Business

3 Lessons Competitiveness in Sports Teaches about Success in Business

Published

4 years ago

August 4, 2021

Many of the most successful entrepreneurs are highly competitive. It’s no coincidence that many of the most successful entrepreneurs are also athletes or former athletes.

Speaking personally, sports have played a huge role in my success. I was a pole vaulter in highschool, I earned a college track scholarship, and became a high school coach. Through all of this, I developed an internal measure of success and was able to hone my mental and physical discipline. Without my athletic background, I wouldn’t have achieved the level of business success I enjoy today.

But one mistake people make about competition and business is thinking of winning only in comparison to others. Falling into the comparison trap can actually be self-defeating because we forget how little we know about others’ success. We don’t see the 10 years of effort behind the “overnight success.” We don’t see the grinding quietly in the shadows that preceded the explosive launch.

Instead of competing with others, the biggest lesson my athletic background has taught me is that we entrepreneurs should focus on competing with ourselves. Key to my success has been competing with who I was yesterday, last week, last month, or even last year. So let’s talk about three other lessons competitiveness in sports can teach us about success in business.

Make Every Moment Count

My dad was my first coach. In high school, he would give us an epic speech before every track meet. He would talk about how we have to make every event count. From the first 4×800 meter relay to the closing 4×400 meter relay, he would tell us we had to “scratch and claw” our way through the entire meet. This taught us that while winning feels great, what you learn on the way to winning is even more important.

The same is true in business. You have to scratch and claw your way through the days when you don’t feel like working. You have to scratch and claw your way through the mishaps and misfortunes, the natural ebb and flow of running a business. Are you going to fall down? Of course. Over and over. But if you keep your eye on the prize and focus on making every moment count, you’ll find your path.

Hold Yourself Accountable

When I talk about how it’s more important to compete with yourself than to get distracted by comparing yourself to others, I’m talking about holding yourself accountable. One of the challenges of owning your own business is that no one is there to hold your hand or look over your shoulder to see if you’re doing what you’re supposed to be doing. If you don’t find a personal source of motivation, you can easily fall on your face.

I was fortunate to learn this lesson early in my career. Once I graduated from college and stopped pole vaulting, I missed the competitive outlet. Being a high school coach and teacher just didn’t give me the same fire. I knew I wasn’t done competing, though. I simply needed to find another competitive outlet – somewhere where I could direct my discipline and mental fitness.

Starting my Amazon store became that outlet and I channeled everything I learned throughout my years as an athlete into growing my store. The fire was back and the fire made it easy to hold myself accountable. What stokes your fire?

Adjust Your Path, Not the Final Result

Once you develop solid habits around making every moment count and holding yourself accountable, you’ll see another important component of entrepreneurial success: momentum. And the great thing about momentum is no matter how bleak things might look, you’ll stay committed to your dream. While the path may need adjustment, the final result will remain the same.

For example, during the early days of starting my Amazon store, I made a mistake that cost $18,000. My back was completely against the wall. I hadn’t yet told my family about my endeavor and I was afraid I would have to reveal this huge mistake without the successful ending I was hoping for.

I was in a place where I was in danger of losing all momentum that I had built to that point, but I would not give up on my dream — and neither should you.

Because I had developed solid habits and because I had faced similar situations with my back against the wall in sports competitions, I knew I couldn’t give up. My only real option was to scratch and claw, bust my ass, and compete to be the best in the Amazon space, so I could get out of the hole I had dug for myself. I knew if I could do that, I could propel myself into something better. And that’s exactly what I did.

I stayed focused on the end result. I focused on improving my systems and processes day after day. And now, we sell on Walmart, eBay, Shopify stores, and Facebook Marketplace. Sounds like winning to me.

So the next time you get down on yourself because you see someone you perceive as a competitor beating you, go back to your end result and recommit to competing with yourself.

The entrepreneurial path won’t always be easy — it certainly hasn’t been for me. But if you stay focused on your goal and compete against yourself to better your best from one day to the next, you will eventually get to your destination.

Ecom Automation Gurus, founded by Kirk Cooper, creates a fully automated eCommerce store for its users to assist in making passive income. Cooper has been featured in Success Profile magazine, and is an Entrepreneur.com contributor. To check out their services and book a call, visit their website here.

Business

Inside the $4.3B Quarter: What’s Fueling Black Banx’s Record Revenues

Published

4 days ago

January 16, 2026

Matthew Wiles

Every quarter brings fresh headlines in fintech, but few make the kind of impact achieved by Black Banx in Q2 2025. The Toronto-based global digital banking group, founded by Michael Gastauer, reported an extraordinary USD 4.3 billion in revenue and a record USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, while improving its cost-to-income ratio to 63%.

These results not only highlight the company’s operational efficiency but also mark a pivotal moment in its journey from challenger to global leader. The big question is: what’s fueling such impressive financial performance?

