Inspiration in Unlikely Places

We will leave no stone unturned in seeking inspirational words for those who operate in today’s challenging commercial world.

This week, they come from perhaps an unlikely source: the new coach of the England Rugby League team. Yes, that’s right, not from Rugby Union, which gets all the headlines and column inches (first about leadership failure in the 2016 World Cup and now about new dreams from Eddie Jones), but from Rugby League.

The new national Rugby League coach is Wayne Bennett, who is billed as Australia’s Sir Alex Ferguson.

In his now classic (and virtually unobtainable book) Don’t Die with the Music in You – great title, by the way and a call to arms for all those with unfulfilled ambitions – he revealed something of his approach.

A collection of quotes illustrating the ‘wisdom of Wayne’ was summarised this week in The Times.

I repeat a couple of them here for you to gauge whether or not he deserves his guru status:

Worry is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but gets you nowhere.

When a winner fails, he trains harder, while a loser blames others. When a winner makes a mistake, he says, ‘I was wrong.’ A loser says, ‘It wasn’t my fault.’

I don’t know about you, but I am liking what I hear of this chap and he is one to watch out for.

Neil Thomas
February 2016

Posted on February 4 2016 by Neil Thomas

 

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