Ping Pong Consistency Wins

A story about how Shaan learned an important business lesson from playing ping pong against a successful businessman in Indonesia.

"When I was living in Indonesia, I lived in this building that had a ping pong table. I would go down with my brother-in-law to play. My brother-in-law was better than me and would hit these brilliant shots - jumping and smashing the ball.

Then one day, this 55-60 year old man named Poppy came down. He had his own paddle case, and we thought 'Oh, this guy means business.' I played him first and lost, but he didn't do anything spectacular. Then my brother-in-law played him - trying all these brilliant corner shots and cross-court shots - but Poppy destroyed him.

Poppy's technique was simple - he just held the paddle facing forward and moved left and right like a wall. He never hit brilliant shots, but he would never hit it out and never hit the net. He would just keep hitting it back until you made an error. He crushed us that day and every day after.

Later we found out Poppy lived in the penthouse. When we asked what he did, he said 'I sell soap.' We asked if it was special soap, he said 'No, it's just good soap, not the best.' He explained he just imports and exports regular soap. This guy was making no brilliant shots in business either - just avoiding errors and being consistent."