Customer Growth as the Core Driver

One of the clearest engines of revenue growth is Black Banx’s expanding customer base. By Q2 2025, the platform had reached 84 million clients worldwide, up from 69 million at the end of 2024. This 15 million net gain in six months demonstrates both the attractiveness of its services and the scalability of its model.

Unlike traditional banks, which rely heavily on branch expansion, Black Banx leverages digital-first onboarding that allows customers to open accounts within minutes using just a smartphone. This approach is especially effective in regions underserved by legacy institutions, where access to affordable financial tools is in high demand.

More customers don’t just mean higher transaction volumes—they generate a compounding effect where network size, brand trust, and service adoption reinforce one another.

Real-Time Payments and Cross-Border Solutions

A major contributor to Q2 revenues is the platform’s real-time payments infrastructure. Black Banx enables instant cross-border transfers across its 28 supported fiat currencies and multiple cryptocurrencies, helping both individuals and businesses bypass the traditional bottlenecks of international banking.

For freelancers, SMEs, and multinational clients, this means faster liquidity, reduced foreign exchange costs, and simplified global operations. The demand for real-time financial services is growing rapidly—Juniper Research projects global real-time payments turnover to hit USD 58 trillion by 2028—and Black Banx is strategically positioned to capture a significant share of this market.

Crypto Integration as a Revenue Stream

Another key revenue driver is crypto integration. While many traditional institutions remain hesitant, Black Banx embraced digital assets early and has built infrastructure to support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the Lightning Network. In Q2 2025, 20% of all transactions on the platform were crypto-based, reflecting strong customer appetite for hybrid banking services that bridge fiat and digital assets.

Revenue comes not only from transaction fees but also from value-added services like crypto-to-fiat conversion, staking yields (4–12% APY), and blockchain-enabled payments. For customers in markets with unstable currencies, these services act as a financial lifeline, further expanding the platform’s relevance.

AI-Powered Efficiency and Risk Management

Record revenues would be less impressive if costs ballooned at the same rate. But Black Banx has proven adept at balancing growth with efficiency. Its cost-to-income ratio improved to 63% in Q2, down from 69% a year earlier, thanks to heavy reliance on AI-powered automation.

AI now drives fraud detection, compliance, and customer onboarding—areas where traditional banks often struggle with cost inefficiencies. By automating these processes, Black Banx can process millions of transactions securely while maintaining profitability at scale. This level of efficiency is rare in fintech, where high growth often comes at the expense of margins.

Regional Expansion and Untapped Markets

Geography also plays a role in fueling revenues. Much of the Q2 growth came from Africa, South Asia, and Latin America—regions where demand for mobile-first banking continues to soar. In 2024 alone, Black Banx reported a 32% increase in SME clients from the Middle East and Africa, signaling the strength of its positioning in underserved markets.

By extending services to populations previously excluded from formal banking—migrant workers, rural communities, and small businesses—Black Banx taps into vast pools of latent demand. The strategy proves that financial inclusion and profitability are not mutually exclusive but mutually reinforcing.

Diversified Revenue Streams

Another factor behind Q2’s record revenues is Black Banx’s diversified business model. Income is not tied to a single service but spread across multiple streams, including:

Transaction fees from cross-border transfers and payments.
Crypto trading and exchange services.
Premium account features for high-net-worth clients.
Corporate services for SMEs and international businesses.

This diversification insulates the company against volatility in any single segment, creating stable revenue growth even in shifting market conditions.

Michael Gastauer’s Strategic Blueprint

Behind these results is Michael Gastauer’s long-term strategy: scale aggressively but with efficiency, innovation, and inclusion at the core. His vision has always been to create a borderless financial ecosystem, and Q2 2025’s performance is evidence that this vision is not only achievable but sustainable.

By balancing mass-market accessibility with premium features, and by blending fiat with digital assets, Gastauer has positioned Black Banx as a category-defining player in global finance.

The Road Ahead: Toward 100 Million Clients

Looking forward, the company’s goal of reaching 100 million customers by the end of 2025 will likely be the next catalyst for revenue growth. More customers mean more transactions, more data insights, and more opportunities to refine and expand its service offering.

If current momentum holds, the USD 4.3 billion quarterly revenue milestone could be just the beginning of an even larger growth story. The challenge will be ensuring systems scale securely while maintaining trust in an environment where privacy and compliance are paramount.

A Record That Signals More to Come

Black Banx’s Q2 2025 performance—USD 4.3 billion in revenue, USD 1.6 billion in pre-tax profit, 84 million clients worldwide, and a lean 63% cost-to-income ratio—is more than a financial milestone. It is a signal of how the future of banking is being rewritten by platforms that are borderless, crypto-inclusive, and data-driven.

What fueled this record-breaking quarter is not one innovation but a combination of strategies—scalable onboarding, real-time payments, crypto integration, AI efficiency, and expansion into underserved regions. Together, they form a model that doesn’t just challenge traditional banking but actively builds the foundation for global dominance.

For Black Banx, the road ahead is clear: the $4.3 billion quarter is not an endpoint but a launchpad for even greater scale and profitability.