Football – Nik Koelblinger

One of the most beneficial things that came from my football playing days is the ability to make and retain relationships. Football is truly a team sport and businesses are run like a team. I have made my best friends from the sport, and I am even close with the guys that I did not hang out with.

Attributed Abilities

Ability to build relationships
Ability to maintain relationships
Ability to problem solve in relationships
Ability to communicate clearly

These abilities were all taught to me by relationships that I had with coaches and players on my team. If you did not like someone for some reason, then you better go up to them and figure it out because at the end of the day they are your teammates and you are all focused on the sames goals.

I have had to mend relationships with some of my good friends because they played on offense during practice and I was on defense. There was a battle everyday, but everyday we would fix the problems because we were all one team.

The coaches taught you that you have to respect the people that were in charge, but also treat the guys on either side of the field with you with the same respect. It is way easier and you will be much more successful if everyone is friendly with each other and share common goals. If someone is having a down day, you better pick them up because they will just make it miserable for everyone else as well.

Transition

The transition the the business world is pretty simple. Again, everyone works together as a team in a business and it is very important to have relationships with everyone around you. There will be people of higher standing than you and people of the same standing as you. The right thing to do is treat everyone with the utmost respect. The ways we learned to maintain relationships and the importance of them will transition seamlessly to the business world.

The Vitality of Communication

From the Field to the Office

My football experiences set me up for success in the office. In the office you are constantly working as a team in order to improve your business. Instead of all eyes on coach when he is talking, in the office it is all eyes on the boss when he is talking. Another communicative element that was instilled in us was how to problem solve. A lot of situations arose on the football field where people at differing viewpoints and you would need to work it out in order to figure out what was the right way to do something. This will be similar to the business world when someone has an idea, but someone else has another. Sometimes, you just need to stop and figure things out before you move any further.

Without the communication skills that I learned in football, I would have been ill-prepared for the business world. I am forever in debt to my coaches for not only teaching me how to be a successful football player, but how to be a successful man in life.