Lots to learn

There’s clearly lots to learn from great performers in any field and in this article about the Irish rugby union player Brian O’Driscoll there are lots of observation by his current and former team mates about what makes him so good.

There’s also lots that we could pull out of the article to highlight but here’s one particular paragraph that caught our eye from ex team mate Denis Hickie: “He doesn’t take the things he’s good at for granted. It’s probably one of the core reasons for his longevity, because he understands what it is to work hard. He understands what it takes to be successful. He has kept the same drive to win that he had at the very beginning.”

What we love most about this piece is the combination of not taking talent for granted and working hard. We think these two simple approaches play a major part in not only success, but longevity of success and sustainable high performance. It reminds us of the phrase “talent is not enough” which we use a lot. “Talent is not enough”, together with a desire to improve and a work ethos to support it, are important ingredients in having a high performance mindset.

Hats off to Brian O’Driscoll who plays his final six nations rugby match for Ireland this weekend. A true great.