7 Keys to Avoiding the Winner’s Trap

Mediocrity sneaks up on the unsuspecting winner by flooding them with new opportunities. 

The unaware winners get distracted just enough, just slightly, from doing the things that got them to the top. They lose what would seem to others an imperceptible amount of their intensity and focus. But the line between winning and losing is very fine. Before they realize it, they have lost their winning edge and they slump.

Here are 7 tips that can help you avoid the deadly trap:

1. Realize that your life has changed now. It will be more complicated from a time standpoint. Before you focused primarily on budgeting your MONEY. Now you will need to focus on budgeting your TIME. So limit distractions. Of course you want to enjoy your success but you can’t do it all. 

2. Make a definite choice to put a priority on preparation. Keep your work time a top priority so you have a chance to stay on top. That’s the goose that lays the golden egg! That’s what will keep you in a position to continuing enjoying things. Make sure NOTHING interferes with your ability to continue to WORK HARD.

3. Ramp up your planning. Eliminate the time wasters so you can absorb many of the new opportunities without disrupting your schedule. Everyone has fat in their schedule. Take charge of it like never before. Not every activity is critical. Work to find ways to get the most out of your schedule. Things that take an hour can probably get done in 30 or 45 minutes. Many of the things that you always did in the past can probably delegated to others. 

4. Get better at saying NO. Realize you can’t do it all. Life is all about choices. Think about what is really important and weed out the unimportant. Don’t just keep doing the same things because you have always done them. Move on so you can move up.

5. Be disciplined like never before. Realize the penalty for getting off track is losing your focus is that you will get beat and your victory will be short lived. Don’t allow yourself to get sloppy with your time. Your success has given you the chance to add a bunch of things you want to do to your already large number of things you HAVE to do to keep winning. Don’t apologize for being disciplined and organized and don’t let others tempt you into relaxing your commitment. They are not your friends. 

6. Work SMARTER. Use the lessons you learned on the way up to fine tune your training. By winning you learned for yourself what things worked best for you and what things were not as profitable. This way you can get even more results from the time you put in. You may have even moved up to be able to get access to other people—coaches who can give you inside information on life at the top. How to prepare, how to keep your edge, how to continue to improve and how to get things done in less time. 

7. Most Important - Raise your sights and get BIGGER GOALS. Don’t take a chance on losing your hunger. Give yourself a real solid reason to continue driving yourself hard. It’s great to win once but when you continue to win you put yourself much higher category. Realize that its as hard to KEEP winning as it is to win the first time. Accept the challenge to stay on top.

Choose to go after making winning an ALL the time thing and not just a ONE time thing. 

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Related: The Secret of the "Winner's Trap"—How Winners Lose Their Edge

The Celebrity Quarterback Loses Super Bowl

Tom Brady played great at times but he lost.

He had a record 16 straight completions in the first half. He was on his game. Celebrity quarterback Tom Brady (see post Celebrity vs Non-Celebrity) was playing great. So was the Non-Celebrity Eli Manning, but in the biggest game at the most important time, Eli Manning came up with a shockingly brilliant pass to Mario Manningham on the side line. It was a pass so special that people will be talking about it and reviewing it as long as they play professional football. 

Tom Brady couldn't come up with a similar play.   
He actually was slightly off throwing behind league #1 receiver Wes Welker at the end. Ordinarily Wes Walker catches that ball, this one he dropped. Had it been on target no way does it get dropped. And of course on the next play another star receiver, tight end Aaron Hernandez inexplicably dropped a perfect wide open pass and so there’s really no blame you can put on Brady. But there were other questionable throws when a great pass could have made a big difference. When the Patriots desperately needed the great play, when the receiver was there to make that play…the perfect pass never came. Brady has a history of delivering in the clutch, but not this time. Odd.

There’s “no blame” for Brady but there’s also no spectacular miracle pass to win the game either.  
There is no way you can say this is the reason the Patriots lost but it is worth noting because it highlights the fine line between winning and losing. Usually the big games are won by a great play, not by just having a “no blame” game. The quarterback is the key player and the pressure is certainly on him when time is running out and the game is one the line. For whatever reason, this time the non-celebrity quarterback came up with one of those plays and the celebrity quarterback didn’t. Was that the reason the Giants won? I don’t know but there’s no question it was a factor.

