Why athletes thrive in corporations
Pursuit of sports develops critical skills in, Excellence & Craftsmanship

Corporate America or any workplace looks for high-performance individuals. More often than not athletes or people from any sports background seem to be able to hold their ground. The connection might seem weird. How do people who come from a highly physically active world thrive in a world where mental or intellectual skills are more relevant?
If we step back there are a lot more skills that help somebody succeeed. A lot of these are related to their attitude, philosophy, and approach to life. Passion, grit, persistence, discipline, the pursuit of excellence, teamwork, etc., I see these in sports people, and one of the main reasons I highly encourage my kids to pursue a sport. This might also be relevant to a lot of fields that need long-term mental and physical focus to succeed.
My own experience as an athlete - Yes shotput is a sport too!
Hardcore, excruciatingly painful training is one of the most significant memories of my high school and college years. I was introduced to the world of sports by “Robert Sir”. Robert Sir joined us from the Indian military and brought the richness of sports and extracurricular activities to our school. He introduced us to band, volleyball, basketball, handball, and athletics. I played every sport. It meant going to school before everybody and staying later to practice. Looking back I am grateful for the opportunity to go to a school that gave us access to a basketball court, volleyball court, bands, and other privileges at that time in India.
Robert Sir took us to a national school competition in track and field. I competed in shot put, javelin, and discus throw and won in all three. My first gold medals and that too at the national level. ! Before you give me too much credit, please know that these nationals were only for schools. While winning in these school nationals still counts it wasn’t like I won in an India open competition. After I won in the nationals, Robert Sir told my Mom that I would do really well in sports and she should encourage me to pursue it. My Mom was a hockey player growing up and loved sports. She relentlessly pursued different avenues until she found one of the best coaches in India, who convinced him to come out of retirement and coach me. He did and I am grateful for that. He put together a small track and field team and we started training. That started me on a year journey of extremely hard training.
All I knew was training and school. During high school, I would train before and after school and would be away from home every day for 12-14 hrs. College was a completely different ball game. All I did was train, rest, train, rest, and repeat. We would start training at 5.00 am and end at about 9 am. I would get home eat and rest. Woke up to eat lunch and rest for a couple of more hours before we got back to training at about 3.00 pm for another 4 hrs of training. I did this for 11 months in a year and take a month off-season to recover and prepare for final exams.
10 key attributes sports helps form
I couldn’t pursue sports as a full-time career as I had to choose one that would help me find financial stability for myself and my family. However, all that time spent in sports wasn’t wasted. All that training, focus, and experience helped me develop a few qualities. I notice these in my son and his peers who are going through their own paths of growth in sports. These are great attributes to look for in hiring and those on our teams.
Passion: The most important thing you will notice in athletes of any sport is passion. A passion for the sport. Athletes who don’t have a passion for the sport will drop off however skilled might be. Athletes with passion will go much further even though they might not be naturally skilled. It might seem hard to see such players when they are not shining but I know that they will. Their day will come because they have the passion and they will put in the work. The same shows up in
“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do” - Derek Jater
Grit: Angela Duckworth defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” in her book “Grit”. Athletes, especially those with passion, have dreams and will persevere with passion for their long-term goals. Athletes who want to do well develop an insane ability to work hard. I often say that I might not be the most intelligent person in the room but I am confident I will be the most hard-working in the room. The work ethic of good athletes is exemplary and inspiring.
“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it” - Michael Jordan
Resilience: I have failed many times during my sports career. Failed when the competition was tough, failed when I broke my leg days before big competitions, failed when I won in regional competitions but not in nationals, etc., But I always got up, dusted off, and continued. I don’t know if I was born with that attitude or if I developed it because of my coaches and training but I am still like that. Failures don’t deter me. I am able to move ahead. I am able to look at every failure as a blessed opportunity to learn and improve.
“We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.” – Jesse Owens
Discipline: Rain or shine, athletes train. I trained in extreme heat, ran in the rain, and under all conditions. As long as you are not injured you train. Being in pain or being sore doesn’t qualify for rest too. The discipline also expands beyond workouts. The same discipline gets to life.
“Never say never because limits, like fears, are often just illusions” - Michael Jordan
Pursuit of excellence: Athletes of any sport strive for excellence. They are constantly improving their craft. That’s what I have done for years and that is innate in me decades later in my current craft. I apply the same rigor to anything I do. I see the same in my son and his fellow basketball players. They are constantly practicing, watching games to deconstruct their performance, identify areas of improvement and work on them. It is continuous. The tools that they have access to today are so much better.
Photo by August Phlieger on Unsplash The team first: This is relevant for all team sports and also relevant to some of the individual sports where individual performance supports the team to victory like athletics. While each individual tries to improve and do their personal best, they do so in service of their team. Everybody tries to become the best but when it comes to the team, the team comes first. Coaches will put the team first and so do players. If a player plays selfishly, a good coach can sideline a player for a less skilled player who will put the team over themselves.
Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash Meritocracy: While you might see “politics” everywhere, the predominant belief in athletes of any sport is that their skill is what is going to get them ahead.
“Fearless: If you want to be the best, you have to do things that other people aren’t willing to do.” - Michael Phelps
Fearless: Athletes face tremendous pressure, from themselves, their coaches, and their fans. They are able to perform under this pressure or learn ways to cope with all the eyes that are watching them. They are fearless in the way they set goals, work to achieve them, and how they face the whole world while they are in the process of following their dreams
Coachable: Athletes get coached - a lot. They have coaches, trainers, parents, and sometimes referees coaching them and advising them. This helps them learn how to get better with their help. They also become good at filtering good advise from bad and tuning out noise.
Photo by Jeffrey F Lin on Unsplash Sportsmanship: Athletes know what it takes to be great. They understand the blood, sweat, and tears that go into getting better. Because of this, they know how to respect others on the field even when they are competing against them. I have seen my son always hold up his hand to pull somebody up. They compete but with an intention to win and not to put down anybody else. There is a nuance in that attitude. Hence you often see that opposite sides always bow to each other or shake hands after a competition.
While not everybody in the sports world might have all these wonderful traits, I have seen more who do than not. So every chance I get, I encourage kids of all ages to participate in any sport. It just makes them better overall and makes them better citizens and a better workforce of the future. Finally, whatever background people might come from, look for those that might be great training grounds for these skills.
Watch out for Bias: Just like any other unconscious bias, believing that athletes have all of these great qualities can create a bias in our minds. It can show up in the following ways
Believing that all athletes have these positive attributes is not going to be true always. So assuming it will be would be biased. Ensuring this doesn’t impact how we hire or grow everything on the team daily is important.
Even worse, believing that only athletes have these positive traits will exclude many who might not have had the ability or luxury of participating in sports or any such craft. For ex., individuals who can’t afford to participate in sports or have a temporary or permanent disability that limits them from participation.
Focusing on looking for the traits and now how they acquired them would be key to ensuring we don’t let biases creep into hiring and growing a diverse team.
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