subject: GOLF is the Game : For Business, How to Business, To be in Business, , [print this page] GOLF is the Game : For Business, How to Business, To be in Business, ,
The game of golf is synonymous with "big business" and is one of the most effective tools for the networking and deal making in the modern business world. The sport of choice for the urban poor is basketball. The sport of choice for maintenance level employees is bowling. The sport of choice for front-line workers is football. The sport of choice for supervisors is baseball. The sport of choice for middle management is tennis. The sport of choice for corporate officers is golf. Conclusion: The higher you are in the corporate structure, the smaller your balls become.
Over the years, people have been constantly drawing the comparisons between the game of golf, and the game of life. Golf is, to be certain, a unique sport with an almost mystical ability to raise the curtain on a person's integrity, decision making abilities, mental fortitude, honesty, and general personality. How a person acts, and reacts on a golf course can generally be extrapolated to give an overall impression of how that same person handles issues on the the bigger game, called life. Perhaps this is why so many business deals are stuck on the golf course. Playing golf with someone let's you learn a bit more about them, and what kind of person they would be to do business with. An estimated 90% of Fortune 500 CEO's play golf, and according to Barrons (March 30, 1998 cover story: "Investing in Golf"), one quarter of the 25 million golfers in the U.S. are top management executives and a full 80% of that number agreed that the game of golf is an important business development tool.
My Personal Experiences in playing golf has been exiting and highly career oriented, though I came out from college as fresh Information Technology Graduate and have been in the golf playing for last 2 to 3 years and striving to get my first Placement as Network Administrator that is when I happened to participate in mega golf event at Lucknow where I was eliminated the very first day and was PAR 44 but my enthusiasm made me go next day and offered my self to be caddy for one of the senior Golfer from Netherlands who has been doing Par 16 and Par 14 and that event changed my views and life and my thought process. The gentlemen Golfer asked me to come to Delhi immediately after the event and made me meet a guy from World Bank who made me place in a Consulting Firm which was working on mega UN project of World Food Programme in 8 states of India. No looking back I have traveled down 12 years till now have done some interesting projects for numerous International Organisation.
The major benefit to adding social media to your business development strategy is that it will help you get on the golf course quicker. Identify your ideal prospect, qualify them through appropriate due diligence, then engage them in the platforms they use most frequently. Over the past year we've heard the drum beat "How do we cut costs?" or "How do we increase revenue?" Management and leadership will understand and take into consideration the far reaching impact of today's decisions and make the important connection between performance and results, and that is where the hi profile and social connection plays a vital role and here it is where golf course will have already played its role.
Perhaps the most simple, but profound quote on this list is from Ben Hogan. In golf, it is necessary to put the past behind you, and concentrate on the shot at hand. It makes no difference whether the last shot was an amazing success, or a worm burning chunk'. The past is the past, and what will determine the future is what you do with the shot you have right now. Regardless of the situation that you face in your personal or business life, if you allow yourself to get too caught up in the past, you will not give the appropriate attention to dealing with the tasks at hand that will form your future. Ensure that you succeed at whatever you are involved in at the present, and let the past fade away. After all, your most important shot in life and business is not the last one, it is the next one.
