TheAlanRogers.com

Success Starts in the Head

September 9, 2008 | General

I’m a big cricket fan.

I never really played it and only got into it in my early twenties but it is undoubtedly now my favourite sport. Working from home can be a double edged sword because I can easily lose track of time and spend all day watching England on the TV when I should be working.

I used to tell myself that if I won the lottery, I would follow the England cricket team around the world on their Winter tours to Australia and the Caribbean - now I’m waiting until my business is established to a level that I can run it from my laptop and a mobile phone and I’ll be away.

I was on holiday in France when Michael Vaughan resigned and at first was totally confused as I start to piece together what had happened as I listened to the radio commentary of the 1st day of the 4th Test as we were travelling around in the car. (You can pick up Radio 4 on LW throughout a lot of Europe - much to my family’s dismay).

At the time I didn’t understand why he had done it. Did he jump or was he pushed?

Yes, he had been a bit out of personal form recently but even though we had lost the Test Series at home, it could have been so much different - if only a couple of breaks had gone our way. We weren’t outclassed overall and South Africa were a good team.

He is our most successful cricket captain of all time and his honest, strategic, calm, collected character epitomised that which we expect (but rarely get) of an English leader. He had led us to a great victory over Australia in 2005, an event that escalated the profile of cricket in this country, and was surely the best man to do it again.

A few minutes after I came to discover that Vaughan had resigned, I had even more jaw droppingly shock to contend with. England’s new captain was not Strauss, who was being talked about as Vaughan’s possible successor, but a cocky, arrogant upstart with seemingly little previous experience of captaining a first class team.

What’s more, he was more South African than English AND he was called KEVIN !!

Of course those two factors weren’t the primary reasons for my initial feeling of despair at the decision.

Undoubtedly Kevin Pietersen was a very talented and committed cricketer with a genuine passion for the sport and an unfaltering desire to be a winner, but he always came across to me as an individual rather than a team player. This, along with his inexperience of captaincy, perceived cockiness and young age (actually he isn’t as young as I thought he was) made me feel that England had made a monumental mistake for the future of the team.

Or was it something more personal and deep rooted than that?

Over my last few years in the corporate world, I had had to get use to the situation of two younger, less experienced people coming in above me. Perhaps I subconsciously saw parallels in Kevin Pietersen’s promotion to team captain and my own past experiences?

Although I never took it personally against them, it took a while to rationalise this in my own head before being able to move on. In the end I didn’t leave because of the people promoted above me but because my outlook on life was changing and I was unfulfilled by what I was doing. Even if I had been promoted to the top job, I know now that it wouldn’t have changed this, maybe for a short while but not for very long.

Whatever it was, I just didn’t believe that Pietersen would make a good leader.

But that was five weeks ago and a lot has happened since then and I am not just referring to a transformed English team that cant stop winning and, but for an abandoned last game, probably would have jumped from 7th to 2nd in the world rankings.

At the moment it seems an inspired decision by the selectors who were closer to him and obviously knew a lot more than I assumed about his character and talents. The way that he has reacted to the captaincy and the success so far has been impressive. I no longer see him as arrogant and cocky but assertive and confident and these are qualities that every person who wants to be successful should aspire to.

He was recently quoted as saying, “All the guys are just hungry for success. There are a lot of players who know they have settled for a comfort zone in certain areas, but I don’t live with any comfort zones. I don’t settle for mediocrity; I want guys to perform and to be the best people they can possibly be - there’s no point living if you don’t want to be the best person you can possibly be”

Taken out of context this could be just another motivational quote, all be it one which we know to be a very important concept which we must grasp to achieve a successful and meaningful life. But it is much more powerful if you can imagine him sayingit.

You know that this is truly what Kevin believes and is the reason he has achieved what he has achieved and will go down in history as one of cricketers greatest stars. It is not just words to him, it’s in his blood, it’s in his DNA, its the way in which he leads he life and because he believes it he can make other people believe it too.

Most of us understand if you want to be successful in any field whether it be in sport or running your own home business, then it all starts with your head and your mindset. If you get this right then you are over half way there then you just need to take some kind of action.

When we conquer this just think how much better our lives are going to be.

Kevin has done this and now he is reaping the rewards. Bring on the Aussies.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites