Try, try again

NOW I KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH FAILURE, I CAN RE-FRAME IT AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO IMPROVE. I WON’T FAIL AT THIS BUSINESS, BECAUSE I WON’T GIVE UP THIS TIME

Fear of failure can be an inhibiting factor. Experiencing failure can destroy confidence, willpower and even passion. Developing the resiliency and mental fortitude to persevere in the face of failure is a difficult skill to master.

Pete Talbot has had a unique career path. In September, he won Rising Star at the Niche Business Awards for his work with Next Level Rugby. The company provides young people with elite level rugby coaching, while helping to prepare them with additional life skills. The importance of this is a reaction to Pete’s experience, where one big failure changed his life forever.

“When I was younger, I was really focused on becoming a professional rugby player. To my detriment, because I didn’t think I needed anything else. I didn’t go on to higher education because I didn’t think I needed it. I was going to be a rugby player. That was the plan.

“Going through the age groups, I was an early high performer. I’m a September baby, so I was always older, stronger, faster – more developed – than the other lads in my age grade. That, combined with my determination and drive to become a professional rugby player, meant that the stuff I worked on off the pitch was quite limited. I didn’t enjoy the classroom. I didn’t enjoy other subjects. But I was so successful at rugby, and I found the age grade level so easy that I got scouted for and joined Leicester Tigers’ youth team in 1996.

“I was there for four years, moving through the development set up and thought that getting a professional contract was a foregone conclusion. I’d always succeeded at every youth level, so surely that would continue.

“It didn’t, and I didn’t see it coming. I was going into the meeting thinking: ‘They’ll probably offer me X pounds, and I’ll ask for Y’. So to be told they didn’t want me anymore was a complete shock.

“I’d never experienced failure before. I’d always been picked. I’d progressed through the youth system so easily,

I didn’t have the mental skills to handle the rejection; I hadn’t built up any resilience. I hung around in the professional game for a couple of years, signing contracts at Championship level for Coventry and Birmingham Solihull. Most people would still consider that a great achievement, but it wasn’t playing for the best team in the Premiership, so I’d checked out emotionally. I hadn’t got what I wanted. I hadn’t fulfilled my potential.

“It broke my dad’s heart more than mine. It was difficult to feel like I’d failed him as well as myself. I eventually stopped playing entirely, and – at the time – I was telling people that I’d fallen out of love with rugby. Knowing what I know now, I’d actually lost my love because I couldn’t handle not being successful. I was so crushed by failing that I had to remove myself from everything that reminded me of it. I stayed away from rugby for the next 13 years.”

After befriending a few car salesmen in the gym, Pete found a new way to make money and dropped rugby overnight. He was 23 at that point and didn’t come back to the game until he was 36. After car sales, he worked as a product developer for PepsiCo.

“Having had four promotions in three years, I was advancing quite quickly through the corporate ranks, and it felt good because I was back to being successful. I had this validation of people thinking I was good at my job again, but the truth of the matter is that I was a pretty average product developer. What I did have were the skills and personality that I’d developed from rugby – leading teams, talking to people of different levels, helping others get better, and learning from when things go wrong. I realised that those skills are what’s required of a coach, and if I went back to rugby, I could be one of the best. Coaching gives me a chance to succeed in a field where I previously fell at the first hurdle.

“Now I know how to deal with failure, I can re-frame it as an opportunity to improve. I won’t fail at this business, because I won’t give up this time – I’ll fight rather than flight – and that attitude really informs my coaching style. I tell the players that failure’s not the end – it’s the beginning.”

Next Level Rugby offers a standard of rugby coaching that many children and young people won’t have access to anywhere else. With two successful academies already up and running, Pete is seeking to open two more in the near future. The academies offer more than just rugby, ensuring that the players have multiple skills and opportunities open to them.

“The idea is that they take what they’ve learned during the week back to their community clubs at the weekend and implement their new skills there. When I was coming through the youth system, I was at a comprehensive school but playing rugby alongside lads from private schools who had a much higher standard of coaching at their school and more training hours to practice. We want to make professional coaching available to more kids.

“But we also encourage them to keep pursuing academic achievement as well because the reality is that less than 1% of them will make it as professionals, and it’s important to ensure that they have what I didn’t have: another option.

“We hope to open our own facility soon, offering academies in the evenings, while operating as a further education facility during the day, giving players the chance to work towards BTECs in subjects relevant to their interests, like sports science.

“It’s about creating young people with the right attitude, focus and self-discipline, but also well-rounded, wellprepared human beings. Understanding that there are many different factors that contribute to a player’s current ability, our recruitment focuses more on attitude and effort, as it affords an opportunity to those that want it, and creates a training environment to excel in. Those are the kids we can take to the next level.”

Experience is the antidote to failure. Once you’ve lived through it, you know you can survive it, bounce back, and try something else. Failure is essential for growth, teaching us what we need to succeed next time.