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GUEST COLUMN: What endurance sports teach us about business growth
Lessons in consistency, resilience, and teamwork from the track to the boardroom
MUMBAI: Business growth is often linked to strategy, networks, or investments, but Abhishek Punia, co-founder and CEO of ARM Worldwide, believes there is a more powerful driver: mindset. Drawing from over a decade of running a business and six years of endurance sports, he highlights how determination, focus, and resilience are critical to long-term success.
In this piece, Punia explains how lessons from endurance sports, such as patience, consistency, incremental progress, and teamwork, mirror the principles that fuel sustainable business growth. He illustrates how cultivating the right mindset allows leaders and organizations to turn setbacks into opportunities and steady effort into lasting results.
If you had asked me what drives business growth, I might have said strategy, the right people, networks, resources, or investments. And all of that is true. But over the past decade of running a business and the last six years of endurance sports, I have realized there is something even more powerful: mindset. The determination to push forward, the focus to stay on course, and the resilience to recover when things go wrong.
Endurance sports are unforgiving in a way that business often is not. They teach patience, discipline, and consistency. They teach you to move forward when your body and mind want to stop. My journey started with a few gasping meters of running. But over time, I found myself completing long distance runs, tough trials, and other ultra-marathons. That evolution, of breaking and rebuilding yourself, mirrors the growth of a business more than you might imagine.
Consistency: The everyday miles that build enduring growth
In running, no single long run makes a champion. It is the everyday commitment to training that builds stamina, skill, and progress over months and years. Business growth works in the same way: consistent effort in execution matters far more than occasional bursts of activity. Consistently delivering value, refining processes, and engaging stakeholders over time builds trust with customers and teams alike, laying the foundation for growth that endures through market ups and downs. Research on business execution highlights that reliable daily discipline in how strategies are carried out often distinguishes organizations that sustain performance from those that do not. Just as a runner’s long‑term progress comes from accumulating steady miles, repeatable effort in business drives momentum and credibility that cannot be replicated overnight.
Small steps, big gains: The power of incremental progress
Big goals can feel overwhelming, whether in running or in business. The key is to focus on small, consistent improvements that accumulate over time. When I started running, I couldn’t even cover 100 meters, and the idea of a marathon seemed unimaginable. Each short run, each small adjustment to pacing or endurance, gradually built the capacity to tackle longer distances. In business, the same approach applies. Breaking ambitious objectives into manageable steps, learning from each small win, and steadily building capabilities allows organizations to reach goals that once seemed out of reach. Incremental progress may feel slow day by day, but over time, it compounds into meaningful growth.
Bouncing back: How setbacks strengthen growth
The reality for most new businesses is stark: roughly 65 percent of businesses fail within the first ten years of starting up. This high rate is not mainly because of a lack of good ideas or talent, but because many ventures struggle to recover and adapt when challenges arrive. Marvel reinvented itself after bankruptcy in the 1990s, turning its characters into a global entertainment powerhouse. Adidas faced a major revenue loss in 2022, yet strategic focus and bold moves helped the brand bounce back stronger/ Some of today’s most successful companies endured dire moments early in their journeys and only thrived because they were able to regroup, rethink, and persevere. In endurance sports such as running, every athlete faces a point in a long race where fatigue, discomfort, and doubt threaten momentum. Training in these conditions teaches you not just to tolerate adversity, but to persist despite it. This capacity to absorb setbacks and keep moving forward is the same strength that when applied rightly on the work front, enables businesses to respond to market shifts, disruptions, or internal crises without losing direction.
The Strength of camaraderie: Learning together builds more than stamina
Think back to your school or college days, when you spent hours on the basketball court, football field, or working on a group project. What stays with you is rarely the score or the outcome, but the feeling of being part of something bigger and moving forward together. Endurance sports offer the same lesson. Long runs or team cycling sessions are tough, but they become easier and even motivating when shared with others who push, encourage, and support you. That shared effort builds patience, trust, and a sense of responsibility to one another. In business, the principle is the same. Teams that work, struggle, and celebrate together develop the cohesion and trust needed to achieve collective goals. Just as no runner reaches a personal best alone, no organization thrives without people who believe in each other and move forward as one.
Adapting to Win: Learning from Every Challenge
Every challenge in endurance sports is different. Weather, terrain, and unexpected obstacles require constant adjustment. Success comes from observing, learning, and adapting along the way. Business is no different. Companies that embrace change and continuously adapt outperform those that resist it. Research shows that organizations that prioritize adaptability achieve about 30% higher revenue growth compared with slower peers. Being open to learning, refining strategies, and adjusting to new conditions allows both athletes and businesses to stay competitive and relevant.
Finishing Strong: How Mental Toughness Drives Growth
Endurance sports show that success is rarely about talent alone. More often, it is mental toughness and focus that determine who pushes through challenges and achieves lasting results. The same holds in business. Growth comes from consistently showing up, navigating setbacks with resilience, and keeping attention on long-term goals.
Years of testing limits and leading a business have taught me that challenges are not obstacles to avoid but opportunities to strengthen resolve. Those who cultivate this mindset convert setbacks into milestones and steady effort into sustainable success.
Note: The views expressed in this article are solely the author’s and do not necessarily reflect our own.
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Lego brings Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé, Vinicius together
Campaign clocks 314 million views ahead of FIFA World Cup 2026 buzz.
MUMBAI: Four legends, one frame and not a single tackle in sight. Lego has pulled off a crossover few thought possible, uniting Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior in a single campaign ahead of the FIFA World Cup 2026 only this time, they’re building dreams brick by brick.
Titled “Everyone wants a piece”, the campaign features the quartet assembling a Lego version of the World Cup trophy, before placing miniature versions of themselves atop it, a playful nod to football’s ultimate prize. Shared widely across social media, the ad carries a pointed disclaimer: it is not AI-generated, a subtle but telling signal in an era where even reality is often questioned.
The numbers tell their own story. The campaign has already crossed 314 million views on Instagram across the players’ accounts, with fans hailing it as a rare, almost nostalgic moment particularly for the reunion of Messi and Ronaldo, whose last shared campaign ahead of the 2022 World Cup became one of the platform’s most-liked posts.
Beyond the film, Lego is extending the play with exclusive, player-themed sets tied to each of the four stars, part of a broader football-led programme designed to ride the global momentum building towards 2026. The idea, as echoed by the players themselves, leans into the parallels between football and play experimentation, creativity, failure, and triumph.
Messi described the sets as a way to bring on-pitch moments into an imaginative, hands-on world, while Ronaldo called the transformation into a Lego figure a rare honour, blending sport with storytelling. Vinícius, meanwhile, struck a more personal note, recalling childhood moments of building with Lego and framing creativity as a universal language that transcends borders.
The timing is no accident. With the 2026 World Cup set to run from June 11 to July 19 across the United States, Canada and Mexico, and featuring an expanded 48-team format, global anticipation is already building. Argentina, led by Messi, will enter as defending champions, adding another layer of intrigue.
For Lego, the campaign does more than celebrate football, it taps into its mythology. Because when icons become figurines and rivalries turn into play, the beautiful game finds a new kind of pitch. one built, quite literally, by hand.
