What can we learn from England’s World Cup match against Colombia?

Well, what can we say?

England met Colombia in the latest installment of England’s World Cup tournament and what a game it was! Not everyone is a fan of football, but there certainly does seem to be an element of ‘World Cup fever’ that is sweeping the nation and let’s face it – the World.

England haven’t had the best track record when it comes to World Cups (England didn’t even get into the last sixteen in 2014!) so the jury really was out as to whether England could in fact win last night’s game. After a slow but relatively steady first half, England scored early on in the second half taking England into the lead, only to unfortunately concede a goal in the 93rd minute. Fast forward through half an hour of further extra time, the England team would have no doubt been incredibly tired but still appeared to hold the determination to carry through. Then there were penalties, and I can only imagine how incredibly proud Gareth Southgate must be feeling following their first ever penalty shootout win during a World Cup.

And here comes the point.

Whilst it is exciting and fantastic to hit a target or deadline, or for you to sign the contract on the new office building you’re purchasing – it doesn’t mean the hard work is over. Far from it, in fact. Your business will still require 100% of your effort to ‘keep focus’ and carry on through. Now, of course, the football game was timed –  and after 120 minutes of game play and the penalty shootout, England had won the game. The End (sort of, until the match against Sweden on Saturday..)

But Businesses cannot work like that, and as a business owner, you would only reap the rewards should all your focus and effort be put into the business. If something happens in the business that puts you back a couple of places, or even takes you right back to the beginning of your business journey – for example, that building you’re purchasing suddenly retracts their acceptance of your offer and you no longer have office space to move into – what do you do? Do you give up? Or do you set your sight on the goal and work towards that goal? Exactly. The focus should always be on the aim and target of the business – never forget why you are doing this, and what it is that you want, and finally, how you are going to do that – and in situations like this, team work is so, so incredibly important.

So, England, what have we learnt from last night’s match? Work together, focus on the end goal and work hard to achieve that.