Learning to Play Business Golf

Learning to Play Business Golf

What is my goal for this project?

The project I have chosen is to analyze the concept of business golf. Further to that, I wish to develop a plan for me to learn to play golf, and then engage in business golf to attract and retain key clients. I hope that in the course of this project I am able to determine the steps I need to take to learn how to play the game of golf, and figure out what I can expect in terms of outcomes from playing business golf.

Business golf is a formalized version of an age-old concept. For as long as there has been business, that business has been based on relationships. Sometimes those relationships are based on minimal interaction, but the strongest relationships usually require a higher degree of interaction. They must involve the development of trust, camaraderie and the forging of interpersonal bonds. Every successful businessperson must be able to engage other human beings to develop these links. The idea of business golf is that this can take place on the links.

There has been a long association between business and golf. The essence of the concept dates back to clubs in the 19th century, where the business elite in England and the United States would interact in exclusive settings. Athletic endeavor has long been a tool for bonding, but there are specific reasons why golf has emerged as one of the best. The first is that golf has a low physical impact. The game can be played by people of most any age and fitness level. The second is the amount of time taken to play a round of golf. The average round takes between 4-5 hours, over which time the players have significant time in which to bond, establishing the trust and camaraderie so essential to business.

The formalized concept of business golf can be attributed to Scot Duke, whose book How to Play Business Golf is considered the seminal work on the subject. The connection between golf and business was long-established before the book, but Duke outlined how business golf works, why it works, and emphasized how to use business golf to specifically improve business as opposed to merely using it to enjoy a round of golf. Duke has followed his book by founding a consulting company called Innovative Business Golf Solutions, and he writes a blog on the subject as well.

I do not currently play golf. But the concept is intriguing, and I feel that business golf is a skill that will be valuable for me. Therefore, I wish to explore the concept and determine the steps that I will take to learn business golf. I will estimate the time frame for incorporating business golf into my work life, and I hope to get a sense of how much benefit I will receive from business golf. The latter is key because the concept does have its detractors, who view it as being a waste of time and money or at the very least a poor investment of one's time and money. If business golf is a frivolous pursuit, I hope to determine that as well.

How did I choose a topic for this project?

One of the goals for my education is to improve my business skills. For me, this has always been about book learning. That part of learning is essential to business, but it is not the only aspect. When considering what topic I wanted to address with this project, I was looking for something that addressed some of the soft skills that are relevant in the business world today.

Forging relationships has always been one of the key attributes for any salesperson. Relationships are the basis of all business, however, not just sales. Relationships help a person find a new job, devise creative solutions to problems and identify new business opportunities. The knowledge that one gains through one's contacts is just as important as sales.

Developing soft skills is a key component of business golf. It is about taking something concrete - the game of golf - and using it to achieve any number of goals. My primary interest is choosing a topic was to find something that would address the development of soft skills and help me to increase my sales and generate more business. Business golf fits all of these needs.

The other reason I chose this topic is because I have an interest in the game of golf. It holds a powerful place in the modern world, and in the business world in particular. Business golf has gone from being something everybody knew about but never specifically practiced to a formal discipline, subject to a growing body of literature. As pastimes go, golf's ability to intertwine with the world of business is compelling to me. This has encouraged me to explore the subject in greater detail. Normally, a discipline such as golf, which requires a very hands-on learning technique, is something I would shy away from. However, because of its importance in the business world, I wanted to take a closer look at the game. When I discovered the concept of business golf, I was intrigued. From there I read about the history of the game, and began to understand why it holds such a prominent place in our society.

Golf represents more than mere gameplay. Its role in bonding and relationship formation is precisely why it is such a valuable business tool, and why the idea of business golf proved such an attractive subject matter to me.

The fact that business golf requires such a wide variety of skills makes it a perfect subject for learning. Each of the different styles of learning that are key to successful business golf are different style than the one I am most comfortable with. The challenge of acquiring new skills in new ways compels me. It will force me to improve my ability to learn, which is something I can take with me and build upon for the rest of my life.

What methods will I use to achieve the goal?

The first thing I need to do is analyze what business golf is, and what learning it will entail. I will need to acquire a varied set of skills. The game of golf itself requires the acquisition of many different hard skills, from driving to putting and hand-eye coordination. Learning these hard skills is the first step in my plan.

