Bryan Habana

thumb|Bryan Habana Bryan Gary Habana OIS (born 12 June 1983) is a South African former professional rugby union player. Playing mainly as a wing, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. He played for the Golden Lions, the Blue Bulls and Western Province in South Africa, for the Bulls and the Stormers in Super Rugby, and for Toulon in the French Top 14, and won 124 caps for the South Africa national team. Quotes Personality gets you a hell of a far I think the transition, though, is in business. You need to apply those skill sets that professional sports taught you correctly, Whether you play rugby, whether you do sports, whether you're an artist, whether you do music, whether you’re in business, those five principles applied correctly in the form of whatever you're doing is critically important for success to be achieved I think purely in terms of getting work done, I’m so grateful that I have 21 females as direct reports to me, because females work phenomenally hard, and they bring you a different perspective Bryan Habana on leadership lessons from sport and business, August 2026, Jacaranda FM by Matin Bester / Poelano Malema The biggest thing about my childhood, was the love shown to us by our parents. If you have that always coming towards you, you automatically try to give it out to other people. One of the core values in our family was that colour was not an issue. It’s a value I hold dear to my heart and will do until I start turning in my grave. Growing up in a country with so much history and so much diversity between the cultures, I was never conscious of the differences. I didn’t worry about the colour of a man’s skin or the significance of his surname, and for this, I am thankful to my parents. Why couldn’t you have made my life simpler,” he asked his dad, “and called me Brian?” “You don’t understand,” Bernie replied, “You are Bryan Gary Habana because I named you after two footballers, Bryan Robson and Gary Bailey, who both played for Manchester United. I called you Bryan because of Bryan Robson’s drive, his ability to inspire his teammates, his love for the game and his determination to come back from bad injury. Gary is your second name because he was South African and he played with a smile on his face. I’d heard about the game, knew my dad had played it, but I’d never been bothered. There wasn’t a rugby culture in my primary school; athletics, cricket and football were my sports. Then I went to Cape Town and saw that opening match. It was a turning point for me . . we were at Ellis Park for the quarter-final against Samoa, and when you are alone with your dad at the World Cup final and your country is playing the All Blacks, that was just unbelievable. It brought me a lot closer to my dad and a lot closer to rugby. It showed me what the country could be, what potential there is. It meant a lot to me that Chester Williams was part of the team and that he was there totally on merit. He was also showing the new face of South Africa, centre of the stage for the black community. I thought, ‘If I could be part of this, it would be unbelievable’. Chester’s presence seemed to say, ‘There’s many other people who can do this’. And I wanted to be one of them. To get the respect of your peers, you’ve got to do it again and again. Being nominated this year will be no good unless I get nominated again and again.” Bryan is a professional, but he doesn’t play for money. He doesn’t need to. My business (the home improvements company Three By Four) has been successful and Bryan has a lot of shares. I tell him that I am working hard to make him wealthy. All the money that he has received in endorsements has been placed in a trust fund and if he stopped playing now, then he wouldn’t have to work again. The Big Interview: Bryan Habana, November 2005, Sunday Times by Writer External links Category:1983 births Category:Living people Category:Rugby union players from South Africa