boxer also needs to stay in focus to get an opening to unleash that one clean shot to knockout his opponent and win. In the business world, although we can project the future and calculate business risks, we should still stay on alert to prepare for any unexpected problems that can strike us. Further, everyone who pursues success in business, entrepreneurship, marketing and management should also take the concentration and determination to achieve the perfect timing, balance and force to hit the bulls-eye of success.

 

5. Stick to your game plan.

I got this tip from the Filipino Boxing Superstar and Fighter of the Decade Manny “the Pacman” Pacquiao. When interviewed and asked what his secret to success is, he always answers that it is “to stick to your game plan.” Pacquiao is right, in the ring, an opponent may come with different tactics, like fooling you on a slugfest fight or giving you a false opening. And when you bite his trap, you’ll get knockout or you’ll lose by a unanimous decision. In doing business, sticking to your business plan is very important. There might be a lot great chances and opportunities that will come in front of you. But you must be prudent for they might only be hidden traps that are only there to destroy your original plans. Hence, don’t forget to execute your plan smoothly until you’ve reached the ultimate success.

There are many other great business tips, tricks and lessons that athletes can give us. How about you, what business tip have you got from a champion? The comment box below is waiting for your valuable thoughts.