Tennis legend Roger Federer delivered an inspiring commencement speech at Dartmouth College this past summer that went viral.
During his talk with the Ivy League graduating class, Federer pointed out he’d played more than 1,500 singles matches during his career but only won 54% of the points. Think about that. One of the greatest tennis players of all time was unsuccessful on nearly half of his attempts.
No matter where you’re at in your career, or what growth aspirations you and your brokerage have, perfection is impossible. Sometimes you’ll win. Other times you won’t. There will be days where you and your team make mistakes and nothing goes right.
But guess what? This happens to your competition too.
Some setbacks will sting more than others. It may take time to recover and there could be significant costs involved. But learning not to dwell on what’s happened and instead focusing your time and energy on things you can control will ultimately help you succeed.
Federer addressed this in his speech by saying, “The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It’s because they know they’ll lose again and again; and have learned how to deal with it.”
Our industry is evolving quickly. Your team, clients, carriers and business partners will always have changing expectations of you. Just because you were once a successful broker doesn’t guarantee you’ll be one in the future.
To stay relevant and compete, you’re going to have to take some chances. Developing a resilient mindset makes this easier.
Many brokerages are mapping out strategies for 2025 and beyond and completing a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis as part of their planning. Revisiting your SWOT analyses from the past few years can be a valuable exercise. It lets you reflect on where you thought your business and the industry were going and compare those expectations to what’s actually happened.
A lot has changed over the past three years, and there will certainly be massive changes in the years ahead. Having a strategy is essential, but it’s just as important to recognize when it’s not working. You and your team could be working incredibly hard, but still losing.
Rather than getting stuck there, trust that you have the right people, tools and resources on your team to take some risks, adapt your game plan and keep pushing forward.
In his commencement remarks, Federer asserted “effortless is a myth.” While social media, magazine profiles and awards may make it seem like success comes easily for some brokers, that’s simply not the case.
Making things appear effortless takes a lot of work. The truth is, we’re all trying to figure out how to grow and win, and this can be a very messy and frustrating process. When things aren’t going your way, sometimes the best move is simply to take a step back and remember you can serve the ball again tomorrow.
Adam Mitchell is CEO of Mitch Insurance, a Whitby, Ont.-based insurance brokerage. This story is excerpted from the December 2024-January 2025 print edition of Canadian Underwriter. Feature image by iStock/Brycia James
