Top UBS executive Tom Naratil recalls a meaningful ice hockey game 40 years ago for finews.first which illustrates that sometimes, even the seemingly impossible can be achieved.

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Forty years ago today, I was finishing some studying in my dorm room at Yale and getting ready to head off to the dining hall with some friends before what we thought would be a pretty normal Friday night at college.

As ice hockey fans, we knew that this was the evening of the 1980 Winter Olympics semifinal between the United States and the Soviet Union. However, with the game on tape delay later and knowing that the Soviets were heavily favored over a U.S. team overwhelmingly composed of amateurs, we really didn’t feel we were missing much by not trying to find the game on a radio station.

As the evening progressed, whoops of surprise grew louder and the shouting grew clearer. Then, someone ran into the dorm room where we were with the news: the gritty U.S. players – mostly college kids from Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin – had achieved the unthinkable by beating the mighty Soviets 4-3.

«For my classmates, born and raised during the Cold War, the win was a thrilling and memorable moment»

The «Miracle on Ice» instantly became a part of modern American sports history, but its impact was felt for many years and far beyond the icy pines of Lake Placid. Echoes of sports broadcaster Al Michaels's famous call as the final seconds ticked off the game clock reverberated in conversations on geopolitics, culture, media and more.

For my classmates, born and raised during the Cold War, the win was a thrilling and memorable moment. And as time went by, I've thought often of that game and how exactly U.S. Head Coach Herb Brooks and his roster of largely amateur players pulled off arguably the most famous upset of all time.

Today, as I look back on the 40th anniversary of the Americans' triumph, I think of three key principles that shaped how the team approached their task. Each of them is a great reminder for any leader or organization that aspires to outperform.

1. Build the Right Team With the Right People

In the months leading up to the 1980 Winter Olympics, Brooks went about building his roster player-by-player, deliberately and methodically. He focused on youth, selected a core group of players he had coached at the University of Minnesota, and supplemented that with players from competing schools who filled essential gaps.

Rather than look for a single type of player, Brooks stacked the team with personalities, playing styles and skill sets that were different but complementary, and that elevated each other's strengths.

2. Play Your Game

Brooks trained his team to play as a single cohesive unit, focusing on fundamentals and on executing their own game plan regardless of what their opponents were doing. He knew that in the pressure cooker atmosphere of the Olympic Games, it would be easy to get distracted and overwhelmed.

So his relentless mantra to his team, which he famously repeatedly in the closing minutes of the win over the Soviets, was to «play your game.» Brooks knew that if his players had confidence in their abilities, in their strategy and in each other, they could achieve great things together.

3. Dream Big

Their comfort with and belief in each other allowed the frequently over-matched U.S. players to play as more than the sum of their parts. And it was Brooks who was rightly credited with inspiring the Americans to reach deep within themselves and find the extra energy and the extra desire to accomplish more than they ever thought was possible.

Brooks was a fiery leader with confidence in his own vision and in his ability to get his team to push themselves to play at a higher level than they ever had before.

Forty years since the U.S. team vanquished the Soviets (and subsequently captured the gold medal two days later), the memories of Lake Placid endure. And for Coach Brooks and the entire American team, the legacy they created sets a great example for anyone who believes that sometimes the impossible is possible.

Tom Naratil is Co-President Global Wealth Management (GWM) and President Americas, UBS, and a member of UBS's Group Executive Board. He has spent his entire 36-year career at UBS, starting as a corporate intern before rising to hold a number of senior management positions in the U.S. and at the global level.

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