The second step is to learn the soft skills. Business golf combines the game of golf with the full range of relationship-building skills. The basic concept is that golf allows a businessperson to build stronger relationships, and does so faster, than would be achieved through conventional relationship-building techniques. In order for this to work I need to understand what these skills are, how they can be acquired, and how to apply them to playing golf.

The learning process for me starts with an analysis of my learning style. I need to understand the ways in which I acquire both hard skills and soft skills. This will help me to better engage the process.

From there I will consider the type of skills that I need to acquire, and how those are generally taught. I will need to reconcile the method of learning for those skills with my own personal learning style. By doing this, I will be able to see potential obstacles, and hopefully deal with them in advance. Ideally, this will make for a smoother learning process.

To achieve my goal, I need to do more than just learn skills, however. There are end objectives that drive my desire to learn business golf. Part of my methodology will be to determine measures of success. These will help me to assess my performance. It is understood that business golf is not about the game itself. The objective of business golf is not to win the golf game, but to generate future business. That must be measured. Scot Duke estimates that he gets a 150% return on his business golf for his consulting services. Part of my methodology will be to develop a means of tracking my business golf returns.

At that point, my initial learning methodology stops, and I begin a feedback loop where I hope to continually improve my ability to generate revenues from my business golf endeavors.

What is my learning style, and how might my work on this project influence it?

There are dozens of different theories about learning styles. None has been deemed the most accurate, but some have gained significant currency in the field of learning. In general, my knowledge is book knowledge. In Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences, this would be represented as linguistic intelligence. Traditionally, I learn by reading, studying, and memorizing. This learning style is well-suited to classroom learning.

For me, learning something hands-on is a new concept. I am more comfortable studying the game of golf by reading the rules and etiquette than I am in learning it through playing. Yet the fundamental skills of the game require strictly hands-on learning. Merely learning the rules does not prepare one to actually play the game. The game is learned through repetition of physical movements, for example on the driving range or the putting green. Golf swings are learned by training muscles to behave in a certain way consistently - the book element of that is minimal.

The soft skills that one must learn to play business golf are another problem. This is represented in the concept of interpersonal intelligence. I understand that I can read about selling and developing strong business relationships, but the execution of the theories requires making strong interpersonal connections, and that is not something that can be learned from a book.

There is another aspect to achieving success at business golf, one that is not directly related to specific skill sets that I need to acquire, but that can be a key determinant of my ability to achieve my goals. That is the aspect of mental preparation and discipline. As Judy Anderson states:

Successful business golf requires that you keep your focus. This means always remembering that you're playing for business purposes and not for recreation but at the same time playing a respectable game. You need the ability to shift between golf and business and feel comfort with both. The only way to master this is to have a strong mental game."

Mental focus and discipline are underrated as business skills but have a clear impact on success. The most important thing I need to remember about business golf is that I am combining two very different things, and that I am doing so in order to achieve a specific outcome. I cannot achieve that outcome if I lose focus. I cannot achieve that outcome if I lack discipline. If I play a round of golf with prospective clients, and become too focused on my golf game, I will fail to land the clients. If I focus too much on marketing, I may play a terrible game and make a fool of myself. Neither one of these outcomes is in any way desirable. In part, I can overcome this by achieving a sense of ease with my golf game, such that playing well becomes second nature and I can focus on the other goals while I'm on the course.

This 'mental game' aspect of business golf represents yet another learning style, the intrapersonal style. This style is perhaps more familiar to me than kinesthetic learning but it still represents a challenge for me. There is a body of literature on this subject, including works that pertain directly to golf, but to develop the degree of control over my mind - and mastering the mind is at the root of the 'mental game' - I will need to expand my learning capabilities.

My work on this project will undoubtedly have an impact on my learning style. The way each person learns is comprised of many different learning styles. That I am stronger in the linguistic learning style does not preclude me from learning via other means. I will begin my learning by utilizing the tools available to me in my learning style, but I will be forced to approach my learning in other ways, due to the inherent limitations of the linguistic style.

I will study golf and I will study sales and relationship building. This will give me a sense of what I need to do in order to achieve my goals in business golf. Having acquired the basic knowledge and theories, I will then need to put these theories into practice using different learning means. By doing this, I feel that I will impact my learning style, because I will be introducing different learning mechanisms than I typically use. I will be learning, in essence, how to learn differently. This capability is something that I will be able to take with me into subsequent learning experiences.

A expect that at first my experiences with hands-on learning will be difficult. I have some confidence, however, that if I am properly prepared by my reading on the theoretical background of golf swings and sales pitches, I will be able to apply this knowledge to help smooth the learning style transition by combining the new style with my preferred style.

