We had our netball semi final on Tuesday, and I take back everything I said about us being losers. We played like a well-oiled machine. If the Silver Fern coaches were there, they would have snapped us up.

After the game and after I stopped jumping up and down long enough to ponder what went right, I realised there are some fairly cool keys to success that are pretty simple to replicate and apply across anything in life.

1. Overcome the odds

If life is too easy, you can’t be successful. In this case, we had ongoing psychological torment from the opposition who loudly and regularly commented on how ‘guys, we can’t like, win! We’re not going to be here for the final! Guys, why are we winning? We’re not MEANT to be winning’… All, which, if this was not social netball, you would have assumed was a plot to destroy our team’s confidence and leave us in tatters and without any faith in ourselves.

Instead it made us angry. And when we got angry, we started playing extremely well. We suddenly cared. Well I did anyway. It was my one and only aim in life at that particular stage in life to beat these guys. Yes we got competitive. You see the same thing with Startups and small businesses up against huge competitors. They get angry and then they get clever, and then they win.

2. Play as a team

Nik and I have worked together in the past. And despite that going largely well, I don’t think we have EVER worked together as well as we did in that netball game. The whole team was in the same boat. We knew our roles, and we fit together and relied on each other to exel and be where we were meant to be. There was no room for superstars in our team.

Yep. How many businesses have a prima donna/superstar who cannot work in a team? When people apply for jobs and say ‘I’m a good team player’ I find they are invariably lying. Few people really know how to let go of individual them and become part of a team. But it’s amazing the difference working as a team makes.

3. Play Mouse and Elephant

Yes, while you hate your competitors psychological games and they are awful and mean spirited, that is no reason not to use their tactics.

The best point in our game was when their 2-point shooter who had about a 100% hit rate previously, suddenly let Nik put him off. In the space of one of Niks spider jump defense moves, this guy went from mr Untouchable Elephant to mr Totally Freaked Out For No Reason. (the analogy, of course, refers to how Elephants are scared of mice for no reason - I’m not sure if this is a myth or not)

We totally psyched them out and the more we psyched them, the better we got. I’m sure it’s a really cool physics law, but I have never experienced it quite this well before. And I’m assuming it works in business as well. When your competitors start to see you doing very well, it freaks them out and they start stumbling.

Anyway, bring on the finals!