Javelin, football offer lessons every business should learn

The two sports headlines were as contrasting as they came. The first one read “Olympian Julius Yego Screams to Gold” and the second one read “Wanyama Rescued from Angry fans as Kenya Suffer Shock Loss”. You can already guess where I am going with this.

The first headline was about how Julius Yego made history by becoming the first Kenyan athlete to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal in a field event. The javelin thrower did so despite suffering a pulled groin muscle in the warm-up.

“It was not easy as I picked up an injury in the warm-up area,” said Yego. “I almost pulled out of the competition because my groin was really painful, but I said ‘no, this is the championship I have been working for all season’. The Commonwealth Games is where our legend Kipchoge Keino made history for Kenya and now I am making history in the field events.”

For Harambee Stars, it was a familiar tale. The entire technical bench was fired moments after the team failed in its attempt to overturn a one-goal deficit against Lesotho in a preliminary round qualifying match for next year’s Africa Cup of Nations tournament.
Stars needed to beat their Southern Africa opponents by at least two clear goals but in the end they could not even manage one in a drab encounter that ended scoreless at the Nyayo National Stadium.
What do these two scenarios have to do with business?

Creativity
Yego reminds us of the excitement of the startup world. It’s you, the entrepreneur, against the rest of the world. The Kenyan javelin athlete earned the nickname the ‘YouTube Athlete’ for mastering his prowess via YouTube videos and making it to the London Olympics 2012 finals. He used the Internet as a path to achieving goals, dreams and ambitions.

Isn’t it exhilarating when you out-innovate and garner the attention of large, well-established companies?

Harambee Stars have hired a new coach, assistant and team manager. Well, I wrote three weeks ago about how the Germans built from the ground up 14 years ago. So I will skip to words of advice I would give our dear national team if they were a company.

It’s happens to everyone at one time or another. You’re stuck. You search high and low for inspiration. You look back on your earlier work, searching through your past ideas, trying to locate your muse, looking for something to trigger a creative explosion. But it’s all for naught. You’re blocked.

Regardless of what business you’re in, there’s always a need for creativity. Maybe it’s in how you present your products and services to your potential clients, or maybe it’s the products and services themselves. Either way, you need help getting out of that creative rut.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your creative rut is to walk away. Staring at the problem won’t help you. In fact, it may very well exacerbate the situation. So walk away. Literally.

Take some time off and enjoy life. New experiences and meeting new people serve to rejuvenate your spirit and revive your creative flow. So walk away, let your brain take a rest from trying to figure it all out, and experience something new. You may come back with a wealth of new ideas.

Personally, I am not shocked at Harambee Stars’ loss to Lesotho. I saw it coming. What our football administrators have never known is that one of the biggest defining factors between success and failure is determination. The ability to keep plugging away, despite seemingly endless rejection and failure, has bred some of the finest entrepreneurs in the world.

Is somebody listening?

Mr Waswa is managing director Outdoors Africa.