Cricketing legend Glenn McGrath shares life lessons at AIB Graduation Ceremony

We were fortunate to have former Australian international cricketer and Co-Founder of the McGrath Foundation, Glenn McGrath, join us at the Australian Institute of Business Graduation Ceremony for 2015 in November. He took the opportunity to reflect on his time in the Australian international cricket team and the lessons he picked up along the way.

As a cricketer who started from small beginnings, Glenn shared his rise to success from growing up on a sheep and wheat farm in the small country town of Narromine in NSW, to trying out for the local cricket team, and ultimately establishing his dream of playing cricket for the Australian team as a fast bowler.

From the first national cricket match he played, Glenn said there were four elements that were more important than any other in keeping him in good stead throughout his career:

1. Believe in yourself – “Always believe you’re good enough. Where I grew up in the small country town of Narromine, there were plenty of people who told me I wasn’t good enough to play for Narromine, let alone Sydney, but I didn’t let that stop me.”

2. Work hard – “I grew up on a farm, so a decent work ethic is instilled in you from a very young age, and I worked out very quickly that there are no shortcuts. I believe it is very true that the harder you work, the luckier you get.”

3. Always look to improve – “I believe you can always learn more, so I was always perfecting different bowling deliveries, becoming more accurate to put a bit more pressure on the batsmen. Maybe I should have done a little more work on my batting, but I could never get the other batsmen out of the nets to have a decent hit, so I just concentrated on my bowling.”

4. Have fun – “If you have a real love and passion for what you do, you can’t help but be successful.”

Glenn also shared some of his biggest learnings from his time on the Australian team, including his tips for performing under pressure and handling challenges or adversity.

“To me, pressure comes from within the individual – the only person who can put pressure on me, is me,” he said.

“One of the important things I did to handle the pressure is preparation. I hated walking on the field feeling I could have prepared a bit better than I had, spent more time in the gym, or time doing fitness work or in the nets. I did everything I could so that when I walked on the field I knew I had done all I could to prepare, and could concentrate on the team plan and what we wanted to achieve.”

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