You wouldn’t think that running a youth tennis camp would have much in common with starting a business, but life has a funny way of connecting the dots. When I look back at those summers I spent managing a bunch of kids swinging rackets under the hot sun, I can now fully see how much I learned about the principles of entrepreneurship and how it helped me in building my company, MyMalls. It turns out, a day-camp for teenagers based around a couple of tennis courts can teach you about more than just footwork and backhand slices.
First off, managing a camp is all about keeping things organized, which is something every entrepreneur needs to be good at. Every day at the camp, there were schedules to stick to, equipment to keep track of, and meals to plan. It was a bit like a train schedule—no room for mistakes. If I’d been even a little bit off, the whole day could easily be thrown into turmoil. Juggling these factors taught me that details matter. In business, just like at the camp, if you don’t keep things running smoothly, you’re going to have some unhappy campers—or worse, unhappy customers.
Another thing the tennis camp taught me was the importance of communication. When you’re dealing with kids—even if they’re not especially little kids—you’ve got to be clear and direct, but also patient. They have to understand what you want them to do, but they also need to feel encouraged and motivated, otherwise they might not play to the best of their abilities. That’s not so different from working with a team in the business world. As the head of a company, you need to make sure every one of your staff knows their role, understands the goals, and feels valued. In both of these examples, good communication is key to getting everyone to pull in the same direction.
I also learned a lot about problem-solving when I managed the camp. Kids have a way of throwing you for a loop sometimes. Maybe someone’s racket strings broke, or two kids had a rough-and-tumble disagreement, or one had an inexplicable emotional breakdown—whatever it was, when it happened, I really had to think on my feet! Much later in life, as an entrepreneur, I faced challenges daily. They may not have been precisely analogous, but there was always something that didn’t go according to plan. But because I already had practice staying calm under pressure and finding quick solutions to a veritable rainbow of problems, it made the business world a lot less daunting. In a way, it made me nostalgic.
Then there’s the fact that running a camp taught me about leadership. Being in charge of a bunch of kids means you’re responsible for their safety, their fun, and teaching them something useful—in this case, tennis. To successfully do that, you’ve got to lead by example, show enthusiasm, and be there when they need support. In business, especially when you’re starting out, leadership isn’t just about making decisions from a lofty position behind a desk. It’s about being in the trenches with your team, sharing the workload, and guiding everyone in the direction of success.
Reflecting on it now, I see how those days at the tennis camp were about more than just teaching kids to serve and volley. In retrospect, they were about learning to manage people, handle pressure, and keep a keen eye on the details—all skills that have served me extremely well in my entrepreneurial career as one of the co-founders of MyMalls.
It just goes to show: lessons come from unexpected places throughout life, and often come in most useful long after the original experience is done.