The fine line.
Football games have so many players, so many plays, so many variables that anybody’s theory can sound plausible as to why one team wins and the other team loses. But it points out clearly how hard you’ve got to work, how hard you’ve got to prepare, and how hard you’ve got to perform to reach the top.  Any little thing can make the difference.

You see it in other sports as well
That’s why there was only a fraction of an inch difference between winning and losing in 2 of the 8 races at the last Olympics where swimming hero Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals. Recently, Novak Djokovic just barely edged out Rafael Nadal after a spectacular, intense, five hour finals tennis match at the Australian open. One bounce of the ball after 5 hours of intense competition—and one wins—the other loses.  

That’s why some people would always pick a non-celebrity over a celebrity.  
They realize that to win, no matter how talented they are, they’re going to have to give it everything they’ve got because there’s such a fine line of difference between mediocrity and greatness. It doesn’t matter how famous they are or how many times they’ve won before.

In any given game it comes down to who is the best prepared and wants it most. 
If you are choosing between a celebrity and a non-celebrity, some think that the non-celebrity is the one who is likely to be the hungriest. They think that the non-celebrity also is the one most likely to have the fewest distractions, to have the most focus and to be the most willing to all the non glamorous and painstaking grinding and grunt work needed to be the best prepared. Even if the celebrity only cuts corners slightly or is only slightly less focused, that could be enough to make a difference. The difference shows up when the intensity is the highest. 

Was that the difference in this Super Bowl? You tell me. 

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Related Posts

Celebrities Vs Non-Celebrities In The Super Bowl
Tom Coughlin, The People’s Coach
The Winning Edge Is Razor Thin

Celebrities vs Non-Celebrities in the Super Bowl

Here’s an interesting sub-plot for this year's Super Bowl—the celebrity versus the non-celebrity.

It won’t be with the coaches because they are both non-celebrities. The NY Giant’s Coach Tom Coughlin doesn’t have the interest, personality, face or wit to be a darling of the media. He is 100% football all the time. You won’t see him on a lot of commercials (any? ever?) You won’t see him on a lot of late night talk shows or on the red carpet rubbing shoulders with movie stars.

The New England Patriot’s Bill Belichick also falls in the non-celebrity camp. He’s a lot closer to going over the celebrity line than Coughlin, but in spite of the fact that he has tons of famous friends and enjoys getting out a lot in the off-season, he still studiously avoids the limelight. No one doubts his priorities. He has never been accused of seeking the spotlight. His mind is clearly on keeping his head down, keeping the distractions to a minimum and getting his job done. 

The celebrity vs non-celebrity battle will be fought at quarterback
Hall of Fame Coach Bill Parcells says, when looking for a franchise quarterback, look for a non-celebrity. His thinks that puts the odds of success in your favor. Some say he feels that way because he wants the entire spotlight for himself. Everyone has an opinion, but there is no mistaking that some are celebrities and some aren’t. It’s interesting to see how they compete when the pressure is the highest. Some can handle it, some can’t.

This year we have one of each
Eli Manning avoids the spotlight. It is an amazing tribute to his determination to maintain a low profile and avoid the spotlight that he is the quarterback in New York, the media capital of the world, he has performed at an elite level and even won a Super Bowl, yet he is almost invisible off the field. He has no trouble keeping his focus.

New England's quarterback is another story. As the winner of 3 Super Bowls and the husband of the world’s greatest super model Gisele Bündchen, he is always in the celebrity spotlight. He also finds his way regularly into the magazines, celebrity golf tournaments, talk shows. No one questions his competitive drive or commitment but there is no questioning his celebrity status. There’s also no question he hasn’t been playing at his best lately—and Manning has.

Being a celebrity is not a kiss of death
Joe Namath was an incredibly huge celebrity when he made his prediction to win the Super Bowl and delivered, shocking the world in the process. Others have done well in various sports as well. You could put David Beckham up there as a big example, but closer examination reveals most had their biggest success BEFORE they reached the spotlight status. Michael Phelps was celebrated but not a “celebrity” before he won his 8 Gold medals at the China Olympics. Since then he has become a bonafide celebrity and has found putting in the same amount of focused training as lot harder. His results have been nowhere near as spectacular. 

