Learn business tips from Conjestina’s life

• First lesson is no risk, no reward. Boxing, business, and life are about give and take. You must learn how to take a punch. If you’ve decided to play the game, learn how to take your lumps, counter attack, and move on. Don’t be scared to get hit hard.
• Second lesson is that, just like in boxing, failure in business is just part of the roller coaster. It is part of the cycle of business. You’ll have successes and failures -- get what you can from both.
• Third lesson is that there will always be someone bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced or hungrier than you out there. But hopefully, not one with all these five elements. You can’t go full out the entire fight. You learn when to use maximum energy and when to conserve your strength so you make sure you last the distance.
• Business leaders who win know how to pace themselves and their teams. They always have a huge advantage over those who don’t. In business, to get to the top, you must learn how to pace yourself to be at your most effective when it has the most impact. Like boxing you can’t go flat out all the time, if you do you stop being effective.
• When you build a business there are always more things to do than can be done. Learn to relax under pressure just like in boxing. Tension wins you no points. It wears you out mentally and physically faster, and shows your opponent you’re vulnerable and an easier target.

Rudyard Kipling wrote that one key to success in life is the ability to “meet with triumph and disaster and treat those two imposters just the same.” In other words, success and failure matter less than the way you react to them.

My eyes were opened to this fact in a shocking yet revealing story that was compiled by one of the television stations in Kenya. The deplorable state of what was once Kenya’s leading boxer was brought to light.

Conjestina Achieng became a household name right after 2010 when she boxed her way into international arenas as well as the hearts of Kenyans.

She single- handedly became the first African woman to hold an international boxing title and even went ahead to receive endorsements from companies such as Tuzo milk.

Achieng’s road to fame is what many can call boxing her way to glory. She has in the recent past rubbed shoulders with international boxers like Mohammed Ali’s daughter Laila Ali.

Regardless of what has precipitated her present state, we businessmen have learnt a lot from her as a boxer. Three lessons stand out for me.

The first lesson is no risk, no reward. Boxing, business, and life are about give and take. You must learn how to take a punch. If you’ve decided to play the game, learn how to take your lumps, counter attack, and move on. Don’t be scared to get hit hard.

In business, just like in life, things never go as planned. As soon as the first jab lands on your nose, the plan may change. You must be willing to adapt on the fly. You must risk “coming inside” to land a hit and to win. Thus, the only way you can win, is to risk getting hit.

The second lesson is that, just like in boxing, failure in business is just part of the roller coaster. It is part of the cycle of business. You’ll have successes and failures -- get what you can from both.

In fact, we business consultants have an interesting saying amongst ourselves. If an entrepreneur fails, it is considered a badge of courage. It gives you an opportunity to probe what you learned from the experience and see how you deal with adversity.

We don’t believe you need to fail in order to succeed, but we believe that failure is not a barrier to success. There’s a big difference between a business that tried and failed and an individual who is a failure.

The third lesson is that there will always be someone bigger, stronger, faster, more experienced or hungrier than you out there. But hopefully, not one with all these five elements.

You can’t go full out the entire fight. You learn when to use maximum energy and when to conserve your strength so you make sure you last the distance.

Business leaders who win know how to pace themselves and their teams. They always have a huge advantage over those who don’t. In business, to get to the top, you must learn how to pace yourself to be at your most effective when it has the most impact. Like boxing you can’t go flat out all the time, if you do you stop being effective.

When you build a business there are always more things to do than can be done. Learn to relax under pressure just like in boxing. Tension wins you no points. It wears you out mentally and physically faster, and shows your opponent you’re vulnerable and an easier target.