When Max Dowman - 15 years and 208 days - stepped onto the Champions League stage for Arsenal against Slavia Prague, he didn’t just make history, he raised a lot of questions about whether someone that young should be playing on a stage that big.

For me, it wasn't so much about whether he could or should, but what he could take from it. It’s taken me a long time to appreciate the profound effect sport has had in shaping me as a person – and in business.

Long before I co-founded brand experience agency onepointfive, I was a hockey player, representing my country and playing in men’s club teams aged 13. At the time, I didn’t realise it, but those early sporting experiences would go on to define how I lead, how I communicate, my sense of humour and the kind of culture I’ve tried to build in our company.

Sport has a way of teaching you lessons early, often you’re not even aware you’re learning them. Looking back, there are a few that still influence me every day.

I’d be sharing lifts or minibuses with grown adults on the way to and from games. Different ages, different backgrounds, different perspectives, and so had no choice but to make conversation. At the time, it felt fairly unremarkable. In hindsight, it was invaluable. 

That experience taught me how to communicate clearly and concisely with all kinds of people – on and off the pitch. You learn to read the room, adapt your language, and get your point across without overcomplicating things. Those skills translate directly into leadership, whether that’s speaking to a client, a junior team member, or a boardroom full of stakeholders.

In sport, you don’t just turn up and hope for the best. You rehearse. You prepare. You make sure that when it’s time to perform, you’re ready. That mindset has followed me into the world of events and experiences, where “go live” moments are unforgiving. Pressure isn’t something to fear, it’s something to be managed. Preparation creates confidence, and confidence allows people to perform at their best.

That balance is something I’m very conscious of as a leader. People do their best work when they have the headspace to think, create and collaborate. Burnout doesn’t benefit anyone, not individuals, and not teams.

In elite sport, honesty is non-negotiable. Post-match debriefs are direct, sometimes uncomfortable, but always focused on improvement. You take the highlights, the learnings, and the mistakes, and you use them to make the next performance better. That’s where onepointfive’s culture of radical transparency comes from. Project huddles function much like halftime or end-of-quarter breaks, moments to bring everyone up to speed on the current situation and align on what needs to happen next to reach the end goal. Teamwork isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s essential. When you’re competing at that level, everyone has to be aligned.

At onepointfive, we only have team players, because the work we do is inherently collaborative, fast-moving and built on trust. For us to succeed, everyone needs to understand not just what they’re doing, but why they’re doing it, and how their role contributes to the bigger picture. Sport teaches you quickly that success is collective, not individual, and bringing that mindset into business creates stronger teams, better decision-making and more resilient, high-performing cultures.

It’s a mindset that’s helped us consistently score highly in anonymous satisfaction surveys by the Alliance of Independent Agencies, placing us in their top five for the happiest workplace, but more importantly, it’s helped us build a team that genuinely enjoys working together.

I realise not every business needs to operate like a sports team, but if more companies embraced that level of honesty and openness, cultures would be stronger, people would feel more supported and performance would most likely improve.

For young athletes like Max Dowman, the spotlight may be on what happens on the pitch today. But the lessons learned there, about teamwork, pressure, communication and trust, can shape a lifetime of leadership beyond football (…if he ever needs it!).