Written by Dr. David von Rosen
In my career as an entrepreneur, there’s one surprising factor that’s been more central to my success than anything else. It’s not a business course or a mentor who’s guided me – it's my passion for extreme sports.
The correlation between business and sports
I firmly believe entrepreneurship and extreme sports complement each other – and testing yourself in extreme sports makes you a better entrepreneur. I know this because the skills I’ve learnt from practising sports like free-ride skiing, motor racing, motocross and downhill biking have played a significant part in my entrepreneurial success.
If you look under the bonnet, there are, in fact, a host of similarities between the two arenas, and lessons learnt in one can quickly be transferred over to the other.
“Whenever I’m at the start of a motor race or clinging onto the side of a rockface, the first thought that comes into my head is, “What am I doing here?”
Dr. David von Rosen
Risk-taking generates reward
One of the biggest lessons I learnt through extreme sports is that risks are not bad – in fact, risk is a good thing. Risk is what rewards you, both as an extreme athlete and an entrepreneur – and it’s only when you take risks that you can win big.
The path of the entrepreneur is uncertain and perilous. Risks to your capital and business are inevitable and can spring from any direction – whether it’s internal company decisions or external economic factors.
I’ve seen this risk paralyze entrepreneurs, as they get bogged down in trying to mitigate every single one and protect their company from every angle, which ultimately leads to stasis. Instead of fighting risk, you have to work with it, accepting the pressure and using it to sharpen your decision-making.
Ultimately, you will always have to take risks – because risk is what generates reward. In business, these rewards are financial – in extreme sports, they’re physical and mental.
Learning new skills under pressure
Extreme sports are the perfect arena for coping with risk and attuning your entrepreneurial skills to highly pressurized environments. Every new sport that I try gives me anxiety. Whenever I’m at the start of a motor race or clinging onto the side of a rockface, the first thought that comes into my head is, “What am I doing here?”
It’s only when you get to the end of the race, or when you reach the summit, that you realize exactly why you were there. It's exactly because it pushes you out of your comfort zone that it’s so valuable. When you see the task through to completion, the sense of relief and satisfaction is like nothing you’ve ever experienced before.
This applies directly to entrepreneurship as well. Any entrepreneur building their own business must learn new skills to solve new problems – to be able to operate outside of their comfort zone and under immense pressure.
Like many founders, I started my first businesses on my own, having to pick up a range of roles and responsibilities that I had no exposure to before, all while risking my own money, time, and career.
And when you’re in the moment, under immense stress, as your business is at a critical stage of its development, your experiences in extreme sport will give you the steely resolve to pull through.
"No entrepreneur has ever achieved success by sitting at home, worrying about the risks and the pressure..."
Dr. David von Rosen
Feel the fear and do it anyway
The first time I wing-suited, I was shivering with fear. I was telling myself over and over again that this was a stupid thing to do. I almost told the helicopter pilot to turn around and take us back to the landing site.
These thoughts continued right until the moment that I jumped out of the chopper – right there and then, everything came into perspective, and I knew I’d made the right decision.
And this fear, but also the knowledge that I pushed through the fear, kept me going to achieve my goals and has guided me through countless business decisions. No entrepreneur has ever achieved success by sitting at home, worrying about the risks and the pressure, and thinking, “I should have done that.” Successful entrepreneurs get up, take risks, and accept the pressure.
Final thoughts
If there’s anything that extreme sports have taught me, it’s that when you win against your inner self, against your core fears, then you have reached the next level – whether you’re descending a mountain at high speeds on skis or building and scaling the next Apple.
