Experience (in sports and in business) is overrated

I'm a Mets fan. I'm pretty jacked up about their first playoff appearance in 6 years today. But you know what's been ruining it all? The perception that they can't win because they don't have Pedro Martinez, and now El-Duque...because those guys bring EXPERIENCE to the table. You know what, their rotation SHOULD be John Maine, Tom Glavine, and Steve Trachsel because those have been their three best pitchers this year. "But they can't win without experience" blah blah blah.

Ask the Red Sox and Angels how much their experience advantage helped them in last year's playoffs? The White Sox flossed them both despite their recent championships...and then rolled the Astros with Andy Petite and Roger Clemens and all of their experience.

How much did experience matter for Ben Roethlisberger in last years playoffs? Did the Miami Heat or Dallas Mavericks wilt under the pressure of playing recent champions Detroit and San Antonio respectively in the NBA playoffs? Experience didn't stop them from rolling into the NBA Finals. How much did Martin Brodeur's "experience" help the Devils last year against eventual Stanley Cup Champion Carolina?

I just ripped off the four most recent champions in the four major sports and how little experience mattered. EACH ONE overcame lack of experience to win. It is OVERRATTED. But stupid analysts whine about how "Brett Favre helps teams win because of his experience." No he doesn't. He's sucked for the past 5 years. He cost his team a playoff game against the Rams when he through SIX INTERCEPTIONS in 2001, and he threw away a victory by chucking up that ball in 2003 against the Eagles. Stop, stop, stop with experience.

And the same applies to business. Dave from Mind Petals did a great post recently about experience being overrated. The post includes a video from venture capitalist and author Guy Kawasaki where he discusses his opinion that the "best candidates for a successful start-up are young engineers with no business experience."

It's so true - think Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell. How much business experience did Cuban have when he started Micro Solutions? Bill Gates when he dropped out of college and started pitching Windows to companies? Michael Dell when he was sitting in his dorm room assembling PC's?

There's a double edge sword with experience when it comes to business - it's great to have seen things before because it helps you the next time the same thing happens, but it also tends to narrow your focus and cause you to write things off too early BECAUSE of your past experiences. Your world view becomes molded and even warped into something so narrow that you lose perception of the fact that there are MANY different paths to success, and that no two entrepreneurs will travel the same path to greatness.