The pain of efficiency. How martial arts hobby helps in your career

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Grigory Avetov, rector of the largest Russian business school "Synergy" and a Muay Thai fighter, tells how the company's profit and personal success depend on the ability to stay in the ring.

Comparing business and the ring has already become something of a bearded cliché. Perhaps only the lazy coach at the very first seminar did not utter a phrase like: "An entrepreneur is, first of all, a fighter." But there is a practical meaning behind these lyrics: some of the martial arts techniques are really worth applying in a business or career.

There are many clever books you can read, but if you flee the battlefield after the first missed hit, they won't help.

Unfortunately or fortunately, we live in a very aggressive business environment, in a kind of Wild West. Russian business is a continuous “blue ocean”, where a huge number of niches have not yet been mastered. They will go to those who are faster and more aggressive. And the easiest way to develop these qualities is to practice martial arts.

I have been doing Muay Thai for 4 years now. And yes, it’s hard and painful, but that’s the whole point. The constant feeling of pain and its overcoming train the will well. And the will for a businessman is even more important than intelligence. In fact, a fighting mindset can break any deadlock faster than terabytes of business literature. Here are some live examples.

We rise after knockdown

It happens that the opponent or circumstances send you to lie down in the ring for a while. In business terms, this can mean the revocation of the license from the bank, which contains the salaries of your subordinates, or the departure of an employee with a key customer base to the main competitor. Whether this knockdown turns into a knockout depends on your ability to make quick decisions.

Once we put together a forum for 50 million rubles, and then it practically broke down: the key speakers refused to come, tickets were not sold. There were two options: either leave with your tail between your legs, fix the cash gap and cancel the event, or risk everything that is and what is not, and stand to the end, whatever it may be.

I went for broke: at first I postponed all financial obligations in order not to become bankrupt, and then I launched the coolest advertising campaign, spending an unplanned 15 million rubles on it. So I burned all the bridges and cut off my escape route - the entire stadium, the entire business environment looked at me, I could not screw up. And I didn't screw it up: then we not only recouped all the investments, but also made good money. True story.

We bring skills to perfection

I am not afraid of someone who has studied 10,000 different strokes. I am afraid of someone who has repeated the same blow 10,000 times.

Bruce Lee (Bruce Lee) master of martial arts, film actor, philosopher

Martial arts are taught to hone each technique over and over again, and a businessman who applies this rule in his work is two heads higher than the competition. By the way, the Swedes live by this principle, and I even regret that I am not a Swede. In Scandinavia, it is sewn into the national code to bring everything to automatism, while in Russia they are used to relying on magic at random.

But, of course, it’s not a matter of nationality. Steve Jobs, for example, prepared diligently for each of his performances, even when he was at the peak of fame. He might not go on stage at all, but chose to automate his public presentation skills, which, as we all know, helped Apple a lot in its promotion.

Or the Beatles - remember those? Before becoming the legendary Liverpool four, they toiled like hell for 12 hours a day, performing in small pubs all over Britain. And only after these guys perfected their technical skills, played completely, they began to make history and gained worldwide popularity.

Don't skip the left hook

Often times, unforeseen circumstances break into your carefully crafted scenario. In other words, the blow arrives from the side from which you did not expect a catch.

No matter how sophisticated your opponent's methods may be, the blame is always on you: if you catch a hook, it means that you did not practice much. Everything can be foreseen, except for some fantastic force majeure such as an alien invasion (in this case, business problems will obviously fade into the background).

It is worse when the blow comes from the partner's side. It's hard to imagine this in the ring, but in business it happens all the time. In this case, the mistake should be looked for in the past, at the stage of team selection. The environment, the coach, the sparring partner - all this is important both in combat and in business.

"How did it happen", we will figure it out later, now it is important to make sure that the missed hit is not repeated. Fast reaction, ability to concentrate and flexibility of thinking will help here. These are all basic skills in martial arts.

Dirty welcome. Do you need it?

We are all cultured people and we try to come to victory without dirty tricks. But sometimes, without harsh measures, nowhere, the only question is how far you will go and whether you will then sleep peacefully at night.

In general, the list of permitted techniques depends on your value system. In the ring, some fighters allow themselves to beat an opponent in the groin or put weighting objects in a glove, in business - to steal a large client or valuable employee from a competitor. Of course, this is not gentlemanly, but if a big victory or a major contract looms ahead, ethics are modestly silent.

Before moving on to a tough struggle, it is worth asking yourself the question: do I need it? Grab a pen and notebook and make a pro-and-cons list. When does the end justify the means for you, and when are dirty methods unacceptable? Is it worth risking your reputation in the business world for this victory alone? Think about it seriously, but do not delay - otherwise you risk missing the hook (see the previous point).

We put a competent block

Both in the ring and in business, it is important to be able not only to attack, but also to defend correctly. To do this, you need to master two basic tools.

The first one is deaf defense … It will work when the opponent is many times superior to you in all respects: in weight and strength, or in turnover and administrative resources. It is pointless to attack him: this will only provoke him and he will blow you down with one blow. It is most reasonable to stand up in a dull defense and not remind of yourself once again.

This is what Richard Branson did in his time when he launched his Virgin Airlines company, when British Airlines completely owned the British sky. If he threw an open challenge to this giant, it is unlikely that his ambitious project still existed.

The second option is aggressive attack, the same principle "the best defense is offense." It is perfectly illustrated by the opposition between PepsiCo and Coca-Cola in the struggle for the markets of the Soviet Union and Central Asia in the 80s and 90s.

It was a real blatant war with uncompromising advertising campaigns and prosecutions of top managers. She even went into a separate textbook. The plus is that all this is very spectacular and creates a lot of noise around you, but be careful: defeat in front of millions of viewers will spoil the company's karma. You can use aggressive defense only when you are completely confident in your abilities.

The benefits of practicing martial arts for a businessman

• Endurance

  A normal entrepreneur has to work 12 hours a day. In order to remain human-like with this rhythm, you need to keep your body in good shape. You can train for hours in the ring, and then run another 10 km - you can survive a 24-hour marathon when you pass a key project.

• Appearance

  Martial arts, unlike many other sports, make every part of the body work. It is much more pleasant to deal with a harmoniously folded fit partner, especially if such a partner is a woman. By the way, there are more and more ladies in the gym lately, now they make up about a third of all trainees. Previously, they practiced yoga en masse, but now they realized that you cannot win in business by postures and asanas alone.

• Regularity

  It is also an excellent fighting skill that helps to organize the work of the company and defeat procrastination. You know that, no matter how painful the body may be after the previous workout, you must pick it up and take it to the gym. And gradually you get used to submitting boring reports on time, coming to meetings early and holding meetings regularly.

• Achieving nirvana

  The feeling of complete exhaustion and fatigue after a workout is priceless. You woke up Sunday morning and realized that tomorrow is your toughest day of the year? It's time to run to the hall. After an exhausting workout, you will have no strength left not only for excitement, but generally for anything other than vital operations. Any unnecessary movement is hell for you. You are forced to find yourself in a kind of nirvana, minimizing the fuss that usually interferes with business, thereby increasing your efficiency and the company's profit.

As you can see, martial arts help to keep in good shape not only your body, but also your business. In addition to all the goodies in the form of trained muscles and iron nerves, you get a fighting philosophy that will help, no, make you look at what is happening from the position of a leader. In general, everyone is in the ring, guys.