The mental game and the intrapersonal learning style will also present significant challenges. My research appears to conclude that this style of learning is one of the essential elements of business success, as well as an essential element of golf success. Tour pros and CEOs alike get to the level they are by mastering their own minds. I feel that this is perhaps the biggest challenge I will be presented with in learning business golf, but it is also the one that will yield the most rewards. Scot Duke intimated in his blog that business golf is not just about playing golf and doing some marketing - that the two skills had to be synthesized. Business golf is about more than just doing two things independently, it's about doing them together, as one entity. In other words, it is not about business and golf, it is business golf. It is the mental focus that will bind those two other sets of skills together into a powerful whole.

So there is no question that the process of learning business golf will change my learning style. Incorporating the aspect of the mental game represents a quantum leap in my learning, and my desire to make that leap will result in me changing my learning style forever.

How will I learn to play golf?

The first step in learning to play golf will be the theoretical component. The website Learnaboutgolf.com recommends that a beginner should undertake a fair amount of learning before buying clubs and hitting the course. The steps to be taken include reading on the following subjects: Etiquette, Rules, Terminology, Technology, Equipment, and Buying Clubs. Detailed information on all of these subjects is widely available on the Internet, and outlined in greater detail in any number of books on the subject.

Once I have digested the mass of information, I will then undertake the practical aspect of learning golf. This will begin at the driving range. Because I want to be able to play well when I am conducting business, without expending too much concentration on doing so, I want my skills to be excellent. This will require professional instruction. Most courses have pros who can help to teach new golfers the basic components of different golf swings. At first, this is the method I will use, combined with hours of practice. The main piece of equipment at this stage will be gloves, to avoid blisters that could prevent me from practicing.

As my drives improve, I will experiment with the different types of clubs that the range has, and that some of my friends have. This will help me later when I begin my "coursework." It will be necessary for me to synthesize my experiences at the driving range with the readings that I will have previously done on swing mechanics and club selection. This will better enable me to understand my experiences of the day and learn from them.

Once I feel that I have begun to establish some consistency to my driving, I will begin to incorporate putting practice into my training regimen. Again, part of the process will be to acquire the services of a professional teacher, to ensure that I learn the skill properly. This instruction will be reinforced by repetition and repeated study of the reading.

After time, I will feel comfortable enough to attempt a course. I will at this point put my new skills together for the first time. I will also be learning a new skill, one that is not typically taught through repetition as in a driving range or putting green - the iron shot from the grass. Because of this, my first handful of course attempts will be on par 3 courses. These courses are shorter in length than traditional courses. Because of this, they are a great place to learn some of the basic mechanics of the game, as well as some of the finer skills such as club selection. There is a lower expectation for the standard of play on a par 3 course, which provides a more comfortable environment for an inexperienced player. I will take some of my golf-playing friends with me to help me with some of the finer points.

When I feel comfortable with the shorter courses, I will begin to play full-length courses. Throughout this time I will intersperse these rounds with trips to the driving range and putting green. I will also continue to read theory, as that is the method of learning with which I am most comfortable. Although this exercise will introduce me to new learning styles, I am certain that I will need to continue to utilize the style with which I am most comfortable. Learning through physical repetition is critical, but to assist in my comfort with that I will still need to read and study the theory.

As I become more comfortable with the game itself, I will need to begin to incorporate the sales aspect and the mental game into my practice. While at first I feel it will be most important to focus on learning to play golf, over time I will need to adapt and start to learn how to play business golf. This part of the process will begin with theoretical readings outside of the golf course environment, and eventually I will begin the process of integrating, using some of my friends as test subjects.

How does this kind of learning fit my learning style?

This kind of learning is a difficult fit with my normal learning style. In my program, I have attempted to incorporate as much of my learning style as possible, because I understand that this will assist me. It is always beneficial for me when attempting to learn a new skill in a way with which I am not familiar to be able to fall back on a learning style that I do know, even if it only gives me a small portion of the total knowledge needed.

That base gave me a certain degree of comfort, but the application of hands-on learning proved much more difficult. The written literature on learning golf, such as that on LearningGolf.com, is highly detailed. There are charts discussing minute angles that my eye cannot discern. From my discussions with compatriots at the driving range, for example, such minute details are translated through kinesthetic learning as "feel," whereby your body and mind just inherently know the right angle at which to hold a club. The same thing is applied to speed, where learning materials outline the different clubs in terms of things like head speed. This is where book learning leaves me, and I must gain that feel for myself. The process itself was as promised - a lot of repetition and adjustment, and I needed to summon a lot patience. That was easier to do, knowing I was operating outside of my normal learning style.

