Sports and business have many things in common, yet there are many dissimilarities too!
One of the areas where business and sports are alike is preparation.
People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan.
Jim Taylor, Ph.D., teaches at the University of San Francisco. His specialty is the psychology of business, sport, and parenting. Jim is a consultant to and has provided individual and group training to executives and businesses. A consultant to the United States and Japanese Ski Teams, the United States Tennis Association, and USA Triathlon Jim works with professional and Olympic athletes in tennis, skiing, triathlon, football, baseball, cycling, golf.
Monday’s MMQB article by Peter King, Wristband 145: Behind The Play That Confused The Patriots and Gave The Eagles The Super Bowl LII Win, sums up the same topic with a focus on Super Bowl LII, “A few years ago, doing a Bill Belichick profile for Sports Illustrated, I saw Belichick’s football library. At the time, the library was in Belichick’s Massachusetts home; now it’s housed in the library at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, where Belichick grew up. One of the books, Sun Tsu’s ‘The Art of War,’ seemed a curious inclusion. But Belichick was big on military metaphors. In this book, Sun Tsu wrote, ‘Every battle is won or lost before it’s ever fought.’”
Are you out preparing your competition? Or is your competition out preparing you?
10 Laws of Business Preparation
Here is a brief synopsis of Taylors article, with examples of how Positioning Systems Strategic Discipline prepares you to be successful.
First Law: Preparation is the foundation of all business success. This preparation involves six important areas:
Third Law: Three essential qualities necessary for business preparation and success are:
Fourth Law: Take responsibility for everything impacting your preparation and performance. Success is not a simple goal. To ensure you achieve your goals, take responsibility for everything to influence your efforts. Are you confident you have command over everything impacting how you perform in Prime Time?
Fifth Law: By identifying the six key areas from the First Law, you have a road map to achieve your goals. Education, training, experience, and teamwork help you develop all of these to ensure your complete preparation.
Sixth Law: Prime preparation requires a defined purpose, clear focus, and high energy every day.
Seventh Law: How you perform day-to-day is how you perform in Prime Time. The best athletes don’t just rise to the occasion in Prime Time. What they do in Prime Time is no different than their everyday training. The same holds true for you in the business world.
Ninth Law: Prime Preparation comes from "one more thing, one more time." Assume most of your competitors are working hard to become the best they can be. If you want to prevail over them, you must ask yourself, "What can I do to get the edge over them?" Here is a simple rule I learned from Bernhard Russi, the 1972 Olympic downhill skiing champion: "One more thing, one more time." When you feel you’ve done enough, do just a little bit more. By doing one more thing, one more time, you are doing that little bit extra to prepare you for Prime Time and separate you from your competitors.
Tenth Law: All preparation is to prepare to perform your best in Prime Time. The great ones are great due to their ability to perform their best when it really counts. Prime preparation will allow you to achieve Prime Business in Prime Time, your equivalent of the Super Bowl, Olympics, or soccer World Cup.
Growth demands Strategic Discipline.
Positioning Systems is uniquely qualified, through Scaling Up to help your business and team be super prepared.
Positioning Systems helps mid-sized ($5M - $250M) business Scale-UP. We help you align everyone in your business to focus on Your One Thing! To achieve growth, you need to evolve in today’s rapidly changing economic environment. Are you avoiding a conversation with yourself on how to can grow your business? Contact dwick@positioningsystems.com to Scale Up your business! Take our Four Decisions Needs Assessment to discover how your business measures against other Scaled Up companies. We’ll contact you.
I make mistakes. Thursday a Twitter follower I’d just gained, responded to my thank you for connecting message. He took offense to it stating, I was trying to sell something to each other BEFORE we have any relationship. I made my 2nd mistake by responding in knee jerk fashion. That story, what I learned, and why I need to thank him lesson, next blog.