Success Lessons from a Two-Handed Bowler

Jason Belmonte is an Australian bowler who has singlehandedly reinvented his sport by making one simple change: He rolls the ball with two hands instead of one.

If you haven’t seen Belmonte bowl, check out his videos on YouTube and elsewhere on the Internet. The ball explodes from his hands with incredible speed. He puts so much spin on the ball that it seems to make a sudden 90-degree turn before smashing into the pins.

People have been bowling for hundreds of years, but Belmonte seems to be the first professional bowler to perfect the technique of releasing the ball with two hands. It’s a change that is simple and revolutionary at the same time.

We can all learn some important business lessons from him. Let’s take a closer look.

Lesson One: Find New Ways to Use the Resources You Already Have

Belmonte didn’t put microchips into a bowling ball, invent a laser tracking system, or design new bowling shoes. He simply found an entirely new – and pretty obvious – way to maximize his use of the same resources that everyone else had.

Some very successful companies have that too. Amazon.com, for example, didn’t invent customer follow-up. But they did take it to a new level by recommending new products to customers, based on their previous purchases. QVC didn’t invent television advertising, but the company did find a powerful new way to use it, by moving it to center stage.

So find new ways to wring a more value from the obvious resources you already have. Brilliant new ideas could be right in front of you – as obvious as Belmonte’s two hands.

Lesson Two: Don’t Be a Quitter

Belmonte didn’t try his new two-handed technique for just a few hours. He invested years to discover its astonishing potential.

In this sense, Belmonte is a lot like eBay – a business that defied the rules of traditional business because it had nothing to sell beyond a connection point for sellers and buyers. In its early years, eBay was declared dead a number of times by business experts. But the founder Jeff Bezos proved them wrong. Instead of giving up, he refined his business model until he worked out the snags and really got things moving.

So remember that great ideas usually require hard work and development. If you believe in an idea, have the resolve to follow it through.

Lesson Three: Don’t Let “Experts” Kill Your Ideas

According to an article on ESPN, some highly respected coaches tried to discourage Belmonte from pursuing his two-handed style of bowling. They wrote off his idea as a dead-end that would cut his career short. But who is laughing at him now? He has proved them wrong by winning a number of international championships.

In that sense, Belmonte can be compared to BizUnite. One business at a time, we are convincing our members that there is a new, better way of doing business. Our members are sometimes a little skeptical at first – until the day when the bottom-line numbers convince them that cooperation is today’s key to profitability.

Comments

[Emerson Scott]

Item one: Jeff Bezos is not the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar was. Bezos founded Amazon.

Item two: Belmonte discourages bowlers from converting to the two-handed delivery. Even he admits the mechanics are bad. It's just that he grew up bowling that way as a kid and learned how to be consistent with the release.

[Barry Lenson]

Thank you, Emerson Scott, for catching the mistake about Jeff Bezos' affiliation. It was my mistake - I am Editor here at BizUnite and I should have caught it. Thanks too for the additional information about Mr. Belmonte and his two-handed technique. It seems he might be like backwoods guitarists who picked up instruments and learned to play them backwards. They can play backwards well, but would probably not recommend it to other people. Barry Lenson

[Jason Belmonte]

Hey guys,

Really enjoyed the read.

Just wanted to make a comment refering to the comment made by Emerson Scott.
"Belmonte discourages bowlers from converting to the two-handed delivery. Even he admits the mechanics are bad. It's just that he grew up bowling that way as a kid and learned how to be consistent with the release."
Its actually the complete 180 spin on that. I always tell people who are willing to try it they should.
Its the most natural way for a little child to bowl and the advantages of my style have helped many bowlers across the world improve their game.

What I will say is - This style is not the ONLY style, think of it, more like another option.
For years people have frowned upon the style, so its nice that after a few wins from me and other 2 handers in the world, the point of view of my style is slowing changing for the better.

Cheers

Jason Belmonte

[Umar Gul]

I will read time to time that