Anne Veenendaal
Business and field hockey are the two loves in Boris Burkhardt’s life.
As a teenager, Burkhardt played for various national youth teams representing the Netherlands, before making his professional debut for Amsterdam. Today, at 28, he captains the Amsterdam first team and has represented the Netherlands at the international level.
From a young age, Burkhardt was also interested in setting up his own companies. One of his earliest ventures involved diving into the water on golf courses at night to retrieve, clean, and resell golf balls.
“That’s where I developed a quite entrepreneurial mindset,” Burkhardt told Business Insider.
Since then, he has launched a boating company and founded Game Hero, an e-commerce brand focused on gaming gear. He also spent time as a venture capitalist at seed-stage fund CapitalT.
Burkhardt said he hadn’t sold any of his companies yet, but he is in the middle of launching a new B2B cybersecurity and fraud prevention business, Guzco.
The company is backed by industry experts with “deep experience in logistics and shipping software” who have helped build the infrastructure behind major e-commerce platforms, he said.
Burkardt is living proof of the crossover between professional sports and leadership. In a recent phone call with BI, Burkardt described the four leadership traits that have guided him in his side-by-side careers in sports and entrepreneurship.
1. Knowing how to build a winning team
Professional athletes learn discipline and teamwork from a very young age, Burkhardt said.
“You have to know the weaknesses and the strengths of a team and from your teammates,” Burkhardt said.
“How to build a winning team, that’s something you learn from a very young age when you play sports,” he added.
When the pressure is on, in sports and businesses, some people excel. Others hide away.
“You have to know how people are acting and who you can count on,” Burkhardt said.
2. Being comfortable with losing
“You lose a lot of matches,” Burkhardt said. “I learned a lot more from losing a match than winning a match.”
But it’s all about how you come back from it.
“How do you manage to get back stronger? How do you fight back?” Burkhardt said. “That’s something where resilience and resistance are really being built for yourself.”
The same lessons apply when building a company, he said. When things go right the first time, you might just have been lucky, Burkhardt said, so you don’t learn anything.
“When you lose a deal or you didn’t manage to close the deal, then you dive into it — where did it go wrong?” Burkhardt said. “Failure is something you should embrace when you play sports or when you’re building a business to get better.”
3. Embracing the moments when things don’t go to plan
Burkhardt says having a growth mindset is vital in both sports and business.
He says it helps when things don’t go to plan, and he has to pivot or make changes.
“When you’re like, ‘Oh, I want to get into the team, oh, I really want to close this deal,’ then you’re maybe too fixed on that instead of putting the relevant work and trusting the process that you will get to the long-term goal,” Burkhardt said.
“You just need to let it go, work hard, have a lot of fun with people around you and your team,” he said. “And then the long-term goals will come to you.”
4. Keeping his team obsessed with what he’s building
Many companies fail because the team gives up, Burkhardt said.
“It’s really important that you make sure that the team has the same ambition and is pushing to get to the goal,” he said. “The goal is the hard work and also making the space for fun.”
The team should also be as invested in the outcome as you are as a leader, Burkhardt said, because talented people could jump ship at any time.
“If someone doesn’t believe in you, your mission, or the vision you have, they won’t join your company,” Burkhardt said. “Keep pushing as a team and make sure your team is willing to stay obsessed with what you’re building.”
The post A professional field hockey captain and serial entrepreneur says these 4 traits make a good leader appeared first on Business Insider.
