5 Business lessons you can draw from Pandelela Rinong

Pandelela Rinong – one moment, she is relatively unknown out of the diving circles and the next moment, her name and photo is splashed in front of every major newspapers and television in Malaysia. Overnight, she became a diving queen and a celebrity. While most Malaysian were focused on Datuk Lee Chong Wei and hopes he delivers an Olympic gold medal, 5’ 3” Pandelela Rinong stole the limelight and hearts of the people. She become the first woman in Malaysia to win an Olympic medal and the first that is not in badminton. Here are some lessons you can draw from her success as an individual as well as a business person.

1. Success is not overnight To us it may seem she suddenly burst forth into the news, but success did not just come one day at an Olympic pool in the UK. No doubt that you will require years of training but most won’t realize she had smaller success before. Check out her track record here. You will notice that she has been winning regularly for the past few years in smaller sports meet. She won gold medals in the South East Asia (SEA) Games and the Commonwealth Games plus many silver and bronze medals. In business, you don’t just suddenly become successful. You don’t get to the top in 2 weeks but in small steps along the way. Each step your stepping stone to higher levels of success. Success and failures come in jerks and bumps. While Pandelela’s track record only shows her achievements, I’m sure she has her setbacks as well. Which ever level you are at, you will still encounter failure and success. I learned this form a successful business person with a multi million dollar publishing business. He said “Some days, I feel like I know everything, the very next day, I’m humbled (when things don’t go as planned)” Everyday, you do you best and that is all you can do. In sales especially, when you have closed a big deal, you feel like the top of the world. When a good customer gets pinched by a competitor, after doing everything right, you may think you are a total failure. Set a time limit of how long you will enjoy the achievement or failure. Then get back to work. Most of the time, one day is enough. “When you fall, fall forward” ~ Dr Denzel Washington, award winning actor 2. Plan for Success A lot of people will tell you to plan for failure. Even seasoned entrepreneurs always plan for the worst case scenario and that IS good planning. When you plan for the worst possible scenario, you don’t overspend or over extend yourself. However, you also need to plan for success. You may not be like Pandelela Rinong and be thrust into the limelight. Yet, you must have plans when success comes your way. Do you have plans that you can implement immediately to ride the wave? Do you have some backup plans in case a big order comes? Or for someone to help manage your existing customer while you tackle the new customer? If you are suddenly mentioned in the news or when everybody wants to invite you for interviews, can you maximize the opportunity to take your business to the next level? Many business people don’t plan for success. As a result, the rest on their success and in the process, forget to the advantage of the opportunity that came their way. You don’t need to have detailed plans but at the very least have a rough idea what are some things you can implement once the opportunity presents itself. 3. Fame To Failure Fame can lead to failure. Many sports men and women allow the fame to get into their heads because they don’t plan on continued success. They allowed fame to divert them from what they were doing to be successful in the first place. You hear of them overspending, getting into drugs or not training as they used to. Right now, you hear Pandelela Rinong’s name mentioned. It is in the news, on the internet, in the coffee shops, in discussions at home and offices, just about everywhere. That will change as surely as the sun rises. In a few days time, there will be some other news that the media will focus on. Shortly after, her name will be mentioned less and less. It may lead to feelings of abandonment. With success, you need to focus on doing the things that lead you to further success. With Pandelela, after all the media attention, she has to get back to training for the future sports meet. In business, you can savor the achievements but do not forget the crucial things that need to be carried out. Get right back on the plans you have made. Revise them if necessary but don’t slack off. 4. You need mentors Pandelela has coaches. Her swimming coach Hii Hieng Chiong narrowed all that down to hard work, discipline and perseverance, without which no athlete can attain success in such a highly competitive international sporting event. We can’t do it alone. Coaches and mentors allows you to learn faster, helps you see mistakes and corrects faster. When I did things myself, my learning and ability to apply what I learn to my business is very very slow. By having mentors, I learned things I didn’t know were crucial to what I wanted to accomplish. By applying what my mentors told me, my results changed dramatically. Even though I’ve been in business for a long time, there were a lot of things I didn’t know. 5. Success Inspires Success Before 1954, every one thought it was impossible to run a 4 minute mile. The reasoning then was the human heart could not take the stress of running that fast. Then Roger Bannister did it and in the same year, John Landy did that. Since breaking the 4 minute mile, many others managed to do that. It will be the same in Malaysia. All the while, the medal tally was in badminton. Now that Pandelela showed that it is possible in other sports as well, perhaps other Malaysian will be inspired by her to to do the same. Success inspires success because people start to believe they can do it. “To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.” Anatole France, Poet You must believe that it is possible for you! Now that you understand the 5 keys areas, what would be 1 that you can implement in your business? Choose 1 area and in the next few days, implement it in your life.