A long time ago, I had the pleasure of working with Bojan Mladenovic on a Serbian SME project for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. I loved it.
Business and sports
He wrote a book, “Play That Game: Let the business be your playground.” It is excellent. He uses lessons from sports, particularly soccer, as a metaphor for lessons in business. As he says, sports teams, coaches, managers, and athletes have quite a lot in common with acknowledged business leaders and entrepreneurs. Sports can serve as the source of a myriad of life philosophies. I could not agree more.
Salient advice
I read it chapter by chapter. One chapter a day. Every day another good lesson and something to think about. It covers a wide range of topics and gives lots of salient advice, such as:
- Everything is based on emotions; we are living organisms.
- Every activity, as futile as it may seem, has its beginning, its end and, naturally, its purpose.
- The force of self-conviction is the most potent one.
- Games serve as a testing ground without real casualties.
- The excess of anything is a bad thing.
- Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
- You identify with a beverage, food item, or trademark because you share the same beliefs.
- A Formula 1 driver is never alone.
- Thorough preparation is the key to everything.
- Fortune favours the persistent and brave.
- If you are an employer, think of a manager that you would like to have in your team.
- Being the best football player does not mean being the best captain.
- No one is bigger than the team or the company. If someone is bigger than the team, then the team will no longer exist.
- A team, as a complex organism, a plant, must be maintained properly and watered daily.
- You must never give up on your principles and always believe in yourself.
- Persistence is often mistaken for stubbornness.
- A company needs to outlive its successful managers. It needs to exist long after we are gone.
- Don’t assume. Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.
- The biggest obstacle is the blank white page in front of you.
- If you focus on the solution, you will find the solution; if you focus on the problem, you will find the problem.
- Success is 3% talent and 97% hard work. We can discuss the percentages, but that’s not the point.
- Isn’t the path to progress connected with the threshold of pain? You will never be able to stretch your tendons and increase your body’s flexibility if you don’t push your body to its limits.
- Overnight success is the product of 15 years of hard work.
- Don’t confuse intuition with infinite repetition of certain activities until they have become routine.
- Football is a game with 11 players on each team, and in the end, the Germans always win.
- You should never give up. And you should be absolutely aware of why you are doing it.
- The third goalie has their own value, and it’s a big one. He will practice actions, tactics, work on his physical fitness during training sessions. By working on himself, he indirectly helps his teammates.
- Real leaders know how to help their players find the appropriate place in the team.
- Fight every day. Fight in training sessions, in the game, from the first to the last whistle. Fight for every ball, for every inch of that pitch. Be the best version of yourself.
- Darwin says that whenever a new idea came to his mind, he had a rule to write it down within thirty minutes because his brain would reject it due to prior learning.
- Arm yourself with friends because you can’t walk that path alone.
- Work on yourself every day. Practice will be good primarily for you, and it will also be good for your job.
- In ancient Rome, engineers who built a bridge stood under it at its opening while people and vehicles crossed it. That’s how credibility was built.
- Accept reality whether you like it or not. Don’t lie to yourself. Accept it and start building, creating a solid foundation.
- There is no silver bullet. There is no sure formula for success.
- Some will argue that you need to be persistent, as Germans are in football; you need to play until the very end, even when it is the first time you have played in your life.
Topics and role models
But the book also covers topics such as team dynamics, goal setting, shared values, principles, coaching, communication, listening, culture, knowledge transfer, productivity, CX, performance management, leadership, onboarding, authenticity and many more. Referring to Bob Ladouceur, Sir Bobby Robson, José Mourinho, Sir Alex Ferguson, Machiavelli and Brian Clough as role models and examples. He is not a fan of Mourinho.
Other books
“Play That Game” reminds me of “The Captain Class” and “Skin in the Game“, Ryan Holidays (also a stoic), “Courage is calling” and “Same as ever“. I could mention a few more books, which is a reflection of the quality of the book.
Germany
My only concern is his view on the German soccer team. I was hoping that Holland would win the European soccer championship