You might be wondering, How in this world can an entrepreneur learn the lessons of entrepreneurship from the life of a cricketer? Success stories inspire any budding entrepreneur and what else could serve a better animus to today’s entrepreneurs than M.S. Dhoni. From being a ticket collector at Kharagpur station to becoming the richest cricketer in the world so far, his success story is something every startup should try to emulate.
Mahendra Singh Dhoni popularly known as just “MSD” or “Captain Cool”, was born on 7th of July 1981 on the soil of Ranchi, Jharkhand. Unlike many other cricketers around the globe, he was never so much indulged in cricket from his childhood. Rather he excelled in Badminton and was a district-level football player. On being sent to play cricket in the local cricket team by his football coach, he impressed one and all on the field by his excellent wicket keeping skills. His focus diverged towards cricket after 10th standard. He became the honorary recipient of ICC ODI Player of the Year in 2008 and 2009, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 2007 and the Padma Shri award in 2009. He’s an extremely humble person and a world class cricketer. This is a FREE lesson to all entrepreneurs: Don’t be resistant to learn anything new. You never know which skill may fetch you success. Let us explore what he has actually got to inspire us.
Utter Calmness in Extreme Situations:
Captain Cool is the which the world of cricket has bestowed upon him because of the way he carries his team and his own batting and leadership skills. Calmness and patience are the qualities that define MSD and every entrepreneur must inculcate these within himself. His ability to control the outburst of his emotions is something that very few have. We rarely find him getting antagonized with bad deliveries even when the team is at the verge of losing. Neither does he get depressed even after facing a series of failures and disappointments nor does he over rejoices at any victory of his. When he does it, he does it in style. This is the biggest trait which every entrepreneur, every leader should adopt from him. The journey as an entrepreneur is never going to be a bed of roses. There will be instances when you will feel yourself lost, the path may seem really foggy, much like the destination. Under such dire circumstances, if you fail to keep up your cool, then you have definitely lost the battle. Being calm under these situations fetched him the best result everytime as by not losing his mind, he could actually think of solutions that turned out to be the most rewarding ones. Again, this has a contagious effect to the team which is bound to produce better outputs. The god of cricket, Sachin Tendulkar has rated Dhoni the best captain he has ever played under. Now, that’s big!
Being the Backbone of the team:
Be it Ishant Sharma in Champions Trophy 2013 or Joginder Sharma in world T20 2007, Dhoni has always kept his faith and hope in his players and has always backed them throughout their bad patch. His players play well because they keep an allegiance to his captainship. However, adverse situations may arise, a good leader is one who can keep himself and his team going. Yes, just going! People love to work in homely and friendly environment. Nobody really likes working with a leader who is short-tempered, gets irritated and taunts his teammates at some meager issues. Dhoni doesn’t do any of these even in the gravest of situations! As an entrepreneur, place undue trust on your team, support them with whatever they need, make them realize their flaws and at the same time help them in improving because at the end of the day, your success is something that is directly correlated with the success of your team!
Regarded as the best finisher:
MS Dhoni is an iconic finisher of the game. Navjot Singh Sidhu hails him as an all-in-one player. With such fierce pressure on every single player on the side, it’s his crucial job to keep the team motivated. But he does it in the best way that exists. In case his team fails he takes the stand and marches forward, facing all that comes in front of them. As a leader it becomes a responsibility to lead. He has spent a record number of weeks at the top of ICC ODI batsman rankings. Now records are one thing, but converting them into stunning victories is altogether different. That’s exactly where Dhoni has scored heavily. He has been through pitfalls but the only journey he enjoys is not always being at the top all the time, but climbing up to get to the top. Everytime. He’s an enthusiast. He’s a preacher. He’s a leader. He’s all-in-one.
Humbleness, Humility, Humaneness:
Dhoni, unlike other captains hands over the winning trophy to his team-mates. Such is the humbleness in his character which people appraise. Humility is a very important trait which a leader must possess. No matter how efficient you might be as a captain but being a successful leader is a different ball game. It is the effort of the whole team that brings home the winning trophy. So the next time you crack some grand success, bestows it to your team. Tell them it wouldn’t have been possible without them. That’s humane!
Also Read: Life of “The Wall” Rahul Dravid- 5 Lessons for Startups and Entrepreneurs
Be yourself – Risk yourself!
There have been times, there have been situations when Dhoni’s decisions have been taken criticized by all. All the fingers raised were all at once lowered by his conviction and ability to stand firm on his decision. From the very dawn of his career in International Cricket, he severely faced the critics for talking ill about his peculiar batting style but it is this flamboyant batting which brought home umpteen number of victories. Likewise, an entrepreneur should be taking risks but after scrutinizing all the pros and cons.
In the end, whether it is Cricket or a Company, it’s that one long hit out of the boundary or that intuitive spontaneous decision that makes all the difference. So be yourself and learn the right things from the right people, try to inculcate in yourself all the positive aspects of a personality and success will come calling!
