Kerwin Rae: Entrepreneurship Is An Extreme Sport

Not many people know business quite like Kerwin Rae. Over the past 20 years he’s owned, sold and started many business ventures and now, as one of Australia’s leading go-to authorities on entrepreneurship, has helped his clients make well over hundreds of millions of dollars across their enterprises. Now, Kerwin shares what he believes is at the heart of his, and many others, business success. 

As Australia’s leading business strategist and high-performance specialist, Kerwin Rae knows better than anyone, that it takes the mindset of an athlete to make it as an entrepreneur. 

In-fact, the 46-year-old says entrepreneurship is a sport in itself. 

“As far as I’m concerned, we’re the most dynamic athletes on the planet because we require not only the endurance to be able to do long distance, but we have to know how to sprint in situations when tactics require it.”

For Kerwin, the correlations are one in the same. Your success, whether it’s a full contact sport or owning a business, trickles down to one thing – performance, which is measured by how you operate in high pressure and high-stake situations. 

But to achieve our full capacity of peak performance, we must first know the skills that are required to get us there. 

MENTAL POWER AND STRESS CONDITIONING

Whether you’re in business, a military operator or a full-time parent, Kerwin notes that our performance is all dependent on the same systems, all of which requires a lot of mental power.

“We want to access the highest level of intelligence to be able to think clearly, operate as efficiently as possible, maintain an effortless flow and eventually end up on the other side as effectively as possible,” Kerwin says.

However, the issue with this is that it can cause inevitable stress. Stress is one of the biggest killers on the planet, and when it takes effect it can prevent a person from working effectively. 

This is because stress inhibits our ability to process information. According to Kerwin, within seven minutes of a stressful experience you lose 50 per cent of your IQ. 

“You’re then compromised as an entrepreneur, a parent, or as an operative. So, the more we can condition ourselves to be able to adapt and adopt and respond to stress differently from everyone else, the more mental capacity we will have.”

The antidote here is exposure therapy. 

Once you begin exposing yourself more to a range of different stresses, the conditioning effect takes hold and eventually things that would normally worry you suddenly no longer do. 

LEARNING CONSISTENCY

When we hear the word ‘routine’ it can sound uninspiring. Though for Kerwin, it’s a sign that each day you are dedicated to sharpening your performance in an area of your life.

“Look at the most successful players in any sport on the planet, they all have routines,” Kerwin explains. 

“And the reason that everyone who plays at a high level has routines is because they understand the importance of consistency.”

For Kerwin, a good routine simply means learning how to prioritise yourself so that you can perform your best.

“Saunas, massage, yoga – I do this every single week. I have a meditation routine that I’m doing almost every day. I have a hydration routine that I do every single day,” Kerwin says.

“And the more I preserve and protect and prioritise my self-care routines, the better I perform as an athlete when I’m in competition.”

YOUR EMOTIONS IMPACT YOUR CHOICES

Equally important as stress conditioning is having control over our emotional state as entrepreneurs. 

Whether they are positive or negative, certain emotions are addictive. The biologically they work on are the same receptors in the brain that substances like nicotine and alcohol also use – meaning they allow us to feel certain levels of ‘high’. 

“Emotions by virtue don’t allow us to see clearly,” Kerwin says.

“They intoxicate us, but they also inhibit us, visually and psychologically from being able to see the whole picture.”

For business owners in particular, having a clear outlook and being able to process information efficiently relies on our ability to keep our emotions in check. 

Of course, learning how to remain neutral, particularly in high pressure situations takes time to master. Even some of the world’s greatest athletes still let emotion get in the way of their performance. 

However, as Kerwin states, you can’t play the game from subjective reality. Inevitably more mistakes will be made, and more stress will be created. 

ANY ENTREPRENEUR CAN BE ELITE 

The ability to be a pro entrepreneur requires more than just pure grit – you need to learn how to perform at your peak.

Remember making money won’t happen overnight – this is an ultra-marathon, not a sprint. Now is the time to be working on improving your own personal abilities in order to achieve further professional success.

Once you unlock your full capacity, you’ll reap the rewards. 

By Jason Whitton

Group CEO Positive Real Estate

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