Barton Maren - Challenge management: what managers can learn from the top athlete

Vita

Dr. Wladimir Klitschko is a former boxer who achieved worldwide fame as world heavyweight champion, having gained the IBF, IBO, WBO and WBA titles. Having earned a degree in Philosophy and a PhD in sports science, he is a lecturer at the University of St. Gallen as well as a successful entrepreneur.

Stefanie Bilen is a journalist and author. She has worked for magazines and newspapers such as Handelsblatt, Harvard Business Manager and the Wall Street Journal. She holds a degree in Business Studies and studied Business Journalism at the Georg-von-Holtzbrinck School for Business Journalists. She enjoys sailing and running but is yet to try boxing.

If we make willpower an integral part of our attitude, then we can master any challenge! That is the experience and the maxim that influenced me the most in my long-standing collaboration with Dr. Wladimir Klitschko.

It has been a great honor to work side by side with this exceptional sportsman. Every day with him allows us the chance to grow. He does not lecture; he does not instruct. Instead, he shares his know-how and his ideas with those around him as a matter of course and in a likeable, believable, and empathetic way.

With this book he is aiming to show you how a boxers attitude can be applied to the challenges of everyday (business) life. He shares solutions that got him to where he is today: Dr. Wladimir Klitschko is one of the most respected sporting icons in the world as well as a successful businessman in charge of an international network of companies.

I hope you enjoy reading this book and wish you lots of willpower in accepting and mastering your challenges.

Tatjana Kiel

Managing Director of KLITSCHKO Ventures GmbH

There are some people in this world who simply are fantastic role models. They are people who are consistent and have great power of persuasion; people who are persistent and become successful because of this.

This is the kind of person I consider Wladimir Klitschko to be. I have to say I am very proud to know him. This is a man who is characterized by a big heart, extraordinary passion, and strong integrity. He is also a wonderful friend.

In our lives so far there have been a number of similarities that connect us.

We are both modest and know our roots. Both our lives were strongly shaped by our parents. He grew up in the former Soviet Union, whereas I lived in the working-class town of Amityville in New York State.

Both of us are hungry for success. Already during our teenage years we knew that we wanted more from life. Wladimir was demonstrating his talent in the boxing ring early on in Ukraine. I was working three part-time jobs in parallel in order to be able eventually to buy my own small shop in Amityville. That was the beginning of my career as an entrepreneur.

We both owe our success to particular values that matter to us. Wladimirs persistence, flexibility, focus, and coordination have always been an inspiration to me. I have always been convinced that trust is the most important asset for us as humans. Especially in times like these the world needs more empathy, more trust and more love.

Lastly, we are also connected by our view that real leaders are characterized by what they give to the world and not by what is given to them.

In this sense, let me tell you about myself and introduce you to this fascinating book by Wladimir, in which he shares his worldview with us.

I remember my childhood in Long Island in New York State. The people I knew were honest, hard-working people. I delivered newspapers, packed bags at grocery shops, and worked as a waiter. I learnt a lot. Some things I learnt fast, others more slowly.

One night our family was standing in the street. We could only watch helplessly as our house was burning down. I was still small, so there would have been no shame in it if I had been scared or upset about our loss. But at that moment my mother gave me a piece of her wisdom that I often think about: Bill, there is nothing in that house that is more important than what is out here.

Moments like that laid the foundation for my life-long optimism. I internalized that no-one and nothing can take away a persons dreams. No matter what happens. I learnt that it is dreams that are the hallmark of a winner.

Decades laterafter all my youthful dreams had come true and I had built a successful careerI was taking part in a book club event in Walldorf in Germany. During the conversation a colleague got up and said something that humbled me:

Bill, I read your autobiography Winners Dream . The advice your mother gave you impressed me very much: The best thing about you is you. I pinned this quote to my fridge and show it to my children every day. It really means a lot to us all. Many, many thanks.

Her words moved me deeply. This colleague reminded me that a person who is aware of their uniqueness cannot be stopped by anyonenot by competitors or by obstacles.

She also made me aware that in our lives there are more things that unite us than that separate us. We all have one dream in life. We know how closely the scope of the dream, our imagination and our courage are linked to how much we actually achieve.

We have all forged our own paths, were often successful, yet we frequently failed, too. Because no dream becomes a reality if we dont keep an eye on the details and their significance for the whole.

The world is full of surprises, as we know all too well. And nothing changes our way of thinking faster than the awareness that our world is constantly changing and that nothing stays as it was.

Yet there is something that distinguishes the individual from the masses.

How do we get through a tough fight? What drives us to get up again after we fall? How do we create a balance between our mind and our unyielding will? My experiences have taught me that this is the toughest test of all.

It feels as if it was yesterday: It was a perfectly normal summers day and we were celebrating my fathers birthday. My brother was there; we played golf and then enjoyed a cozy dinner at his home. It was a perfect day. I remember how glad I was about this time spent with my family because in this globalized and digitalized world these moments with our loved ones unfortunately are becoming few and far between.