The Power Of Friendship, Mentorship And Community

Post date: Aug 11, 2014 11:48:26 PM

Last weekend was a wonderful weekend - my son competed in his first judo competition and came second!!!!!

The photo you see is Ben (my son) with my best mate David Gordon of Chiron Solutions (you work out which one is which!!!! LOL) who has been involved in the sport of judo himself for over 40 years.

I had to share this achievement with you because there are so many parallels that can be drawn between Ben's achievement over the weekend and running a successful business.

Ben has been training at the Gawler Judo Club for many months now and over recent times his coaches have been encouraging him to take part in an actual competition.

The coaching team at the Gawler Judo Club are fantastic with the children - they teach them about the benefits of hard training and commitment to their sport in a positive team environment and it is great to see how Ben has grown - both physically and mentally - as a direct result of this training.

At the same time David - who will often come over to our place for dinner and a chat - regularly asks Ben how his judo is going and shows him the occasional "trick of the trade" with the different judo moves he has used over the years.

Until last weekend, Ben was reluctant to compete in an actual judo competition - he gave reasons like he was too young, he didn't know enough about the rules and he hadn't been training long enough as reasons for not competing - and even though his coaches thought he would be fine competing, we were happy not to push him until he was ready to go.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Ben's coach came up to us to let us know there was an upcoming competition and when I asked Ben if he would like to compete, we were most happy when he said that he thought he was ready to do so.

On the morning of the competition Ben was both excited and nervous - "What if I make a mistake?", "What if I get hurt, or hurt someone?", "What if I don't remember the rules?" were only some of the questions that were asked on the way to the competition.

My reply was simple - "Mate, have fun and do your best - that's all you can do".

The rest is history: first bout - Ben won on points; second bout - Ben got beaten on points by the guy who eventually went on to win the division's "most outstanding" player (mind you, this guy was three belt grades higher and about 4 years older than Ben!!!); third bout - Ben "pins" a guy three belt grades higher than him and wins; final belt - to decide the Silver and Bronze medal winner - Ben's opponent has disappeared and gone home (was it because he had been watching this "new kid on the block" and got scared - who cares!!!LOL) and Ben wins the Silver medal!!!!

Now - I hear you say - what has this competition got to do with business?

How long have you been putting off launching your own business because things are "not quite right"?

How often have you had people around you tell you to get your business idea out there, but you continue to resist doing so?

How often have you had people offer to help you with your launch because they are experienced in a similar field and have years of knowledge and expertise that they want to pass on to you?

How often have you had a community of likeminded people telling you that you and your business are "ready to go", but you have resisted because things are "not quite ready"?

There is never a "right time" to launch your business - you just have to "step up to the plate" and do it - then make the necessary adjustments, as required, to drive your business forward to greater success.

Who knows - you may even win a "medal" at your first attempt!!!

Good on ya Ben - well done mate.