Business Learnings from Formula 1: Speed, Passion, Discipline and Innovation
Scuderia Toro Rosso’s team Principal Franz Tost tirelessly repeats that a F1 driver should have four qualities to be successful — speed, passion, discipline and innovation. Just a little insight will confirm that the same set of qualities are required to be successful in business.
Speed
Obviously, for a race car driver being able to go fast is an extremely important capability. It is the primary skill and is expected by the public and team management. “Speed” in business is the primary skillset expected for a position. If you want to be valuable in what you do, you should know how to do it.
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Passion
Winning the race, being more successful than others requires the ability to step out of your comfort zone. Working more than others, harder than others — all of this requires strength and determination. Stepping out of your comfort zone requires motivation. Passion for what you do is the ultimate source of motivation. In sport and in business — passion drives you to achieve results that others can only dream of, while keeping your energy level high enough to have enough strength to deliver.
Discipline
In sport, this means the ability to control your training schedule and your competition performance. In business- setting aside time to think, learn new things, to rest, spend time off work with your friends and family. The general concept of thinking seems easy, until you realize that it is not a simple habit to maintain in this ever-changing world. Making yourself think before doing, even in the situation of tight deadlines requires discipline.
Innovation
Hard work leads to success but only up to the point where there is a better solution. For a driver — using the capabilities of the car to the full capacity requires adopting a new driving style, learning how to control tiny little parameters that may lead to gaining milliseconds. This requires innovation in what you do. You can’t expect to get better results by doing the same thing over and over again. For a person working in business — innovation is the ability to find new solutions to old problems. If everyone does the same thing the same way — it is a race of working hours and resilience. However, if you can solve the problem in an innovative way, you may save time for other activities and get ahead of competition.
And this mix of skills, passion, discipline and innovation requires more thought. Some people learn only few basic skills to become successful. For instance, they learn how to constantly push to achieve results. With that skill they become successful, and they keep pushing. Even if there is another way, an easier way to achieve results — they keep on pushing. That may work well for them, until other people figure out ways to achieve the same results that do not require a lot of pushing — and these other people will be more productive, achieve better results with less stress. The world is constantly changing — the skills and behaviors to be successful should be changing too.
