For a moment, I felt a wave of relief. I’d spent the first forty minutes dealing with him – reading his intentions, launching into blocks, catching him accidentally as he struck towards goal – and I knew he’d been carrying the knock after that challenge.

But the relief barely lasted a second.

Coppell immediately followed it with the line that changed everything for me: “You’re now to man-mark Cristiano Ronaldo.”

In that instant, the whole shape of the challenge flipped. Rooney was physical, direct, relentless. Ronaldo was the opposite: explosive, elusive, capable of changing a game in a heartbeat. And I had fifteen minutes to mentally adjust – no time for self-doubt, no chance to ease into it.

By the time we walked out for the second half, United had the kick-off and Ronaldo was standing over the ball, ready to set the tempo. I stationed myself on the halfway line, locked onto him, knowing the next 45 minutes demanded a different version of my best.

But here’s the thing.

I didn’t panic.

I didn’t crumble.

I didn’t need to reinvent myself.

Because the work had already been done.

That’s when I learned a truth entrepreneurs can’t afford to ignore: adaptability isn’t created in the moment – it’s revealed in the moment.

Most people think adaptability is something you switch on when things go wrong. But it isn’t an emergency button. It’s built long before the pressure hits. The real foundation of adaptability is laid in the quiet hours: the repetition, the preparation, the discipline to stay sharp even when the environment feels calm.

And that’s why the Rooney-to-Ronaldo switch didn’t break me. The scale of the challenge had changed dramatically, but the way I responded didn’t have to. The preparation was already in the bank. The tools were already sharpened. In that moment, I wasn’t improvising – I was accessing work I’d already done.

That’s what real adaptability looks like.

Not scrambling.

Not reinventing.

Just revealing the depth of what’s already there.

Entrepreneurs face the same dynamic every single day. One moment you’re dealing with the slow, heavy, physical pressures of running a business – cashflow, operations, staffing, the day-to-day grind. Then suddenly, the entire shape of the challenge changes: a competitor launches something unexpected, an investor switches direction, a key hire leaves, legislation shifts the landscape, or technology makes your roadmap outdated overnight.

The “opponent” changes – sometimes brutally, sometimes instantly – and the founder has to change with it. One minute the world is pushing against you. The next, it’s sprinting away from you.

The entrepreneurs who cope best aren’t the most charismatic, the most confident or the most experienced. They’re the ones who are ready. They treat preparation as a habit rather than a reaction. They evolve before they’re forced to. They review their blind spots before those blind spots become problems. They do the work when the stakes are low so they can deliver when the stakes are high.

In my coaching work with CEOs and fast-growth founders, the pattern is always the same: the leaders who adapt best don’t wait for the chaos. They build adaptability long before they need it. They train their minds the way elite athletes train their bodies – consistently, quietly, deliberately.

Because when you build yourself properly, sudden change doesn’t require you to become a new person. It simply asks you to access the person you’ve already built.

And that’s the real lesson from that afternoon at Old Trafford. You can’t predict which challenge will walk onto the pitch. You can’t script when the game will shift, when the pace will rise or when a threat will appear from a completely different angle. But you can control how prepared you are when it happens.

Adaptability isn’t an act – it’s a reflection. It reflects the hours you’ve put in, the standards you live by and the readiness you commit to when no one is watching.

Entrepreneurs live in the same reality. The world will throw Rooney moments at you. And Ronaldo moments too. Some will hit you head-on. Some will move so fast you barely see them coming. But the question isn’t whether the game will change – it’s whether you’ve done the work that allows you to respond with clarity instead of chaos.

Because adaptability isn’t luck.

It isn’t instinct.

It isn’t talent.

It’s preparation. Revealed at speed.

And when the moment comes, all you can do is show the world the work you have already done.

For more startup news, check out the other articles on the website, and subscribe to the magazine for free. Listen to The Cereal Entrepreneur podcast for more interviews with entrepreneurs and big-hitters in the startup ecosystem.