The BusinessDay CEO Magazine May 2017

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The BusinessDay CEO, May 2017 | 32 The Mentality of Winning (Part 1) by Austin Okere Founder, CWG Plc & Entrepreneur in Residence, Columbia Business School, New York. The thing about winning and losing is that they are both self-reinforcing. The Gunners as a metaphor As an Arsenal football club fan, how do I convince anybody that the team is good or that coach Arsene Wenger is doing a good job, given the long spate of trophy draught and inexplicable losses in the current season both in the English Premier league and the Champions league?
The BusinessDay CEO, May 2017 | 33 TAKING THE STEPS REQUIRED TO REVERSE YOUR LOSING SPREE AND SHIFTING INTO A WINNING MENTALITY RESTORES YOUR LOST The mentality of winning and losing – the Tyson effect Winning reinforces your self-confidence and instils an inherent mythical fear in your opponents. The whole team is energized and ready for the next win. Losing on the other hand, engenders a loss of confidence and a significant level of demystification, inviting all manner of opponents to fancy their chances at you, as happened when the erstwhile unbeatable heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson lost to a lowly challenger, Buster Douglas in 1990 in Tokyo, Japan. This was followed by a string of losses leading to a less glorious retirement, highlighted by his biting off the ear of an opponent, Evander Holyfield, during a boxing match. Thus, was dimmed a golden opportunity of going down in history as one of the greatest heavyweights of all time. Reversing the pattern – Leicester City FC finds her magic Taking the steps required to reverse your losing spree and shifting into a winning mentality restores your lost glory, seemingly obliterating the past string of losses e.g. Leicester City Football Club; after parting ways with coach Claudio Ranieri (ironically the same coach that propelled them to the dizzying heights of winning the English Premier League title last year) have suddenly become unstoppable again; beating the better rated Spanish side, Sevilla FC for a place in the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Champions League. Even as first timers, they are the only English team still flying the British flag where great teams such as Manchester City and Arsenal have crashed out. Winning is 'In spite of'; Losing is 'because of' - the Usain Bolt determination A loser's mentality is strongly underpinned by a culture of excuses; finding 'very good' reasons why you didn't make it, or why you lost; as if this will magically convert the loss into a win. An earful of balderdash at best. A winner's mentality on the other hand, is centred on 'making it' in spite of all odds. A very good example being Usain Bolt, who not only holds the world record for the fastest human dead or alive, but also winning three gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4X100m races in three consecutive Olympics; Beijing (2008), London (2012) and Rio (2016) – Now, that is a winner with a strong winning mentality. Believe me, it is never a walk in the park. He knew what he had to do when overconfidence brought an embarrassing loss to his training partner and competitor Johan Blake. Blake beat Bolt to second place in both the 100m and 200m at the 2012 Olympic trials in Jamaica, and this was just about a month to the London Olympics. Just imagine the pressure that Bolt would have felt. In the beginning he resorted to excuses; he blamed the 100m loss on a poor start, and the 200m on a poor bend. Realizing that a golden dream was evaporating before his eyes, he quickly faced reality in his following statement capturing his renewed attitude “it's all about work and just needing to get my things together and get it right. I've got to get in the work and figure out what I did wrong”. And with that he got himself in shape in time to win both events at the London Olympics. He did work very hard and deserved the results and his place in history (watch the documentary on him titled 'I am Bolt').
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The BusinessDay CEO Magazine May 2017

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