July 19, (THEWILL) — As millions of golf fans around the world tuned in to the 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland this week, I found myself fascinated by how quickly the leaderboard was changing. Players who looked unstoppable after Thursday’s opening round slipped back on Friday, while others who appeared to be out of contention quietly fought their way back into the tournament. The Open is golf’s oldest and most prestigious championship. Four days of competition can produce startling reversals of fortune.
Anyone who has played the game long enough knows this. Nobody wins The Open on Thursday. There are still fifty-four holes waiting to test every part of your game.
That reminded me of one of the most enduring lessons golf has taught me, one that extends far beyond the fairways. It isn’t over until it is over.
Several years ago, I was competing in a major tournament at Ikoyi Club. Early in the round, I arrived at one of the course’s most demanding holes and made an expensive mistake.
Determined to be aggressive, I attempted a shot hat deserved far more respect than I gave it. The result was a disastrous nine. For non-golfers, that is the golfing equivalent of discovering halfway through an exam that you have answered the wrong question, except everyone is watching.
A nine on a single hole during a tournament is catastrophic for a low handicap golfer, and it certainly felt that way to me. To make matters worse, one of the players in my group began making remarks suggesting my tournament was effectively over. I was tempted to remind him that there were still several holes to play, but I decided my golf clubs were better suited to answer than my mouth. Perhaps he had forgotten what every golfer eventually learns.
Golf is scored over eighteen holes, not one. If I was going to recover, I had only one choice. Forget the previous hole and give my full attention to the next shot, then the one after that. Something clicked. I did not play another poor hole for the remainder of the round and eventually produced one of the finest recovery rounds I have ever played, finishing third overall.
Life is much the same. We often allow one bad hole to convince us we have lost the tournament.
Ironically, I have also experienced the opposite. During another major club championship, I played one of the best opening rounds of my golfing life, returning a gross score of 77 to place myself firmly in contention. Before the final round, however, I received a phone call carrying deeply unsettling news. I allowed it to occupy my thoughts throughout the day. My concentration disappeared, and so did my opportunity. What had looked like a realistic chance of winning the club’s most prestigious title ended well outside the top three.
A poor beginning does not guarantee a poor ending, and a brilliant beginning guarantees nothing at all. The same principle applies in business.
Many years ago, one of our clients invested in an oil and gas asset that most industry observers considered commercially unattractive. Oil prices were weak, confidence was low, and financiers steadily withdrew their support. Only one lender remained committed because they shared the founders; conviction that Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector would eventually be deregulated, despite widespread belief that such reform was politically impossible.
They were betting less on the market as it stood than on the market they believed Nigeria would eventually become.
Years later, the environment changed. Government reforms reshaped the industry, market conditions improved and the investment that many had dismissed generated returns beyond expectation. Today, the business continues to expand into new sectors from a position of considerable strength.
Nothing miraculous had happened overnight. Sound strategy had simply been given enough time.
Too often, we draw permanent conclusions from temporary circumstances. We write people off after one failure. Businesses get the same treatment after one difficult season, careers after a single setback, and so, sometimes, do we.
Scripture offers perhaps the greatest reminder of this truth through the life of Joseph. Had his story ended in the pit, we would have called him abandoned. End it in Potiphar’s house, and he becomes a trusted servant who never rises any further. End it in prison, and history remembers him as a promising man who came to nothing. Yet none of those chapters represented the ending God had written for his life.
Life has taught me never to judge people by a single chapter. Some stories only make sense when you reach the final pages.
This may be the lesson young entrepreneurs need most. In an economy as demanding as ours, today’s difficulties can easily feel permanent. They are not. Economic cycles change, industries evolve, and opportunities have a way of emerging where none seemed to exist before. Those who endure long enough are often the ones best positioned when the tide eventually turns.
By the time you read this, someone will be lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Portrush. It is unlikely they will have led after every round. Champions rarely do. They simply refuse to let one disappointing hole define the championship. Life, I have discovered, works in much the same way. We all experience disappointing rounds, difficult seasons and chapters we would rather forget. The mistake is to confuse those moments with the ending.
Whatever your scorecard looks like today, don’t mistake it for the final result.
It is not over until it is.
•The author, Meka Niyi Olowola (FSPIN), is a sustainability and communications expert, business leader and avid golfer.
