Tweet

It's Really Not Just About Winning, It Is About How You Play

Written by: Dave Ferguson

Article Overview: What can baseball teach us about today's business climate? Watching how a hitter responds to different pitchers can help you to understand how to respond to challenging economic times.

It's Really Not Just About Winning, It Is About How You Play

I've written before about the three traits of successful business people - passion, persistence, and patience. There's a word that sums up that approach - prevail. Especially in these economic times, those who adapt their thinking and approach will prevail.

Spring training has started for professional baseball. The teams and players are preparing for a long season, their goal is to win the World Series. They won't do that by winning every game they play, they can't. They need to win enough games to reach the playoffs. That's the first milestone. Then they need to win enough games in the playoffs to reach the World Series. Then they need to win enough games in the World Series to take the title. It's more like a marathon race than a sprint.

Business is similar. The economy is throwing us knuckleballs right now. We've come through a period when all we were seeing was fastballs, maybe an occasional curveball. Good hitters can hit fastballs because they have excellent hand-eye coordination and can anticipate where the ball will wind up almost as soon as it comes out of the pitcher's hand. The knuckleball is thrown at a much slower speed and good knuckleball hitters have the ability to hold back until the last possible moment to get as much information as possible about the path of the ball. They get hits because they are patient and save their swings for the balls they know they can hit. Just as they do, we need to resist the urge to swing at pitches too early.

Because of the current economic conditions, people have a tendency to chase every opportunity that catches their eye. It's the shiny ball syndrome - see it and chase it. The problem is, having done that you might wind up someplace you never intended to be and spent money that was intended for something else. Then it's even harder to get back to where you need to be.

As a coach, I've been helping my clients to remain focused on the ultimate goal and the overall plan to reach that goal. Then, as the shiny balls come into view it's a simple decision - either it fits the plan, it doesn't, or we need to revise the plan.

For us, every day is a new game. We won't win every one, but if we win often enough and win the right ones, we will prevail. Isn't that really the goal?

Related Articles
  The Game Called Public Relations
  Always Have a Winning Hand!
  Winning is for Wimps and Losers
  Beating Your Own Best
  The truth is out there! How to take advantage of it

Article Tags: economic conditions, economic times, fastballs, first milestone, hand eye coordination, knuckleball, marathon race, patience, persistence, pitches, professional baseball, shiny balls, spring training, sprint business, successful business people, sums, swings, tendency, urge, world series



Related Forum Posts
Willing to Fail Your Way to Success - Entrepreneurs in my opinion, must be willing to fail. (This is that risk-taking factor quoted in the other post). If you aren't willing to fail then you don't take risks and if you don't take risks you do I like to call (I am qouting an awesome book called Play to Win!) 'Playing Not to Lose' instead of 'Playing to Win'. When you Play to Win you must risks. Risks are how you build a business and innovate.
Elevator Pitch in 10 Words - "Winning Business Design For Aspiring Entrepreneurs Based On Their Idea"
Entrepreneur TV Shows - Thanks JWGM - I love Venture - it's a great program as well! I've been watching it for years! Is Squeeze Play on at any other time? I'm not usualy by a TV at 5pm. I'd love to learn more about this show.
How does one suggest improvements to inventions - and get paid for them? I'm sure people write in and complain and suggest new features for various things they buy... and if those changes are implemented that's all well and good, but the person who made the suggestion for the improvment isn't going to get paid for it. How does one suggest these improvements - and get paid for them? ----long story One of the best things the PC did (at least, Dell) was to color code all their little plugs, so you know that the green plug goes into the green hole, the pink into the pink, etc. Makes setting up those things a heckuva lot easier! I was thinking that the same thing should be done for today's TVs! I've had a new TV for a few weeks, set up next to my computer because I like to work and watch TV at the same time. But I've got it set up in such a way that I can't see all the little buttons on the top of the screen, which are the buttons for Stop, Play, Eject (for the internal DVD) , the Volume up and down, and the Channel up and down. Of course, that wasn't a problem when my remote control worked, but for some reason it stopped working a couple of weeks ago. (Yes, I replaced the battery - no good). Since I have the TV so close to my computer it's no problem, I can reach out and touch the buttons... But because they're all the same color, I had to actually get up and look at them to make sure I was pressing the right button. I've solved that problem by attaching a bit of yellow paper to the Play button, and a bit of orange paper to the Volume Up button. Makes things a lot easier...
About That File - Mark Forster, in his excellent and unique time management book, 'Get Everything Done and Still Have Time to Play' recommends a simple discipline to prevent prevarication and make sure you focus. In 'just get the file out' he suggests (and I know, as I've used it many times myself), that if you just take the initial step in something you've been putting off, it is usually enough to get the thing done.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Why Marketing Outsourcing is Growing So Quickly

Sales Courage and Resilience

Steps For Starting A Small Business

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.