Your mind races. You look around and carefully gauge the opportunities and threats that surround you. You take a deep breath to calm yourself before slowly exhaling to bring you the quiet confidence that you need right now. The adrenaline surges through your veins, and you are ready to tackle the world around you.
You take a quick glance at your illuminated Wave Breaker watch on your wrist and think, “IT’S GO TIME!”
Where are you? What are you doing?
As an Independent Representative, this scenario is probably reminiscent of the feeling right before starting an important business presentation.
Meanwhile, for those who enjoy the world of ocean diving, these very same feelings likely bring to mind the thrill of plunging into the unknown on a deep-sea diving expedition.
And there’s a reason for these similarities… As entrepreneurs, we embrace a challenge, and we thrive on adventure – just like scuba divers. But we also need to keep our composure in new environments, and we must be able to trust in our team – also vital for divers. As business leaders, we must be able to see things from a different perspective, be pioneers, and step confidently into our future. Diving enthusiasts share this exact mindset.
With all these parallels between business and diving, it is no wonder that people have long been finding business lessons in diving manuals.
1. Keep Cool
Forbes Magazine published a piece by successful online entrepreneur and avid scuba diver Celinne Da Costa about the comparisons she draws between her diving adventures and her self-made business.
“While diving is an extreme sport, following protocol and staying calm and collected can prevent the majority of complications,” she says. “(Similarly,) part of succeeding in both business and life is cultivating the ability to remain cool, composed, and concentrated when presented with challenges.”
The ability to keep our cool in the face of challenges is one of the defining characteristics of a successful businessperson and a key business lesson we can take away from diving.
2. Just Keep Breathing
When we’re diving in the dark depths of the sea, it is not uncommon to feel overwhelmed, and the same can happen in business. When faced with these feelings that we’re out of our depth, or it seems everything is just too much for us to handle, we can remember this piece of sound diving advice: Just keep breathing. Like diving and also like meditation, the very act of focussing on our breath and concentrating on this simple action can help us to keep moving forward in our quest for success.
3. For The Thrill Of It
As any diver will tell you, the thrill of being submerged hundreds of meters below the waves and exploring new aquatic worlds is so exhilarating that it can become addictive. And as any direct seller will tell you, the same can be said for building our business and creating new opportunities to achieve the most in life. This thrill is an exciting and powerful motivator to be the best we can be every day.
4. Teamwork Makes The Dream Work
In diving, the team that we choose to dive with determines our enjoyment, our success, and our safety, just as it does in direct selling. We must choose the right team and the right mentors to not only lift ourselves up to greatness but also to lift up the people around us.
5. Failing To Plan Is Planning To Fail
You can’t just jump off the side of a boat and go diving. If you do, you won’t last very long. You must plan for your dive – make sure you have the right equipment, the right skills, and the right knowledge to execute a successful diving mission. This is exactly the same in business and is one of the most important business lessons that we can learn from diving; make sure you have a clear plan and equip yourself with the right tools and the right team, with the right products in the right business, to ensure your success.
6. If You Can Conceive It And Believe It, You Can Achieve It
Most of us have read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Indeed, one of its most famous lines says it all: whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. This attitude is shared amongst divers and entrepreneurs alike; both share a mindset that allows them to conceive of things that others don’t… or can’t. And most importantly, both believe in themselves enough to know they can make their dreams come true.
7. Image Is (Almost) Everything
Whether you’re a diver looking for a dive partner, or a businessperson looking for a business partner, we all know that “first impressions count“. There are many ways to put your best foot forward so that you foster trust, develop rapport, and project to others the values you represent – all of these are essential in diving and in business.
And one of the most powerful ways to make a good impression is to be well-presented, dress the part, and be mindful of your accessories.
So, while image isn’t everything, it definitely plays a large role in how others perceive you – and both divers and entrepreneurs know this. And so does Bernhard H. Mayer®, as evidenced in its new limited-edition Wave Breaker dive watch, designed with that strong first impression.
BUSINESS + DIVING = THE NEW BERNHARD H. MAYER® WAVE BREAKER WATCH
To pay homage to the similarities between business success and the demands of deep-sea diving, Bernhard H. Mayer® has crafted a specialist diving watch that looks just as good worn with a business suit than it does with a wetsuit.
From the boardroom to the beach, QNET’s luxury watches and jewellery brand proudly announce this feat of horological engineering and craftsmanship: the new limited-edition Wave Breaker dive watch.
Malou Caluza, Deputy Chairperson of QNET, remarks on the process of creating the Wave Breaker.
“Creating a dive watch is a big undertaking due to the rigorous tests we conduct to offer a watch that meets all the requirements for an experienced diver,” she says.
“For example, ensuring the watch case does not cave under hostile environments no matter how many sea expeditions the wearer ventures on. Dive watches are made to resist the most extreme pressures and conditions but maintaining the structural integrity and functionality of the watch is only one part of the design process,” Caluza further explains.
“We also wanted the timepiece to be attractive, focusing on a design that would suit any lifestyle – whether it be a casual watch enthusiast or professional diver. To this end, we designed a watch that is equal parts sporty and classy. Switch the stainless-steel strap out for a leather band, and the watch immediately transforms from a precision-engineered tool to a conversation-sparking timepiece.”
Tailored to the demands of the deep sea, the big and bold Wave Breaker has a water resistance of 200 ATM (2,000 meters/6,600 feet) and bright orange luminous indexes for clear underwater visibility.
Coupled with a self-activating helium valve to prevent damage during the decompression process of saturation diving, this limited-edition watch makes light work of the merger between style and sports.
