"I'll never forget standing on the sideline of our first SaberCats match, watching one of our players get leveled by a brutal tackle. Most people would've stayed down. He didn't. He fought for every inch, rolled and kept driving the ball forward. The crowd erupted. That image stuck with me. In rugby, getting hit is part of the game, and when you get hit, you don't stop - you adapt mid-impact."
"In business, the "hit" looks like a failed deal, a regulatory curveball or a market downturn. I've had plenty of those. What separates winning leaders from the rest isn't avoiding the hit; it's what they do after. Push forward. Stay on your feet. Make the play anyway. 2. Trust the pack Early on, I thought entrepreneurship was about individual brilliance, where the best idea, the hardest worker and the guy willing to put in more hours than anyone else wins. Rugby shattered that illusion."
Rugby demands resilience, where players absorb brutal hits, adapt mid-impact, and immediately drive play forward, illustrating persistence after setbacks in business. Success relies on collective trust: scrums require eight players to lock shoulder-to-shoulder with one mission, so individual faltering collapses the formation. Entrepreneurship benefits from trusting teams over solo brilliance, leaning into messy, physical collaboration. Setbacks in business—failed deals, regulatory curveballs, market downturns—should prompt leaders to push forward, stay on their feet, and continue making plays. Embracing unpredictability and teamwork reshapes leadership, emphasizing adaptation, shared responsibility and persistent execution.
Read at Entrepreneur
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