What Startups can learn from Conor McGregor?

Rami Dahhan
Aug 28, 2017 · 2 min read
The battle between Crib and Molineaux — George Cruickshank

Since I am not a sports expert I am not going to dwell on the “Money Fight” between Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Conor McGregor or claim that I had an idea of who was going to win. For those of you who are not familiar with the match history, Conor McGregor is a professional UFC fighter who challenged Floyd Mayweather an American professional boxer and five-division world champion for a boxing fight. The match ended with a victory by TKO in the 10th round for Mayweather.

Whether you are a sports fan or not, as an Entrepreneur or product developer I think there is one lesson you can learn from this game:

What you master in one area is difficult to transfer to another — Rolf Dobelli

I know you might think of Josh Waitzkin, the American chess player and martial arts competitor or any other celebrity who succeeded in different areas yet the transfer of knowledge from one field to another is very difficult.

Startups are teeming with domain dependence. You hire a successful consumer-goods salesman to sell your software. You hire your engineer wife to do your financials because she is very good at math. A mobile app developer to build your social media site. This also applies when we transfer knowledge from papers to real life. Book smarts don’t transfer to street smarts.

McGregor tried to transfer skills by switching sports, UFC to boxing, the transition was very tough for him and ultimately unsuccessful. Next time you want to make a decision based on information you have, ask your self, “How do I know?” If the information is from a book, an article or an adviser, check for domain dependence.

We are all, in a way, handicapped in a similar way, unable to recognize ideas when presented in a different contexts. — Nassim Taleb

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this article, feel free to hit that clap button below 👏 to help others find it!

)

Rami Dahhan

Written by

Technology Strategist living in Toronto

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade