The World Cup kicks off today.
Now, I’ll be honest – I’m not quite as excited as last time.
In 2022, I could genuinely say, for the only time so far in my lifetime, “I’ll be watching Wales in a World Cup”. I even went to Qatar with my brothers for their opening game.
This time, Wales aren’t there.
But, to be fair, that has been true for most of my life…and it has never stopped me enjoying a World Cup before.
There’s also something a bit exotic about a World Cup in the Americas. There’s nothing quite like staying up late to watch a match that, on paper, doesn’t sound at all appealing. Cape Verde against Saudi Arabia, anyone?
But then again, one of my favourite ever late-night World Cup games was Denmark against Uruguay in Mexico 86. I’m not sure that sounded like a classic before kick-off, but little did we know how dazzling the Danes would be. They won 6-1 and, for a short while, they were everyone’s favourite underdog team.
That is the magic of the World Cup.
Anyway, we’ve been asking at JDA Towers whether there are any lessons that business owners can learn from the World Cup.
And there are. So, here are our top five.
Are you a manager or a coach?
There’s been a big change in football management over the years. For a long time, the manager was often an autocratic figure, shouting instructions and making all the decisions.
These days, the best managers are coaches. Many are called Head Coaches these days too.
They work with players, understand their strengths, help fix weaknesses, and create the environment for them to perform.
It’s the same in business. As a business owner, your job isn’t just to tell people what to do. It’s to coach your team so they can help get the business to where you want it to be.
Vision and strategy
If you’re going to coach your team to get where you want to be, you need to know where that is.
Football managers have a style of play. They have a plan. They know whether they want to press high, sit deep, dominate possession, or hit teams on the break.
You need the same in your business. Not the pressing high bit, unless your team meetings are livelier than mine.
But you do need a clear way of doing things, a clear goal for the business, and a plan for how you’re going to get there. If you don’t have those, where are you heading?
It’s no good complaining
There will always be bad refereeing decisions. Even with VAR. Actually, especially with VAR.
But once the decision has been made, the players can’t spend the next 20 minutes moaning about it. Well, they can, but it won’t help them win the game.
It’s the same in business. You can complain about the Government, tax, interest rates, your competitors, customers, suppliers, or the latest bit of nonsense from HMRC. And, to be fair, I’ll probably join you for some of those.
But, ultimately, you still need to take responsibility for your own business. Everyone gets bad luck. Everyone gets decisions that go against them. Everyone has problems outside their control. The successful ones are the ones who deal with it and keep moving.
It’s not over until it’s over
Perseverance is key for footballers and business owners.
I was in Istanbul to see Liverpool come from 3-0 down to win the European Cup. I was also at Anfield when Liverpool came back from a 3-0 first-leg deficit against Barcelona in 2019.
I’m not saying every business problem can be solved by Divock Origi, but you can’t give in if you want your team, or your business, to be successful. There will be tough months. There will be mistakes. There will be cash flow squeezes, awkward customers, staff problems, and things that don’t go to plan.
But the final whistle hasn’t gone yet.
It’s the final result that matters
You probably remember who won the last World Cup – Argentina.
But do you remember what happened in their opening game? They lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia in one of the biggest World Cup shocks ever. At that point, it would have been easy to write them off. But they reacted, learned, kept going, and ended up lifting the trophy.
That’s a great lesson for business owners.
We all make mistakes. We all have bad days. We all have decisions we’d make differently with hindsight.
But it’s how you react that matters.
One bad month doesn’t make a bad business. One failed campaign doesn’t mean your marketing is doomed forever. One difficult customer doesn’t mean your customer service is broken.
You look at what happened, learn from it, make the changes, and keep going. Because, in the end, it’s the final result that matters.
So, in between trying to work out the time difference, watching games I have no logical reason to care about, and pretending I’m not interested because Wales aren’t there, I’ll also be looking out for more business lessons from the World Cup.
If you have any of your own, please let me know.
Cheers
Jon