Ultimately, I was able to learn by combining my style with the style best suited to learning the skills of golf. There may not have been a significant intersection between the two, but I took what I know best and used it as well as I could, then worked hard to gain skills using a different learning style entirely.

What is business golf and how will it help my business?

One of the most important things to consider before I embark on the learning process is what defines business golf and why I should undertake it. As I alluded to earlier, business golf is not just a combination of business and golf, it is a synthesis of business and golf. To understand that distinction is to tap into the value of business golf. Business can be conducted anywhere. Golf can be played any time, with any body. If the two are conducted together, there must be some discernable benefit to doing so.

From an investment perspective, we should evaluate the merits of an undertaking with its cost. Golf is an expensive endeavor. There are green fees, dinner, swag and travel to consider, plus the opportunity cost of spending that day in the office conducting business in the conventional manner. Scot Duke estimates that a day of business golf costs him on average $4,000.

That is the investment in a round of business golf. That means that the average financial benefit from a day of business golf must exceed this cost. More importantly, this benefit must accrue from the golf day itself. In other words, if I can accomplish the same revenues by taking prospects to a coffee shop for twenty minutes, that would be a better investment than the golf. The golf itself must bring in sufficient additional revenues over and above what would be acquired through other means.

Admittedly, this will be difficult to quantify in any given individual situation, but over time some comparison can be made between clients and prospects with whom I have golfed and those with whom I have not. The latter will be a control group and I will need to devise a way to track the effectiveness of the business golf. Duke tracked his performance history and found that the revenues are 150% higher for the round of golf. Knowing the cost of the golf, this sets a bar for the types of clients with whom I will use the business golf strategy.

The reasons why the synthesis of business and golf can contribute so much to the bottom line are rooted in the power of bonding. Business Week ran a series on business and golf and illustrated this phenomenon succinctly:

In the world of...business, many factors go into building a financial relationship: cultural nuances, inflections in language, understanding local markets. But when golf is involved, the path to this mutual understanding is often easier. If your playing partner is sizing up a 20-foot putt, and you are trying to negotiate a tricky lie in the bunker, you quickly become comrades in pursuit of a common goal -- a respectable score. Later, when it's time to close the deal, you'll have a deeper understanding of each other."

Golf and bonding have long been inextricably linked. When four people who share a passion for golf spend four or five hours on a course together, each in pursuit of a great game, that shared experience inevitably builds bonds. The reason these bonds apply so well to the business world is rooted in the ways the majority of people choose to do business. Inherent in any business relationship are fundamental concepts such as trust, communication, and confidence.

At the outset of any business relationship, each party will have certain barriers that they set for themselves. This is why a cold call usually results in failure - the barriers are high and strong, and difficult to break down in the time allotted. A golf game, however, usually results in the removal of those barriers. Just by the very fact that a game has been arranged, the initial barrier has been broken. It is understood at that point that there is a good chance of a business relationship developing. What the golf does at this point is two critical functions. The first is that it increases the odds of that business relationship flourishing and the second is that it increases the profit potential of that relationship. Golf facilitates the gradual breaking down of the barriers to trust, communication and confidence through a shared experience. When these barriers are removed over the course of the day, that removal process is more complete than if you were to attempt such removal in a shorter time frame.

Aside from time frame, another aspect of golf illustrates why that game specifically is so powerful in the bonding process. In addition to being a shared experience, there is an individual aspect to golf as well. This lends a degree of comfort to both parties, and that comfort is what allows the barriers to be removed so effectively. Golf is also a pastime that is relatively passive, which makes business golf a lifelong skill, universal amongst people of all ages, demographics, and fitness levels. Other pastimes can have the same bonding effect, such as long hunting or fishing trips, but the appeal of these pursuits is not nearly as universal as golf.

Those benefits are merely from the perspective of the prospect or client. From your perspective, you get some different benefits. For example, you get an opportunity to know your customers better. This is one of the key ways in which the synthesis of business and golf adds true value. The more you learn about your customers, the better you can meet their needs. The better you meet their needs, the more money you can make from them. It all comes down a fundamental truth - that the relationship between yourself and your customers is one of mutual benefit. If you give them what they want, they will give you their money. If you do not give them what they want, they will not give you their money. The bonding process and time spent on the golf course gives you a much keener insight to the needs and desires of your customers, facilitating this process for years to come.

