7 best Life Lessons from M.S. Dhoni Every Event Planner should learn

Are you an event planner and a die-hard fan of Dhoni?

Yes.

Then you are at the right place, I have covered the best life lessons from M.S. Dhoni. After reading this article you will come to know, how you can follow the footsteps of M.S. Dhoni and can bring a remarkable change in your life.

To be very honest I am not a die-hard cricket fan, I can rarely recall any moment in the last four or five years in which I had watched any form of the cricket match from the beginning to the end telecasted live on television.

I even avoid joining any group discussion where the topic is anyway related to the highlights of a cricket match. I feel so overwhelmed when I see people recalling the date and year of a particular cricket match when a particular player had hit a six on a particular ball of a particular over.

Yes but I can recall that moment of 2011 World Cup tournament when Dhoni hit his winning six and India won the trophy. Though I was watching that match for Sachin Tendulkar and was excited to see him lifting the trophy, But at the end of the match I found one more reason to stay connected with International cricket and that was M.S. Dhoni.

Just a couple of days ago M.S. Dhoni has announced his retirement from International cricket format. And being a die-hard fan of M.S. Dhoni and also a keen observer of his batting style to speaking style, something persuaded me to write this post.

In this post, I have put together some of his best-quoted statements and jotted down the best life lessons from M.S. Dhoni every event planner should learn. Here are those

Best Life lessons to learn from M.S. Dhoni

1. Feel the pressure but don’t let them overpower you

“For me, opposition is just another opposition.” – M.S. DHONI

In a cricket game, Dhoni has to play against many opposition teams and some of the world-class bowlers as well. And Dhoni took every opposition just as another opposition that helped him to lessen the pressure he had to feel on the ground.

Unlike that, you as an event planner don’t have any visible opposition who creates pressure while organizing a successful event. For you, the oppositions are clients’ disapproval, deadlines, mismanagement, financial crisis and many others which you can only feel but can’t see. And trust me at some point in time these oppositions can create more pressures than the visible one.

What you should learn from MS Dhoni that you must identify all those factors which may create chaos while planning an event and then try to handle them calmly.

Like if your client is not happy with your work then speak to them try to convince them that what you are planning to do will make their event grander. Even if they don’t get along your way then ask them what they actually want, try to understand their point of view, ask for some extra time and get the things done as per their wish. In this way, you will feel the pressure but won’t let them overpower you.

2. Teamwork makes the dream work.

“For me, it’s important to build good partnerships rather than score centuries. Once, you have those partnerships, you will also get centuries.” – M.S. DHONI

When we came to know about the exit of some legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman and Anil Kumble from the Indian Cricket team. We all had lost our hope from the team that will the vacuum created by their exit ever filled by the young players with similar skills and strength.

At that time Dhoni took the responsibility to build a team by grooming them individually and put them together as a winning team whose collective strength surpassed individual talents.

Dhoni backs his players at all times with trust and confidence. This support gives them the ability to play their best and also endows them with a sense of responsibility to perform well.

Similarly, when you work on any event project, the scope of work and responsibilities in events are huge. So you need to work with a with and if you are supposed to lead the team then you must focus on grooming them individually. As every scope of work requires certain skills and it is not practically possible that you will get those skill sets on any individual team member.

In that case, you have to work with every team member individually and then observe them by giving them a variety of tasks. They may make the blunder of mistakes but you have to show your trust in them and boost their confidence. After a certain period of time, you will be able to delegate the right responsibility to the right person and you will get your work efficiently.

3. Keep Balance in Life & Work

“I don’t like discussing cricket off the field.” – M.S. DHONI

When Dhoni is not on the practice field or on the cricket ground. He can be found playing around with his daughter and his three dogs at his Ranchi farmhouse. He loves to ride bikes and collect supercars. He has also been supporting the Indian Army on various occasions. Apart from cricket Dhoni also loves to play football. He loves to spend time with his family and friends. These hobbies always help him to keep a balance and live life more.

Event planning is the world 5th most stress stressful job listed by Forbes Magazine in 2017. Throughout the year you have to handle multiple projects, deal with some annoying clients and have to travel without proper rest.

You may miss family functions and hang out with friends. You may not be able to attend your bestest friend’s wedding. All these things will make you feel exhausted and lessen your productivity.

But to live a long and productive life work-life balance is a must. It will also help you to reduce stress and helps you prevent burnout in the workplace. So I would suggest that you must take a week-long break every year and spend time with your family and friends. You can also travel to your favorite places and explore scenic beauty. You can even try to indulge yourself in creative arts like painting, playing guitar or cooking. There are proven theories that all these hobbies help a human brain to work more efficiently and bring productivity at the workplace.

