An Off Topic Post About Football, With An Important Lesson (promise)
January 12th, 2011 // 8:40 am @ Scott
You ever wonder why some teams are pretty much always good, or at least always ‘in the hunt’. Sadly, perhaps, I think a lot about this. And I’ve got answers.
I’ve narrowed it down to THREE, count them, 1, 2, 3, major reasons why this is the case. And it just so happens if you apply these principles in your business, and especially focus on them now in the New Year, you’ll find the same consistent success they have.
So, here you go…
1. They PLAY/COACH to Win. All the time. There’s no ‘down-time’, or ‘take-it-easy’ plays, quarters, or games. They are in competition with themselves as much as the other team. So they drive hard and fast even when it’s not necessary.
If there is one thing that I see more Entrepreneurs fail or simply never win in their businesses, it’s because of this reason right here. They play as if they are trying not to lose, instead of going full out, all in, and marketing, selling, running, etc their business to win and succeed.
For example, just the other day someone said to me when asked about what marketing they were doing, “I’m just waiting to see how people respond and what the word-of-mouth will do before I put money into other marketing.” And of course, you know me, I HATE when people say ‘word-of-mouth’. I say to myself words I can not repeat in this email.
Play to win or sit in the bleachers.
2. They ADJUST immediately and ADAPT fast. To save you examples, this means that when something doesn’t work they do something different, they don’t think about it, wait on it, dwell for weeks, or even plays, they just adjust. In fact the best teams are looking for ways to adjust to improve effectiveness all the time.
We might call this, “testing” in marketing and sales. Also, it’s making decisions quickly, having back-up plans, and staying the course with adjustments on the move versus pausing, delaying, or taking a break to figure something out. No time, not for winners, movers, shakers, and money makers.
And, by the way, this means you have to expect to change, adapt, and adjust. No one gets it perfect and pretending that’s what you want or expect is simply amateur and immature.
Be ready to create change, make adjustments, and keep on marketing. The faster you do all of this, the faster you get to the results you want and system you can repeat and rely on.
3. This one is hard to explain so you’ll have to try a little harder here. What I notice about the ‘winning teams’ is that the Coaches and Players are like one. They understand each other. They don’t overpower each other, they have balance. They work together. They apply the first 2 rules as a unit. It’s more of an entrepreneurial situation.
Other teams it’s quite obvious the coaches are more ‘executive’ like, not seemingly ‘in the trenches’ as the Players.
Coaches that were fired this year, in my opinion, fell victim to this rule. And it’s why they didn’t and don’t cohesively win.
About you, well good news, You’re the Coach and the Players, even if you have employees, you’re still a player in one form or another. Certainly if you’re solo-entrepreneur you are.
Either way, you must learn this balance of being entrepreneurial while being a leader, a coach. You are ‘in the trenches’ because that’s where the action is. Embrace it, enjoy it, profit from it.
So, what’s this have to do with anything else. A lot really. There are rules or commonalities as you should know, for everything. And since we’re in the month of January the 1st month of the new year, there are specific things you must follow if you want to make the most of this year and in fact, make it your best year ever.
Here’s 3 success traits for the new year in addition to how to be a consistent winning football team…
1. Raise up your environment that you spend time in and the people you hang around
2. Invest more time implementing less time thinking about what to implement
3. Set yourself up for success with a plan and a place where you can go to make that plan happen
Category : Blog
