Success Mantra

HYDERABAD: It was a simple prescription for success in business and sports from the ‘Doctor’ to students of Indian School of Business. The prestigious institution had a distinguished guest in Ric Charlesworth, a multi-faceted personality, delivering a lecture on Tuesday, at the initiative of Viren Rasquinha, former India hockey captain.

The standing ovation he got from the select audience was proof enough that Charlesworth’s simple but convincing style of putting across the success mantra in business and sports was lapped up. “It is imperative to have an ambition and more importantly how best to achieve it,” started off the Aussie, a successful Western Australia cricketer, hockey international, a doctor by profession and a MP!
Motivation

The 55-year-old said it is important for any leader or a coach to ensure players love what they are doing, be passionate and obsessive of the job on hand and also have fun in the process. “Unfortunately, unlike in business, you are not dubbed successful unless you win medals in sports,” he pointed out.

One of the striking features of any successful team – be it business or sports – is humility. “And to be outstanding you have to complement this facet with smartness, be healthy in thinking, diligent and skilled in your respective fields,” the five-time Olympian asserted.

The beauty of any coaching assignment is how well one experiments. Making what looks impossible happen is what separates the champion from the ordinary, is the advice of this great sportsperson.

Mr. Charlesworth, now a consultant to Indian hockey, says he never believed in captaincy. “Exactly for this reason we had eight different captains in the Sydney Olympics and still clinched the women’s gold,” he revealed! “Unfortunately, in India, seniority is all, although it is a fact that even the youngest person can come up with the best of ideas. Ignore youth at your peril,” he remarked.

“All successful sportspersons or businessmen are those who win the battle between doubt and self-belief,” were his parting comments amidst all-round applause.