Research Log #6

Date: 11/16/17
Name: RJ Walker
EQ: How and why are sports a metaphor towards life and career success?

Three Points to Prove: #1: Sports teach commitment, dedication, and responsibility.
#2: Sports emphasize the power of teamwork.
#3: Sports build respect towards authority/ coaches and enhance friendships/tsocial skills
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Point that this Source/Information Proves: #1

Excerpts:
“I have come to truly value my experience through the life and business lessons learned through sports”

“First, I found that the most critical aspect of the game was commitment.”

“He simply worked the hardest, consistently sacrificed, and never wavered in showing his dedication to our team
through action.”

“Each player had to complete his task to achieve a common goal. If one team member did not carry his load then our
collective efforts would collapse”

“Playing the game taught me quite a bit about how to judge an individual's character.”

“I discovered that there is no better means of uncovering the true nature of a prospective employee or business
associate than a round of golf”

Analysis:
The article starts off talking about a man who has been involved with basketball his whole life and embracing every
bit of it, both, as a player and a coach. More importantly than that, he has truly realized the life/ business morals that
the game of basketball has taught him. His first point to prove was about commitment and how he earned his spot on
the basketball team by putting in extra hours of his day outside of practice to get that much better and having the right
mind set about it. This is a huge skillset that should be learned early in your life as it teaches you to hopefully do the
same for your future career. Careers come with both responsibility and sacrifice, which must be dealt with in order to
be successful.
His second point to prove explained that throughout the game of basketball, he has learned accountability. Even
though it was mainly the coach’s responsibility to keep the team straight and make sure to do what’s best for the team,
the players themselves needed to have accountability on each other. He learned to sacrifice selfish tendencies to benefit
the team as a whole instead of just himself he then for hold each other responsible for any mistakes made/ wrong
doings. He wraps up his point to prove by stating “Playing the game taught me quite a bit about how to judge an
individual's character. On the basketball court, it revealed those who caved under pressure or were unwilling to take a
charge for the common good.”
Lastly, his final point to prove was that sports have reinforced life long optimism throughout the darkest of personal
and professional storms. He has learned that positive attitudes/ outlooks on things are essential for business/ life
success. The game of basketball has made him understand the fact that defeat is able to be handled but never
acceptable. In both sports and business, we must learn to deal with failure as not everything is going to go our way or
especially if it is due to our own poor performance. Overall, the game has taught him mental toughness which is vital
in order to face personal challenges problems, especially in business/ career.

Work Cited:
Earl Butch Graves. “What Playing The Game Will Teach You About Business” Ebsco Host. Black Enterprise., 1
March. 2014. http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=9&sid=95a93d43-421c-4d95-bc33-
54d0661c87fa%40pdc-v-sessmgr01. Accessed 16 Nov 2017.