Five things business leaders can learn from Michael Jordan

One thing that many people in business struggle with is a constant battle to keep your mind open to new and innovative ways of doing things.

The reason this happens is simple - we get caught up in day-to-day reality and worrying about the details that take up all our valuable time. To be successful, we have to rise above this and take our "game" to a new level.

I have great respect for Michael Jordan as an athlete, one who embodies success. Here are five traits he exhibited which can teach us a lot about how we conduct ourselves and our businesses:

1. Keep your eye on the end goal - by focusing on one thing, in his case winning the NBA championship, MJ was able to remove the other distractions and make critical decisions in all types of circumstances. On the way he also garnered many individual accolades, but these were never his goal - they were merely a by-product of the success he generated for the team by pursuing that one goal.
2. Make others around you better - MJ was always able to make his team better. With the exception of Scottie Pippen, his team-mates were not superstars. Not even close. Although he could easily have complained about the quality of people around him, he instead chose to lead them, inspire them and take them all to a new level by understanding each of their strengths and weaknesses, respecting them and winning as a team. You often hear that he carried his team, but you never hear that he was the team. The team always played a role, and he never tried to take all the glory for himself.
   
3. Attempt and practice the impossible - MJ made the impossible happen on a regular basis. Although there were others before him that made spectacular plays, he turned amazing into the ordinary, and he did this by practising the impossible. Just have a look at these top 10 amazing plays by MJ and you'll see what I mean. We all get stuck doing the same regular things each day, and doing the same things over and over and over. Why not set time aside to practice doing amazing things. When you first start, you might only succeed once every 100 times, but over time that will improve to a point where you could make the impossible seem normal.
   



4. What you're doing is a thing of beauty - Basketball is just a game, like business is just business. MJ didn't just play basketball, he was an artist creating a masterpiece everytime he stepped out on the court, and watching him play was absolutely breath-taking. He didn't just go out to play basketball, he went out to create something of beauty that the world could look to and appreciate. He took pride in doing what he did exceedingly well, not just doing it to get by.
   
5. Believe [have no fear] - The only time you really need to believe is when it seems there is no hope. The greatest example was in game five of the 1998 Finals against the Utah Jazz, where MJ was incredibly ill, and not only played, but led his team to a win with a spectacular performance. What made him great wasn't the fact that he believed and played hard when things were going well - its that he gave his all when circumstances seemed totally against him and that there was no way to win.

Yes, Michael Jordan had great abilities and skills, but so do many people. It's what he did with them and the way he conducted himself that makes me respect him.

These are just five things that stood out to me, but I'm sure there are many more. If there are others you think should be here too, please leave a comment and let us all know about it.

Basketball. It's not just a game.

I'm thrilled to say that a new project I'm involved in - MyBasketball.co.za - is now live.

Victor Shakineza, a friend and teammate of mine from back in the day [and one of the fastest players I've ever played with or against], set up a website called MyBasketball.co.za last year to try provide news and results relating to the South African basketball scene - something which has been sorely lacking here even though basketball gained a lot of popularity here from as early as 1992, when the infamous Dream Team wowed the world at the Barcelona Olympic Games that year.

Information about all the basketball in SA is not easy to come by, but Victor, along with Nenad Jovanovic, did a solid job of providing somewhere that players and fans could get some information. Despite the fact that the site was a web 1.0 site that provided little opportunity for interaction and was difficult to update regularly, they attracted a relatively large audience.

A little while ago, I approached Victor to see if we could take what he had built to the next level, and I must thank him for letting me get involved.

Since we're trying to build a community and make interaction easy, a blog was the most obvious choice. It's a community initiative with no specific funding at this stage, so we opted for wordpress.com and a redirect from the primary site for now, although this will probably change as it grows and develops.

Certainly there are still some issues to deal with, such as how to make it easy to post and keep track of scores and results, but we're convinced that what we've done now is the first step on the way to making this the number one SA basketball website.

Please visit us at MyBasketball.co.za, and if you have friends who are interested, please direct them there - we can only grow this and get more information with your help.

Personallly I'm thrilled to once again be involved in the game that I love, and I believe that this will only go from strength to strength.

It's not just a game!


P.S. White men can jump

Microsoft top dog heads for professional sports. Is Mr Gates next?

If you were to ask me what Microsoft and the NBA [the National Basketball Association in the US] had in common a little while ago, I would have probably just looked at you funny. But since the NBA announced their formation of NBA China, they have decided to dig into Microsoft’s pockets [skills pockets, not financial pockets] and appointed Microsoft Greater China CEO Tim Chen as CEO of NBA China. Yes, I know the NBA won’t be competing against Microsoft in the computing field anytime soon, but its interesting to see that they’ve managed to lure away a key player in such an …. unrelated… industry.

I can’t help wondering whether Mr Gates himself appears on the list for potential NBA Commissioner replacements after current Commissioner David Stern retires... [I bet you were picturing Mr Gates playing professional football or ice-hockey. Sadly, I don't have photoshop to add a pic of what that could look like]

With most of the known world flocking to the hugely appealing Indian and Chinese markets recently, its not surprising to see professional sports also taking the leap. As it stands, China has not only provided the NBA with one of its tallest superstars ever [Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets, standing 7’6 tall], but now also provides its greatest growth opportunity as a new market.

According to the article above, Tim Chen has a sparkling history in corporate China, as Microsoft sales grew more rapidly in the Greater China region than in any other market in the world in his time there, and before that he helped Motorola become the leader in the competitive Chinese mobile phone industry. It will be interesting to see how Tim handles a career in professional sports and whether he can repeat these past successes there.


[Yes its true, I’m writing about this because I love basketball and the NBA, and have done so since I can remember. And for this reason, I have to drop a note about the South African link to one of the best players in the NBA…for those of you who aren’t aware of South Africa’s influence in one of the world’s greatest professional sports, here’s a little known trivia fact – Steve Nash [currently with the Phoenix Suns] was the Most Valuable Player in the NBA for two consecutive years [2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons], following in the footsteps of greats like Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley. Steve was born in Johannesburg and spent several years here while his dad played professional soccer. He later moved to Canada, and is now sadly billed as Canadian. So while it is officially a Canadian that was the NBA MVP two years in a row, we know better – he’s South African!]