All of these factors combine to make golf among the most powerful means to generate business. Those who have tracked its benefits can point to specific financial returns that justify the use of golf to develop business.

Is there a downside to playing golf to acquire clients?

Business golf is an investment like any other. It entails risk, it must be properly planned and those plans properly executed in order for it to succeed. There are many pitfalls that can make business golf a losing proposition.

The first major downside risk is the opportunity cost. The objective of business golf is to generate a significant enough return to make the golf aspect worthwhile. If the golf aspect is not financially worthwhile, then it would be better to simply conduct business, in some other way. That is the opportunity cost. While you are on the golf course, you could be conducting business in a conventional way. The risk you are undertaking when you engage in business golf is that the money you could have made in your office or at a meeting is just as much or better than what you made by playing golf.

Another downside is when you are attempting to engage clients whose interest in golf is minimal. The rewards of business golf are such that the temptation is there to use this tool exclusively in business development. The fact is, no one business tool is going to work for all clients or prospects. Business golf may not achieve the desired results for any number of reasons. One of the finer skills I must develop in order to achieve my objectives in playing business golf is to recognize in a prospect when golf will succeed and when it likely will not. Further to this, I will need other weapons in my business development arsenal beyond business golf in order to build my business.

Another downside to playing business golf is that for some clients, even if they profess to love golf, the bonding experience may not work for one reason or another. Business golf should never be viewed a sure-fire predictor of success. One pitfall can be the behavior of the prospect/client on the course. Most of the literature on business golf focuses on your behavior, without really delving into the issue of difficult behavior on the course. You may learn things about the client that you would have been better off not knowing, for example if they have anger issues, or alcohol issues. If there are such issues, or just basic personality conflict, you run the risk of losing what would otherwise have been a great client had you not learned so much about each other on a personal level.

Another downside to playing golf in order to acquire clients is that the idea lacks uniqueness.

Because golf is such a widespread pastime, and has long had strong associations with bonding and with the conduct of business, I will not be unique in attempting to leverage golf to further my business. The amount of literature on the subject hints that the concept of business golf is widespread, and that many clients are courted in this fashion. The lack of uniqueness in my medium must be overcome by a uniqueness in my message, if business golf is to truly help me meet my objectives.

Lastly, business golf is a complicated, finely nuanced tool for business development. Specifically because of the time frame involved, and the number of skill sets required to succeed, business golf is actually one of the more difficult business development tools to master. With the degree of human interaction required, failure to master the art of business golf can actually damage my future prospects because any negative impressions are liable to be stronger and more longer lasting that those that accrue from more conventional business development methodologies.

Most business golf literature stresses that it only works when all of the skills are mastered and executed. My golf skills, for example, are of significant concern for me, as I have never played the game. This is turn may fuel self-consciousness that could foster negative impressions of me to the prospects. Or it could fuel an overemphasis on the golf aspect, to the detriment of the interpersonal skills, the mental game and the selling skills that I will also need to apply.

When will I feel comfortable bringing clients on the course and asking for their business?

The time frame for learning business golf can be lengthy, given the number of skills that must be acquired. Each of these skills requires a different learning style than I am accustomed to. Once I have acquired the basic skills, I then will need to synthesize them into a cohesive business golf package. From there, it will take practice in order to begin to successfully play business golf.

The first and most basic skill to acquire is to play the game of golf. Because of the kinesthetic learning style required to learn golf well enough to tackle a full-sized course, it is a reasonable assumption that I will not be a prodigy, but will rather take the average amount of time to learn, possibly a little bit more. I feel I would prefer to take more time to learn, because I do not wish for my lack of game to be a distraction on the course, either for me or for my clients.

There is no set timeframe for learning golf, but within approximately a month I should feel comfortable on a full course. From there I will take the time to study the marketing, bonding and sales skills. This is essential because I need to feel comfortable not only with my ability to make a few shots, but to be able to conduct sales at the sale time. There is a sense of timing and decorum that must be developed. I will need to take a few rounds with friends or acquaintances and test my skills on them prior to tackling the big prospects and clients. This is akin to playing poker with your buddies prior to a trip to Las Vegas - you are testing your skills while the stakes are low, so that when the stakes are high you are confident you have all the tools required to succeed.

