This week, I had the privilege of watching two sporting legends who continue to defy both time and convention. MS Dhoni, at 43, still commanding respect in the IPL 2025 season, and Alexander Ovechkin, now just six goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky’s seemingly untouchable NHL goal-scoring record. Beyond their longevity, what strikes me most about these athletes is how their careers embody a principle I’ve lived by throughout my own journey: win your way, not theirs.

The Unconventional Captain Cool

MS Dhoni’s cricket journey reads like a masterclass in authentic leadership. Coming from Ranchi, far from India’s cricket powerhouses, with no formal coaching and a completely unorthodox technique, Dhoni had every reason to be molded into a “proper” cricketer by the establishment.

Yet his uniqueness became his strength. His batting technique would make purists cringe—the high backlift, the bottom-handed power, and the famous “helicopter shot” that defies conventional biomechanics. When coaches suggested refinements toward traditional methods, Dhoni politely but firmly maintained his approach. The results validated his conviction.

Beyond technique, his captaincy style broke every rule in the cricket leadership book. Where conventional captains are animated and constantly vocal, Dhoni’s calm demeanor earned him the nickname “Captain Cool.” While traditional captains follow established tactics, Dhoni made instinctive decisions that often contradicted cricket wisdom—like giving a relatively unknown bowler the final over of the 2007 World Cup, resulting in India’s triumph.

What I find most remarkable about Dhoni is how he never rejected cricket’s fundamentals—he deeply understood the game’s principles. He simply refused to be constrained by traditional implementations of those principles when his authentic approach proved more effective for his unique abilities.

The Great Eight’s Rebellion

Six thousand miles from the cricket fields of India, Alexander Ovechkin has written a similar story on ice. When the Russian winger arrived in the NHL, North American hockey experts quickly pointed out everything “wrong” with his game: his unorthodox shooting style, his positioning on the power play, and his supposed defensive liabilities.

Conventional wisdom suggested that European players needed to adapt to the “North American way” to succeed in the NHL. Ovechkin had other ideas. Rather than changing his approach, he doubled down on his strengths. He refined his distinctive one-timer from “the office” (his signature spot in the left face-off circle), a shot that everyone in the arena knows is coming yet few can stop.

Early in his career, coaches attempted to mold him into a more “complete” player by conventional NHL standards. Yet his greatest successes have come when playing for coaches who built systems around his authentic strengths rather than trying to remake him into something he’s not.

Now, as he closes in on the greatest scoring record in hockey history, the validation is complete. Not because he perfectly executed the conventional approach to NHL success, but precisely because he trusted his authentic style even when it contradicted established wisdom.

The Common Thread

What strikes me about both Dhoni and Ovechkin is what they understood early in their careers—something that took me years to fully grasp. They recognized that mastery doesn’t come from perfect execution of someone else’s system, but from understanding principles deeply enough to adapt their implementation to leverage authentic strengths.

This doesn’t mean rejecting fundamentals or ignoring wisdom. Both players are students of their games, understanding the underlying principles at a profound level. What they rejected wasn’t the knowledge but the notion that there’s only one “correct” way to apply it.

I see clear parallels to my own journey. Like Dhoni, I developed an unorthodox approach in cricket that traditionalists questioned but results validated. Similar to Ovechkin, I found that my differences—the very things systems tried to “correct”—often became my greatest advantages when properly leveraged, whether in sport, business, or navigating life’s most serious challenges.

The Leadership Lesson

The success of these unconventional legends offers a powerful leadership lesson that extends far beyond sports. In business, particularly in banking and financial services where I’ve spent much of my career, there’s tremendous pressure to follow established methodologies and conventional approaches.

Yet the most impactful leaders I’ve encountered share something with Dhoni and Ovechkin—they understand the difference between principles (which should be respected) and their implementation (which can and should be adapted to leverage authentic strengths).

This distinction has guided my approach to building The Banking 50 community and navigating the rebuilding process after our displacement from Ukraine. Understanding banking transformation principles deeply while adapting their implementation to our unique circumstances and strengths has been essential to our growth into Europe’s largest banking community.

Your Authentic Path

As I watch these two legends continue their remarkable journeys, I’m reminded again of the power of authentic success—something I explore more deeply in my upcoming book, “Win Your Way, Not Theirs.”

The book traces this principle through various phases of my life—from developing an unorthodox cricket technique of my own, to adapting corporate methodologies across multiple financial institutions, to navigating life-threatening illness and war-driven displacement through a uniquely positive approach.

What Dhoni and Ovechkin demonstrate—and what I’ve found throughout my journey—is that there’s immense power in finding the balance between respecting valuable principles and adapting their implementation to leverage your authentic strengths. It’s about understanding the game deeply enough to know which rules serve purpose and which merely serve tradition.

As both these athletes have shown, the path to unprecedented success often lies not in perfectly executing someone else’s playbook, but in writing your own while respecting the fundamentals of the game.

Whether you’re a banking professional implementing transformation frameworks, a solution provider navigating complex sales methodologies, or simply someone facing significant life challenges, there’s a powerful lesson in these sporting legends’ careers: understand the principles, respect their purpose, but find your authentic way to implement them.

That’s how legends are made—not by winning someone else’s way, but by winning their own.

Morten Kriek’s book “Win Your Way, Not Theirs: Unconventional Lessons in Leadership, Resilience, and Transformation” will be released in Summer 2025.