Leadership] On Polo and Leadership Lessons

The history of polo dates back more than 2,000 years to ancient Persia. Originally played as a training exercise for cavalry units, the sport has evolved over the centuries while retaining its deep connection to horsemanship and discipline. Thanks to my grandparents and my military lineage on one side of the family, horses have always been an important part of my life. When I moved to the UK, polo sparked a new aspiration in me. There are still many hoops to jump through, but I pray for the day when I can play polo myself and become one with the horse. Only if the universe can grant me such a beautiful experience on Earth one day!

What draws me to polo is not only the thrill of the game, but the leadership lesson hidden at its heart: you cannot command a horse into partnership, you can only earn it. On the polo field, everything happens at speed, and the rider who tries to dominate will always lose to the rider who has built trust. That, to me, is leadership in its truest form — not control, but alignment earned moment by moment.

Horse riding taught me this long before I ever dreamed of polo. It is a truly humbling experience to be granted access to the back of a horse as a human being. These are beasts with their own minds, their own emotions, their own consciousness. A horse does not have to carry you — she chooses to. When she offers you her back, she is extending a trust you did nothing to deserve, and you can only honor it or betray it. It is a true honor to be given their body to ride them, and I have never once sat in a saddle without feeling that gratitude.

Perhaps that is the lesson I carry with me into everything I do: leadership, like the rider's seat, is always granted and never taken. The horse reminds you of this every single time. And if the universe is kind enough to one day let me learn this lesson at full gallop, mallet in hand, I will receive it with the same humility these magnificent creatures have taught me from the very beginning.