Once I have established my basic skills, there is no reason not to proceed. The objective of the golf itself is not to win - the golf is the stage, not the actor. So as long as my skills are sufficient that I am not self-conscious I will be ready. The relationship building part can, for the most part, only be learned through experience.

And of course, no salesperson should ever balk at attempting to close a deal. If you do not ask, you do not get.

With all of these factors to consider, I believe it would 2-3 months to develop my business golf skills sufficiently to take clients onto the course and ask for their business. This time frame allows for the proper development of skills and some experience, but forces me to be aggressive in my learning, lest I allow myself too much time. If business golf is truly a priority, I will want to pursue it with utmost vigor and enthusiasm.

What do I know about the basic skills of selling outside the office? How have I learned to acquire these skills?

There are a few key differences to selling outside of the office as opposed to inside. First, selling outside the office is a process of relationship building. Second, the sale may not come outside the office. Third, you must maintain your focus, and your guard.

Relationship building is a standard component of sales. However, if you are willing to go outside the office for a client, by virtue of this being an investment decision, that client must have value above and beyond that of an average client. One of the ramifications of this is that you will most likely want to build a long-term relationship with this client - if you didn't want to you would not bother leaving the office. So by its very nature, selling outside of the office and in particular on the golf course is a long-term proposition. While at times in the office, a sales call can be a proposition where a minimal investment in time is met with a minimum reward, there should be no such clients at your business golf game. These are only the clients with whom you want to build a relationship and the focus on the game should therefore be on the relationship building, not the sale. The sale will come once the relationship-building process reaches a point of comfort for the client.

It should be understood, however, that the sale may not come outside of the office. Many clients and prospects enjoy the relationship-building aspect of the golf game, but may not feel comfortable conducting business in that setting. I will, since this is going to be a standard tool for me, but the client simply may not, and the deal must be closed at another time and place. The temptation when on a sales call is to assume that you must close the deal on the spot. That temptation will naturally transfer to the golf course. However, another basic tenet of sales should also be respected, and that is to respect the prospect, and in this case the fact that the person may not feel comfortable closing a deal outside of a traditional setting. I must always be prepared to make a follow-up meeting in order to close a deal. Business golf is about long-term relationship building, not closing a single deal.

The last key difference is that you must always keep your focus. In the office setting, it is understood that you are engaging business. The setting, your attire, the staff around you - everything points to business. On the golf course, it can be easier to forget that your purpose there is still to conduct business, because your surroundings are more typically associated with casual pursuits. With this in mind, I must recall what I know about doing business outside of the office and try to apply basic office etiquette while conducting business golf, in addition to the golf etiquette.

I have learned to acquire these skills mainly through study. This is my most natural form of learning. As this information is digested, it will then be practiced. Again, for me this will simply be a matter of executing the theories, rule and best practices that I have gleaned from the wide range of articles on the subject.

Beyond study, I have had to adapt my learning style to allow for other types of learning. I recognized at the outset of this project the value of adopting different learning styles, so I was as open as possible to this. In learning the physical aspects of golf, I had to learn kinesthetic learning largely by repetition. Since such learning does not come naturally to me, I needed to train my muscles gradually and methodically to achieve the desired results.

I need to also work on interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. The intrapersonal is one of my stronger learning styles, but the difficulty of playing the 'mental game' proved a significant challenge. To achieve the amount of focus required in business golf while trying to intellectually deal with all of the other challenges on the course was difficult.

The interpersonal skills were another challenge for me. The reading I did in advance merely gave me a sense of the things I needed to do and the objectives I was aiming for. Actually executing this requires so much more. Learning to acquire this skill was definitely the most challenging. I was, however, able to apply one key concept I learned in the physical skill learning I had done. This was a tremendous experience in learning adaptation. I learned that achieving a high level of interpersonal relations, such as the business golf relationship building process, shares a similarity with the learning the golf swing. This similarity is that each is made easier if the attempt is effortless. When I realized this, I realized that the effortlessness of a good golf swing is something I had to learn kinesthetically. I had then applied something I learned in that way to a totally different skill set learned by a totally different technique.

What outcomes have I realized?

I have realized a wide range of outcomes from this exercise. I have learned about the concept of business golf. I have determined a process by which I will acquire the skills necessary to add business golf to my business development arsenal. I have a rough idea of the effort and time frame that will be involved. I have discerned that I can measure my results, and that if I am conducting my business golf properly I can expect a positive return on my investment. I also learned a lot about my own personal learning style, and how to learn skills that are generally acquired in ways to which my style is not conducive.