Happy New Financial Year …I’ve just returned from speaking in the UK & learned I wasn’t receiving some emails-which isn’t a good thing for a speaker on customer service-but all fixed now.
In this global economy, we’re so dependent on technology. Yet, World Cup Football has resisted using available technology for video replays-so it seems some actions or goals were unfairly judged by referees. But, life is sometimes unfair and we just have to get on with things.
As I awaited a flight in the Helsinki airport during the World Cup Kick-off, I reflected that I’d travelled with the Finland national team only a few days earlier and visited Estonia, Slovenia, Italy & England. In the airport lounge, passengers watched South Africa play Mexico (and no one in the South African stadium did the Mexican wave! 🙂 Canadian by birth-educated in the USA & now Australian-I was bemused that the most vocal spectators were a group of Chinese watching Paraguay play France. Their team wasn’t even playing and only when I arrived in China 12 hours later, did I realise their exuberance was likely because they had gambled on the game.
I don’t consider investment in blue chip shares as a ‘gamble’ but as stock markets around the globe plunged today, it’s obvious that things have certainly changed since I represented my country in basketball-and international sport is now big business and a huge part of the world economy.
There are many analogies that can be applied to business. Our political leaders could learn a thing or two about teamwork & communication-but we won’t go there! However, I am reminded of a quote by Grantland Rice, a renowned sports journalist during the Great Depression:
Life is the biggest and fastest game of all and when the final score is in – It’s not whether we win or lose but how we play the game.
We were all busy doing the final scorecard for the end of the financial year in Australia yesterday. Regardless of economics, let’s all continue to always give our personal best to clients…and may you ‘kick many goals’ between now and the end of the calendar year!
Warmest wishes on a very chilly Sydney day…Catherine