What Sports Can Teach Us About Entrepreneurship with Dr. Barry Lall

When Dr. Barry Lall was a teenager, he emigrated from southern Africa where he was born and raised in order to complete his post-high school education and then attend university there. His father had always impressed on him the importance of a good education, and believed that could be best-achieved in Britain. Enrolling at the King's School in Gloucester, England, Lall quickly realized that he was a fish out of water - although he had grown up in a British colony he still found it to be a major adjustment in terms of language, academics and culture. Of Indian descent, he was a vegetarian long before it became the well-accepted diet it is today and was subject to teasing for that amongst other things that made him different from his classmates.

However, Lall's father had also instilled in him a love of sport, and it was through that he was able to establish a connection with his fellow classmates. Joining the badminton, tennis and cricket teams, Lall was able to surmount the barriers immigration had placed on him. In sports he excelled, and was even made captain of the cricket team by his peers.

Playing - and watching - sports is an ancient human tradition that has existed in every society for thousands of years. Sports provide us with competition, a safe place to show off our skills and abilities and push ourselves to the limit. Watching professional sports allows us to admire the perseverance of the human spirit and the peak performance of physical fitness. Sports also provide us with community, creating a commonality where there may not have previously been one. Whether it be playing on a team or rooting for one, sports have the ability to bring people together.

For Dr. Barry Lall, sports have done much more than help him assimilate to a new culture. After attending medical school, moving again - this time to the United States - and practicing medicine for a number of years, Lall left his career as a doctor to become an entrepreneur. Starting out by purchasing and remodeling a small motel, today Lall's company Pinnacle Hotels USA runs nine hotel properties with nearly 2,000 rooms between them. According to Lall, sports have played an important role throughout his life, whether that be teaching him about business or providing him with connection and vitality.

Below, Lall provides insights into what entrepreneurs can learn by looking at sports.

Developing discipline

Sports hold a lesson in the value of discipline. Entrepreneurs will often feel highly motivated early on by the novelty of an idea, and that motivation brings with it productivity, focus and a sense of purpose. However, that feeling can be short-lived, especially once the reality of the daily grind sets in. Dr. Barry Lall emphasizes that when he envisioned being a hotelier he did not picture himself cleaning toilets as he often had to do early on in his business if a maid called out sick.

Athletes recognize that in order to improve and be successful they must build habits that will keep them disciplined. In sports, it is only through consistent effort that one can ensure they are playing their best. When entrepreneurs are planning out their business they should look to give it the same level of discipline a golfer would give their swing or a tennis player their serve.

Quick decision-making

Football quarterbacks have milliseconds to calculate the trajectory they will need to throw a ball in order for it to land in the waiting hands of their teammates. Baseball pitchers must recognize in an instant that someone is stealing a base and try to get them out. Athletes always need to be thinking ahead, both in terms of short-term plays and long-term goals as a team. According to Dr. Barry Lall, moments in which split-second decisions need to be made occur just as often in entrepreneurship.

In entrepreneurship, one can look at one's long-term goals for the business as the plays teams plan out and practice. They run them over and over again until they have them memorized, but when it comes to game day there will always be unexpected factors that require quick decisions to be made. In these cases, hesitation can mean the difference between winning and losing, and similarly hemming and hawing over a decision can be both costly and detrimental to the business as a whole. Developing the ability to quickly weigh options and be decisive is a vital skill all entrepreneurs should work on.

Losing (and failing) is inevitable

Every game an athlete plays, they hope to win. They put in countless hours of preparation and make a number of sacrifices along the way, and yet they are also aware that "you can't win them all." Without being conscious of this, athletes would have an incredibly hard time picking themselves up after a hard loss, letting every single mistake they made consume their thoughts. Instead, they know that each loss is an opportunity to grow, and that they should take what lessons they can from the defeat and let the rest go.

Dr. Barry Lall says he is acutely aware that oftentimes for entrepreneurs, the stakes are higher than for the average businessman. Just like athletes, entrepreneurs invest a considerable amount of time and resources (including their own money) into their business, and as a result mistakes and failures can feel extremely painful. However, he emphasizes that just as athletes don't let a fear of losing prevent them from playing the game, entrepreneurs should not let a fear of loss prevent them from taking necessary and calculated risks.

Achieving excellence takes sacrifice

Athletes will train all year for a single day. They give up their free time for the game, put relationships on the backburner and work themselves physically to their limits and beyond. This is because they know that there are only so many hours in a day, and in order to achieve their aspirations they must sacrifice other aspects of their lives for a time.

In business, making sacrifices is sometimes part of the path to success as well. Dr. Barry Lall said he knows this pain all too well, referencing a time when he had purchased a new hotel and moved his wife, son and parents into three of its rooms so that he could manage its transformation full-time. Entrepreneurship is putting everything on the line because you believe in your idea, and part of that is acknowledging that sometimes you will have to let go of other pursuits for one great one.

Lall emphasizes that while sacrifice is a part of the entrepreneurship game, like athletes, in order to perform at your peak you must still ensure that you are taking care of yourself, nurturing your health, sleep and relationships that matter most if you want to find healthy success.

Sports are play

Dr. Barry Lall points out that at the end of the day, one of the greatest lessons that can be taken from sports is the fact that they are "play." Finding the commonality of a shared favorite team can help break the ice when it comes to new business connections. Golf courses have long been known as "outdoor offices" where deals can be made. He and his wife recently took up boogie boarding as a way to relieve stress, and Lall has called the beach his favorite playground. Entrepreneurship should be fun - a passion brought to life and a privilege to be one's own boss. Lall says that people would do well to take a lesson from sports and not forget the importance of play.