Business Coach Lessons….From A Basketball Legend



What can a business coach learn from His Airiness?


This is Sai Blackbyrn reporting from Java, Indonesia, and oh man oh man its been a crazy few weeks.

I recently got to connect with a lot of like minded individuals in a “business coach meet up”, oh and I also gave a talk as well.

Even though I have been in this profession for a long time… it still gives me goosebumps everytime I speak in front of an audience..

And you know what?

There is nothing else I would rather do with my life.

This is what I was born to do… this is my purpose in life to give absolute value to as many people as I can.

So was all the hard work worth it?

You are damn right it was!

So to unwind a bit my mates and I went to Bogor this week.


Bogor is this BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL place where they have these AMAZING jungle safaris.

I love these forest reserves..I absolutely love the wild.

Mainly because its such a stark contrast from the hum drum of regular city life.

And the best thing?

The air!!

Oh my God…. The Freshest Air I have breath in a long long time!! 😀

Its hard for me to put it in words how amazing it was!

And after a solid week of brainstorming with so many life and business coach…. i needed this.

Let me put it like this… if I had a choice to dream about a certain scenario every single night..I would be dreaming about being in this place….

Or fighting the Joker as Batman…whatever I am in the mood for!

So during our safari…I bumped into this guy!!


Damn that was one helluva surreal experience :).

So while I was feeding the big guy my guide told me something interesting about elephants.

You see, for these folks and for a lot of animals in general the key to survival is not food ..its not water.


Elephants thrive only in community.

An elephant that’s all alone is mentally infirm and hence deemed unfit for the community.

Nature is a cruel cruel place.…but effective.

Because..think about it ..

We may have evolved a come a LONG way from being grunting cavemen living in the wild.


There are some things that are still ingrained in our brains.

Human beings are still extremely tribal.

Human beings still need an alpha to look after them.

Human beings crave nurturing.

We can’t help it.. its in our nature.

How else can you explain every cult that has ever come up in human history.

We love:

  1. Believing in something that is bigger than us.
  2. Looking up to someone who will in turn take care of us.


“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main….. any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.” 
John Donne

So…how does this help in making me a Top Business Coach?


Let me give you an example as to why having a great community…a great team is absolutely essential for success.

Quick question…Do you know who this gentleman is?


Chuck that….that was a rhetorical question.

There is no way you don’t know who that is.

That is the greatest athlete of all time….His Airiness Michael Jordan.

He is regarded by everyone as the greatest basketball player to have ever lived (No Lebron you are not there yet…maybe one day!!).

For me especially…growing up in the 90’s….how could you escape the Jordan and Chicago Bulls phenomenon?!

They were everywhere.

Hell Jordan was so popular that he made a crappy movie about him teaming up with bugs bunny and daffy duck and taking down a bunch of evil aliens in an inter-galactic basketball match, and it still became a blockbuster hit!!


No seriously….that actually happened.

So basically…here is a man…who has immeasurable amounts of charisma…has ungodly basketball talent and had the ability to fly through the air.

SO of course winning titles were easy for him right?



In fact, earlier in his career, MJ was famous for just falling short of the finals.

1987-1988 season he had the greatest single season by any player in history….he was the best attacker and the best defender in the league by a country mile.

Yet… they kept on falling short again and again and again.

1988, 1989 and 1990 Jordan’s Bulls fell one step short of the NBA finals losing to the same team again and again… Detroit Pistons… aka the infamous “Badboys” Team.

The main problem was that MJ was trying to do everything on his own…his team wasn’t good enough and wasn’t gelling well.

He was far and out the best player in the league…but he didn’t have a very good team.

But come 1991 something happened…

The young players in the team matured… name Horace Grant and of course…the amazing Scottie Pippen.

And the Bulls got a new head coach…The man who would go on to becoming the greatest coach in NBA history…Phil Jackson!

That was when the wheels started rolling.

MJ was still the undisputed leader of the team…everyone knew that….but this time….he wasn’t doing everything on his own.

He finally had a team!!


And what a team it was….the greatest team in NBA history (yes yes the 60’s Celtics were brilliant too but for me 90’s Bulls will be the greatest).

They went on to win 6 titles in 8 years.

And I would go on to say that had MJ not taken that 2 year sabbatical in between it would have been 8 titles in 8 years!

This just goes to show how important it is to be in the midst of a great community.

And that is true for a business coach as well is it not?

This is what you HAVE to strive for if you want to become a top business coach.

A great TEAM will make you strive harder to reach your goals and in turn make you a better person.

Don’t be like any other business coach.

Never ever make the mistake that every average online business coach makes.

Never ever isolate yourself… never ever try to do everything by yourself.

It is always advisable to have a team of able VAs, copywriters, website designers etc. under your umbrella.

And no… its not as expensive as you think.

Checkout Brickwork.

You can hire extremely capable and qualified people here for next to nothing.

And no… I am not getting money, neither am i getting free advertisement by promoting them.

I have gotten so much value out of that site, I have come across so many amazing people there that I can’t help but recommend this to every single person out there who yearns to have their own life and business coach empire.

Check it out.. hire a Virtual Assistant… you have no idea how helpful that can be the next time you are operating a webinar.

Anyway…I am off now…wildlife exploration awaits!!!

Here are some other related articles that you might be interested in:



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If you are an online business coach and are looking to build a super sexy coaching program or if you feel that you have a great business coach residing inside you and looking for ways to start walking on the path then I have an event which you will love.

Its called:


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