That perspective raises interesting questions. Who is currently on your team? How well are you working with them to achieve your goals and theirs? What is missing from your team? How would you add to your team to enrich everyone?
My latest article introduces the notion of life as a team sport and identifies three specific factors that make teams work. This is true for sports teams and teams in workplaces. It also applies, however, to our personal lives and, yes, our efforts as traders. Who is on a team, what they bring to each other, and how they interact with one another very much determines the odds of success.
I've thought long and hard about the very successful traders I've known. To a person, they go out of their way to maintain contact with insightful and talented market participants--and very often they build formal teams to assist with the tasks of generating ideas, managing positions and risk, and staying on top of developments that impact markets. Whether through informal networks or formal teams, successful traders get that way by expanding their bandwidth. To paraphrase the Michael Jordan quote above, talent wins trades, but teamwork and intelligence make for winning trading careers.
As the previously mentioned article emphasizes, there is much, much more to effective teamwork than simply touching base with people who you think can help you. I would go so far to say that people often fail at their work for the same reasons they often fail at their marriages: they select the wrong teammates; they don't fully embrace the give and take of being part of a team; and they don't sustain a vision of how everyone can make each other better.
Your life is an enterprise, and you are its leader. The lives of those who matter to you also represent enterprises and you are part of their teams. You're not just an individual; you're also part of an interconnected network. When you improve the network, everyone improves.
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