What Bret “the Hitman” Hart Can Teach You About Your Startup

My favourite wrestler in my childhood was Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart. There was just something about his flair and panache that stood out for…

My favorite wrestler in my childhood was Bret ‘the Hitman’ Hart. There was just something about his flair and panache that stood out for me, even in an era laden with legends. (Not to mention, those super cool shades he would dish out to a lucky kid in every crowd!)

He was known as the “Excellence of Execution” and he was known for being one of the best technical wrestlers of all time. Much of this was due to his skills being honed from a young age from his father, himself a former wrestler and then-trainer of other professional wrestlers.

When I think about it today — his nickname needs to be a mantra followed, internalised and practised by every would-be startup, entrepreneur or change-maker today.

So much of business and indeed life success in general, depends on having excellent execution.

You can have the greatest vision or idea in the world — and fail. But you can have an average or even poor idea, but execute it effectively, and reach success.

I would go as far as saying that only 5% of success is the vision or the idea. 95% is in the execution.

An example of this is Airbnb. It was actually considered a really bad idea by many VC’s including Fred Wilson (who’d invested in Twitter, Tumblr, Soundcloud etc). At the time the idea was to have air mattresses in other people’s living rooms (hence the name). He went on to say “We made the classic mistake that all investors make. We focused too much on what they were doing at the time and not enough on what they could do, would do, and did do.”

They pivoted, and even when they got stuck with their current model, they executed well enough to get themselves through it. For example, at one point, they realised not many people were making bookings, even though traffic to the site was good. They realised most people uploading apartments had terrible photography, so they visited as many properties as they could, and took excellent photos themselves. Not execution that was scalable, sure, but did it enough to get the needle moving again.

In my own business journey, looking back I realise I have also been ahead of the game numerous times. I have been someone who is very good at reading trends and having innovative ideas that I didn’t execute quickly enough or well enough, which then got bigger success elsewhere. Such is life.

Even in Islam, the declaration of faith, the Shahadah is the big idea, that’s the 5%. But the rest of the faith is all about execution, whether it comes to praying, fasting, giving charity or having great relationships. Action, action, action.

A tree starts out as a mere seed. The seed contains all the potential for becoming a huge tree. But if it’s not nurtured, if it doesn’t get watered or gets regular sunshine, it will not reach its potential. If you put too much water, or too little sunshine — i.e. if you don’t execute properly — then the tree may not bear fruit — even though you did take action.

In the same way, we may have a vision or goals for our own life. To achieve that vision for your own life, to become who you want to be, it is only habits, processes and routine that will allow you to get there. As Aristotle famously said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

This is why systems are so powerful. Put in the right systems, and they will do the heavy lifting of your excellent execution.

In short, it is small continual execution performed consistently that will allow you to channel your inner Bret Hart and become in his words, “the best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be.”