The second thing sport should take from Palmer is risk taking. No doubt we admire those who play the percentages, reduce error and embrace consistency but sport isn't an Accountancy Exam. It also needs the gambler, the heart-attack giver, the "you're-kidding-me" athlete who has the lunatic spirit to roll over the Niagara Falls in a barrel.
One of the reasons football is turning dull is because no wants to lose but Arnie would try any shot to win. If the high stakes of today's sport is suffocating the adventure out of coaches and athletes, then he was golf's version of the guy who did handstands on a high wire. Of course, he fell. His refusal to play safe cost him - he wrote in his book A Golfer's Life - "three or four US Opens, perhaps a Masters or two, and the PGA Championship on at least two occasions".
Yet as he risked he also soared and said that "if I hadn't had the instinctive desire to attempt those shots, regardless of the outcome, almost without thinking, I wouldn't have won half the tournaments I did".
This is so true of Management. I am into New Ventures and Investment. And I have seen most of the Companies, Financial Institutions and their Management playing ultra safe. No one wants to take risk.
You go to a Financial Institution with a New Venture, and they expect you to cover all the risks five times over, want to see an off take agreement, solid contract, 200% collateral security etc etc. I went to them with all of the above, and still they refused, because they felt the project doesn't meet the Risk profile of the Bank, whatever that means.
Every single Top Manager I know, want to have risk free and preferable investment free projects. They want a return of $ 1 Million by investing $ 10,000. If I knew that magic, I would be a Billionaire by now!
I am yet to see an Investor or Manager who says "This project has the potential and looks great. Let us give it a go. I will back it"
And when their Companies are facing a melt down with low oil prices in the Middle East, they crib and blame everyone except themselves.
Their Companies are in trouble because they did not take adequate risk or show the entrepreneurial spirit when the going was good.
Play safe will help them perhaps to sustain, but will ensure they remain mediocre.
It is the risk taker who makes it big. And the thrill one gets when one pulls off the impossible is a fantastic feeling.
