Sports – Derrick Kwa

Tiger Woods Interview

Apr 27, 2008

I’m not a huge fan of golf, but I am a fan of Tiger Woods. I love his mentality. He’s a true winner, who doesn’t settle for anything less. And this interview really shows that. You should watch it, even if you’re not a golf fan. There are lots of great lessons and insights into the mind of an amazing sportsman.

The ending of it really shows what he’s all about, and what I really like about him. His got great self confidence and belief in himself – but he’s not arrogant – and he’ll never settle for anything less than what he wants.

“The greatest thing about tomorrow is I will be better than I am today.”

What are you doing to ensure that you’re going to be better tomorrow than you are today?

Your Opponents Weaknesses or Your Strengths

Dec 20, 2007

No matter what you’re doing, you’ll always have competition. In games, in business, even in relationships. There’s always competition of sorts. How do you deal with this competition? There are 2 general ways people go about dealing with competition.

You could focus on your opponents weaknesses. Target where they are weak and adjust what you’re doing to hit them there. Or you could focus on your own strengths. Don’t think so much about what they do, but just do what you’re the best at. Of course, it’s best when your strengths align with your opponents weaknesses, but that’s not always the case.

A good example of that was the Sunday EPL matches. Liverpool vs Manchester United and Arsenal vs Chelsea. Liverpool and, to a lesser extent, Chelsea, typify the first approach. They change their system and the players they use based on their opponents. They try to identify weaknesses in the opponents play and plan according to those weaknesses.

Manchester United and Arsenal, on the other hand, play their own game. Yes, they study their opponents (who wouldn’t). But at the end of the day, they focus on what they do best. They stick to their game.

The results over the weekend? 1-0 wins for both Manchester United and Arsenal. Not much of a surprise there, to me. The best way to win is still to just do what you do best. Play to your strengths.

At least that’s what I believe. What do you think? How do you beat your competition?

What’s going wrong with Arsenal

Dec 11, 2007

Arsenal, my favorite football (the one which you actually play with you feet), have been going through a slight dip in form lately. With 3 of our best 4 midfielders out injured, the team’s struggling to click, and it just isn’t going for them.

My personal take on what’s going wrong? Playing Diarra and Gilberto in the center of midfield together. These are two defensive midfielders, who do a similar job. And they offer nothing going forward. There’s a lack of creativity. And a lack of options and variety to our play. Because the two players are so similar, the partnership does not work.

For those of you who aren’t football fans, my apologies. But there are lessons here for all of us. In all teams, there needs to be variety. Having people doing the same thing doesn’t help the cause. A team works best when everyone is doing their own thing, and complementing each other. So don’t try to do what other people are doing, but do your own thing. And it also highlights the importance of creativity. The players have decent technique, they can do the job well, but they lack the creativity to get out of tough situations. And that’s why Arsenal are losing, in my opinion.

Creativity is so important. We’ll definitely find ourselves in tough positions once in a while. And creativity is essential to get out of it.

How are you complementing the people around you? And how are you finding creative solutions to get out of your problems?

Don’t Look Down

Dec 8, 2007

Anyone who’s done climbing will probably have heard the tip “don’t look down”. There’s a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it’s for safety (this is what I just read), because if anything falls, you don’t want it hitting your neck. Secondly, and this is the point that I want to discuss, I think it’s about confidence. Sometimes when you look down, you realize how far off you are, and that gets you slightly more apprehensive. And that apprehension is never good.

In life, whenever you’re trying to progress, when you’re trying to go ‘higher’, it’s always risky. And when you look down, it’s always going to be scary. So my advice? The same advice that rock climbers are given.

Whatever you’re pursuing, don’t look down. Yes, you prepare for the worst. You make sure that you don’t come off too bad (like the safety harness for climbers). But once you get going, don’t keep thinking about the worst case scenario. Don’t think about the risk you’re taking. Basically, throw out all second thoughts once you get going. If you’re doing it, go in 100%. Because if you don’t, chances are, you won’t be successful. You need to be committed, believe that you’ll succeed, and just keep looking forward.

Once you’ve started climbing, don’t look down.

How do you stop yourself from having second thoughts about what you do?

Photo Credit:
093007 climb lcl mgs
Originally uploaded by MICHAEL G. SEAMANS