Roger Trapp: Good and bad lessons from the big players

What with the Olympics just gone, football - in the shape of the World Cup qualifiers and the Premiership - just getting going again (after only a short break since the European Championships) and golf's Ryder Cup approaching its climax today, there is little chance of getting away from sport.

What with the Olympics just gone, football - in the shape of the World Cup qualifiers and the Premiership - just getting going again (after only a short break since the European Championships) and golf's Ryder Cup approaching its climax today, there is little chance of getting away from sport. Thanks in large part to television, sport has become a pervasive presence in our lives - even if we are only spectators.

Nowhere is the fascination with sports apparently greater than in business. All over the world, it seems, sport and business are constantly mixed, as business people do deals on the golf course, take their favoured clients to football matches and join each other on yachts during international regattas.

Moreover, sports stars seem to be as popular on the business lecture circuit as management gurus - if not more so. This is probably more about being in the presence of fame - men, in particular, never seem to get over worshipping sporting heroes - than about picking up hints for the business world. For example, at an awards dinner for growing businesses late last year, arguably the biggest cheer went not for the winning company but for the introduction of a member of England's World Cup-winning rugby team.

And yet there do seem to be parallels between sport and business. Many sports stars also make a success of business. Now, that could be because their fame gives them a leg-up in the first place. But it could also be because many of the motivations are the same.

Certainly, that is the thinking behind a recent book, Mind Games, by Jeff Grout and Sarah Perrin (published by Capstone). The starting point for Grout, a lifelong sports fan who ran a financial recruitment consultancy before becoming - among other things - business manager to former England rugby coach Sir Clive Woodward, and Perrin, a journalist and NLP practitioner, is that business - as well as sporting - success is won in the head.

To be fair, the book points out that the lessons from sport "have relevance to other areas of all our lives". But it is for business people that the book is surely intended. "Sport appeals to people because it meets a basic, instinctive need to want to take on challenges and succeed, and it encourages them to develop skills along the way," Grout and Perrin add. While this is true of life in general, it is especially true of business.

It is little wonder that the language of business and sport have become increasingly entwined. Indeed, sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between a business guru and a football pundit. And what is driving this is the realisation that having the skills and talents necessary for both fields is only part of the story. What makes winners is attitude, determination and the rest.

Sure, when we are watching sport on television we admire and perhaps envy a piece of sublime skill, such as a footballer's telling pass or a rugby player's break through an invisible gap, in much the same way that some of us might admire a business's clever advertising campaign or audacity in some aspect of its strategy. But what really seems to make the difference - particularly for those in both areas who continue to succeed over a long period of time - are all the mental elements.

Woodward - whose own self-belief can be seen in his recent decision to resign as England coach in favour of what is being widely touted as a switch to football - says in the foreword to Mind Games: "It isn't necessarily the best team or the team with the most talented players that wins games, but the team that can 'think correctly under pressure': T-Cup for short. It's what's between the ears that counts."

Though British sailor Ben Ainslie is widely acknowledged to be one of the most talented in the world, anybody who followed his performance in the Olympics this summer can acknowledge the truth of the book's focus on mental toughness. One of the favourites for his event, Ainslie suffered a disqualification - against which he unsuccessfully appealed - early on. But, while many in that position would have cracked, he picked himself up and with complete dedication so dominated the next few races that he emerged at the end as the clear winner.

Likewise, successful business people - even those with great ideas - often have to battle against what can seem to be impossible odds to achieve their goals. In particular, they typically struggle to raise money to set their idea in motion. Or they might have a battle to get their product into the market. Or to put it in its simplest, most reductive terms - only the strongest survive.

These business stars, like those in sports, often attribute their success to luck. And, yes, fortune may shine on them from time to time. But really, it must be down to the mental effort - in particular, the conviction, arrogance even, that makes them believe that it is worth their while giving up the pleasures enjoyed by others in order to improve their chances of success.

And as one of the golfing greats, Gary Player, responded when it was remarked that he was lucky: "And the more I practise the luckier I get."