4. Don’t let your emotions make your decisions.

“Gut feeling is all about the experiences that you have had in your life. It is about being in difficult scenarios, knowing what worked, what did not work, and then taking a decision.” – M.S. DHONI

Dhoni is always remembered for his last moment decisions that he made and changed the whole game. You must remember, In the 2011 World Cup final, Dhoni had replaced Yuvraj Singh as India lost some early wickets following a spin attack from Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan. Even though Yuvraj Singh was in the fabulous form, Dhoni had the conviction that he could face Murali better. And we all know the result.

If you will go through his remarkable journey you will find many more examples of his exceptional decision-making skills. And he always credits the struggling period of his life that came up with all the worst experiences and eventually become life lessons for him.

If you are going to organize an event and developing a blueprint for your event planning then at that time what works best is to recall all the previous successful or unsuccessful events you had done before. As it helps you to make a calculated risk by imitating the best thing which helped you to make those events successful and to also analyze those mistakes that made them unsuccessful.

Though every event is different from one another. But if the themes and the goals of the previous events are similar to the one you are planning to do then it will definitely help you to build great strategies.

5. Never Play Blame Game and Never pass the buck.

“I am always the one responsible for anything bad that happens in Indian Cricket. Everything that happens is because of me.” – M.S. DHONI

Do you remember that 2011 World Cup tournament finale? When Dhoni hit his winning six and India won the cup. What he did, he went and collected the cup and handover to the team and move to the side. Even if you have seen the posing pictures with the trophy, he let himself aside and ensured that Tendulkar got the fanfare moment. These all small but great steps taken by him made him legendary in the gentleman’s game.

But when comes to taking responsibilities he had never stepped back and always lead from the front like a huge mountain standing between all the critics and his team. He always took responsibility when the team loses and that makes him a great leader.

Similarly, there are many such situations that come into an event planner’s life when he has to take a bold decision that may make or break the event. But if you are the one who is leading the team and all the responsibility lies on your shoulder then you have to be accountable for every action you take.

If your decision makes your event successful then don’t take the all credit rather you should encourage your team by keeping in front as the face of the successful event. This action will help them to believe more in you.

But if any disastrous thing happened due to your action or even because of some mistake done by any team member and your client is shouting then always be the first to face the client and take the responsibility for everything that happened wrong. Then speak to the team member who did wrong and make him understand what he should avoid doing while organizing an event. This will also help you to create a sense of responsibility in their mind.

6. Celebrate both success & failures

“Never let success get to your head and Never let failure get to your heart.”– M.S. DHONI

Do you remember that scene from the movie M.S. DHONI- The Untold Story?

7. Stay Witty and Stay Happy

“Thanks a lot for ur love and support throughout from 1929 hrs consider me as Retired” – M.S. DHONI

MS Dhoni finishes it off, in his own style. These were his retirement statement that he wrote on his Instagram page while announcing the news. Even his last line is no way less witty than all the press conferences he had done and had always given a befitting reply to the critics as well as an international reporter who used to criticize his game and his team.

Wittiness is a kind of sense of humor and a sign of intelligence. And I really praise the witty statements given by two of my most favorite personalities one is the King of Bollywood Shahrukh Khan and the coolest captain of Indian team ever M.S. Dhoni.

As an event planner, I have seen many circumstances when I felt like a lost of words. Like when the client is trying to demean your work and you know you cannot use harsh words then at that time witty replies can do wonders as it neither hurt your professionalism and nor your client got offended. Similarly at the time of negotiation with vendors and stakeholders when you need to play safe always give a witty reply rather than straight forward answers.

Final Thoughts

I have no doubt that after reading this article you have got a ton of motivation to rethink about all the problems you have been facing in your event planning journey and now you know how to cope up with them.

I strongly believe that these 7 best life lessons from M.S. Dhoni will definitely help you to grow as a successful event planner or simply I can say irrespective of the profession you are in, these lessons from M.S. Dhoni life will give you a new perspective to your life and your future goals.

Thanks for reading this post and if you feel like this article about M.S. Dhoni inspirational thoughts have added some value to your life. Then please help us to reach more people out there by simply sharing this article with them.

You can also read about the Father of Advertising David Ogilvy who had redefined the word “Advertising”

Let us know in the comment below which inspirational quotes of M.S. Dhoni inspire you a lot in your event planning career?

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Wiz Bunny

Wiz Bunny is a creative wizard who is an Event Enthusiast and a Passionate Blogger. A Hustler who always finds a way to gets what he believes in. He loves to guide people who are willing to start their career in event management. Through his blog posts, he always tries to mentor aspiring event professionals to achieve their goals in life.