Loudon during his final
season as a professional cricketer. He retired from the game in
2007, aged just 27.
PA
Images
LONDON — Alex Loudon is one of a small handful of people to have
achieved success in two very distinct spheres — sport and
business.
Before starting a business career in mergers and acquisitions
with brewing giant SAB Miller, Loudon was a successful
pro-cricketer, playing at county level for Warwickshire and in
one game for England.
Now, aged 36, Loudon has just launched a new
investment firm, Abercross Holdings, started alongside two
partners, Andrew Woodhouse and Issam Hamid.
While in many ways the worlds of sport and business are
hugely disparate, there are skills that can be transferred
between the two, and many sportsmen and women go on to successful
post-sporting careers.
“There’s lots of transferable
skills,” he told BI. “Whatever anyone does in their 20s, they can
learn the same things. Whether that’s in sport, drama, acting,
business or anything else.”
“The ones that I took with me
were work ethic, teamwork, self-learning and understanding, you
know, growing up basically.”
Dealing with high-pressure situations is something that
Loudon says he took from cricket, which is one of the most
individualistic of team sports. Cricketers may be part of a team,
but their contributions are very much their own.
Batsmen are judged on how many runs they score, bowlers on
how many wickets. Placing such value on the individual brings a
unique type of pressure, something Loudon believes helped him
during his transition out of the sport.
“One additional thing that
cricket and other pursuits that are in the spotlight can teach is
dealing with pressure and performing when you need to. Obviously,
that’s a life objective to be able to do that.
“Having early exposure to
pressure situations, seeing how people and yourself react and
trying to work out ways to improve is something I got from
cricket. That is something that will continue to be helpful
moving forward.”
Having a strong work ethic and
being able to deal with frequent failures is also something
Loudon says helped him early in his business career.
“I think, things like work ethic,
whether you go work in a bank, or a business, or a sports team,
people who do well will have a good work ethic,” he told
BI.
“I guess I learnt the lesson that
if you really persevere — and you have to do that in sport
because there’s a lot of failures when you’re younger — the worm
eventually turns and things turn in your favour. But to get that
you need to be resilient and persistent.
“The more times you have a
problem or a challenge that you overcome, the more you realise
that its possible. With a new career change, or an important deal
to do — whatever it is — you know that even if you’re not getting
it right right now, you will get there if you keep at it and work
hard.”
You can read the first part of Business Insider’s interview with
Loudon here.
