WHAT GIVES MARCH MADNESS IT’S BUZZ?

What drives the excitement?

College basketball fans are enjoying their favorite time of the year! It’s like the Superbowl, World Series and all the other annual big events, why don’t they get old? Why don’t people get bored? As Dallas Cowboys running back Duane Thomas said at the 1972 Super Bowl “If this is the biggest game in the world, why are they going to play another one next year?” Usually when you keep doing things over and over they get boring. They lose their zing and excitement. 

But they always sizzle…why is that?
It’s because they are never the same. You have new locations, new teams, new players, new story lines and different rivalries in play. Every one is a once in a lifetime event. Also the BIGGEST events bring out the best in everyone. Every player, coach, announcer, band, etc are all going to be on their toes because the world is watching. Add to that the networks and advertisers who have millions invested, they are going to make sure it’s a special event!

If you want a crowd, start a fire and they’ll come running
With all this excitement, everyone wants to come! Anyone who can come will come, nobody wants to be left out. It looks great on TV but there’s no way to duplicate the excitement of being there! Just walking around you rub shoulders with Hall of Famers, current and past stars, movie stars and celebrities from every walk of life. 

There’s a lesson for us here.
If you have a cookout and no one seems that excited about coming over …maybe the cookouts have gone stale. It might be time to try something new and put some new fun into them. If every year you do the same thing at the holidays, and fewer and fewer are showing up…there’s a reason. 

There’s other places they would rather be.
If your birthday parties are the same year after year, why not get some new ideas? Invite some new friends. Think of some new locations. Mix things up. If you are out of ideas, get on the internet and google some new ones up. Even if you are just cooking your favorite soup, occasionally you put in some new spices to freshen up the taste.

You know how to tell if your event is going to be a hit?
If you are excited about it! You already know what’s going to happen. If you have some plans and ideas that you are trying and you are really looking forward to it…then everyone is going to enjoy it too. If you aren’t that thrilled and are thinking more about just trying to get it over with, then it’s destined to be a disappointment. What should you do to save it? Whatever you can think up that will make you look forward to doing it, because if you have a great time so will everyone else.

How about your relationships?
Have things gone stale? Gee, I wonder why? Things only stay fresh and fun if you put things in place to keep them that way. It’s easy to get preoccupied and have weeks, months even years go by and never take any time out to do anything special with the ones you love. There is never time for special occasions, you have to make the time. You have to make it a priority!

How about your business?
Are people flooding in? Do you have a buzz? If not, guess what you’ve got to do? Find some excitement! Run a special, have a contest for your team, set some goals, give them something to shoot for, something they can win. Run some customer appreciation promotions. There are thousands of ideas and you better go get some asap because a dull business becomes a dead business fast. It’s a cluttered market out there and you need to stand out. 

Take charge, start some fires
Just like March Madness, if you have fresh, new exciting things going on people will want to gather around! If you have so much going on that you are excited, having fun and enjoying yourself you can be sure others are going to want to come and join the fun too!

Excitement isn’t an accident. The things that work in the big events can work to bring excitement into your life and business as well!

Nowitzki Gives Romo Bad Advice

Well meaning advice isn’t always true

When the Dallas Cowboys were getting beat week after week early in the 2011 season they got a lot of criticism. They were hugely talented and expectations were for them to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders.  Super Bowl contenders are supposed to win. When they kept getting beat the criticism came in loud and clear from all corners. To the rescue came local basketball hero Dirk Nowitzki fresh off the Dallas Mavericks recent NBA championship.

Dirk gave encouragement—and really bad advice
Dirk told quarterback Tony Romo and the others that they shouldn’t worry. He reminded them the Mavericks, formed in 1980, had gone without ever winning an NBA Championship until this year and Dirk himself had been with the team since 1998. But, Dirk continued, “if you just keep on working to improve eventually your day will come and you’ll win a Super Bowl.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong! The Cowboys bought this lie—hook, line and sinker. The pressure was off—they could relax. The sting of defeat was not nearly as bad because they now happily believed that eventually they would win. It was inevitable...Dirk said so! 

No one is ever guaranteed a championship
Unfortunately, championships are never inevitable. You have to go win them. You have to beat someone who wants it just as bad as you. You have to fight. You have to give it everything you have. If the Cowboys were aware of the perhaps they wouldn’t have finished this season with such a spineless underachieving performance and let themselves get knocked out of the playoffs by the mediocre New York Giants.

This team needs a reality check - bad. They need to be jolted with the truth that no one is ever guaranteed success. Just because you’re talented and think you work hard doesn’t entitle you to anything. The world owes you nothing. Don’t ever think they are going to mail you a trophy just because you worked up a sweat. Sweat and hard work is what everyone does. 

All hard work does is give you is a CHANCE to win
In the real world you can work hard for years and years, pay an incredible price, make incredible sacrifices and still never win the “big one.” When you work hard, you take things seriously. You sacrifice and pay the extra prices. But that’s just practice and preparation. All you’re doing is putting yourself in a position to win your championship. Sooner or later the time will come where you actually have to go play the game, compete and win it. The Dallas Cowboys don’t act like they understand this part of winning and as a result, for almost 20 years, they have underachieved at the end of the season, piling up one disappointment after another for their fans to endure.

There is a fine line between mediocrity and greatness and when you think you are entitled to win you always get beat. Wake up, Cowboys.

Manage Yourself First—Control *YOUR* Outlook

Tom Landry, former head coach of the Dallas CowboysDo NOT say to Yourself:

• They had special advantages.
• They had it easy.
• I had more problems to overcome than they did

That’s what losers do. Losers focus on all their disadvantages. Poor baby...They never have enough to win. 

DO say to Yourself:

• I should have worked harder. 
• I should have started earlier.  
• I didn’t deserve it. They did. 
• They did  a better job. 
• They took it more serious than I did. 
• I’ve got to get better.
• This shows me where I need to improve.

Winners focus on what they DO have going for them. Winners focus on what they CAN do. Winners know they don’t have to be perfect, they just need one way to win.

The Building of “America’s Team”

Tom Landry was the Dallas Cowboys first coach. As an expansion franchise, they weren’t very good. Their record the first year was 0-11-1. All losses and 1 tie.

Someone once asked Tom if he got depressed during the early years with all the losing. Tom replied calmly,

“No. We just went into every game with our best plan to win and then the other team taught us lessons. Next game we made adjustments, learned our lessons, and put together our best gameplan. Then the next team would proceed to teach us some new lessons. We would improve, put together and then get taught some more lessons. As time went on, as we got better, we started teaching the other teams some lessons of our own. We got to the point to where most weeks we were the ones teaching the lessons."

The result? By 1966, The Cowboys had gotten a lot better and went on an historic run of 20 Winning seasons. They had become “America’s team” (according to their PR department, anyway) because as we all know, America loves a winner.

What Tom did to build the Cowboys...you can do to build success in your life!