Brady won his 3 Super Bowls climbing the ladder to celebrity
He wasn’t the star he is today. When he won his early Super Bowls, he was barely known outside of football. Winning 3 times on the biggest stage in sports and television worldwide shot him into the celebrity zone and when he married Gisele Bündchen he solidified his celebrity status forever. If there was a Celebrity Hall of Fame he would already be in it! Yet, since reaching celebrity staus he hasn’t won nearly as much. They haven’t won nearly as much, they haven’t won in the playoffs as much and the one time they got back to the Super Bowl, they lost. It could be that Tom has been a celebrity for so long now he can handle it and still perform at his peak. We’ll see.

The fun of the Super Bowl is all the games within the game. 
This is just one you can keep your eye on to add a little extra interest. There are a lot of factors that go into winning, maybe this will be one. Will Manning be more focused and driven than the one who already “has it all?”

Will Brady’s distractions and more “exciting” life divert him from playing at his peak? It did last week. By his own admission “he sucked” compared to how he usually played as opposed to Manning who has been red-hot and deadly accurate in all the recent games.

Will it make a difference? We’ll find out Sunday!

Do Simpletons Run Apple and Google?

What’s the common thread between Apple and Google?  

Why is it that these two companies have exploded over the last decade?  

The obvious answers are leadership, timing, superiors products, but there’s something more.  

Their tenacious determination to keep things simple for their consumers has been a big part of making them popular and keeping them popular.  

Steve Jobs became famous for insisting that his devices have only one button.  

Google went so far as to create a high level executive position so they would have one person in charge of making their search page simple.  

At Google you have to fight and win many heroic battles to get your new feature, word, or idea added to their main search page. It’s no accident their search page is so clean and simple.  

It’s designed to be that way and stay way no matter how many other things they offer they’re not going to clutter up their primary function.   

The leaders at these companies are simply recognizing reality.  

• They know the world is a complicated place.  
• They know that their customers want results.  
• They don’t need to read a manual.  
• They don’t want to look up instructions.  
• They want to be able to get what they want as quickly and simply as possible so they can get on with their lives.  

Other companies are not that smart. 
They think the public wants features, extras, those are wonderful to have but not if it clutters up and confuses and complicates using the product.  

No one needs more hassle. 
As the great philosopher Chuck Berry once sang “too much monkey business.” People have complicated lives that seem to get more cluttered and complicated every day. Things to do, things to learn, things to get, it never ends. The last thing they need is more confusion and a product that is a frustrating hassle to use. They want to get the main thing done as quickly and simply as possible. It’s great to have the ability to do extra but minor things but it’s not great if it frustrates and confuses getting the main thing done. A simple clean page—one button. These companies get it and they have exploded with success.  

How about your product?  
Your training programs, your system, your service. Are you making the main thing you offer simple and easy to understand, easy to use? The simpler you make it, the more powerful your impact will be. That’s the underlying approach these companies have used with so much success. I wonder if that kind of thinking would pay off for you. Like the leaders at Apple and Google focusing on simplicity doesn’t make you a simpleton it makes you simply brilliant. 

This determination helped make them popular and kept them popular.

They don’t shift the focus off what each products primary, most beneficial, best feature is right in the spotlight.  

Do the Big Things Well

To be successful you can’t major on the minors.

Life is full of limitations—we’re not going to be here long and we don’t have unlimited resources.

If you’re going to stand out you’ve got to stay focused.

People, and companies who rise to the top do it because there is something they do better than everyone else. In that arena they are the best.

But when success comes people forget that.
They start adding features and adding products. “Look at us now, we not only have that, we also have this, and this, and this!”

They expect super success but often find their profits stop growing and even drop. Why? They’ve over complicated things and lost their focus on their #1 product.

Just because you’re on top now doesn’t mean you’ll be on top in the future. 
If you’re going to stay on top you have to keep improving. What won last year won’t win this year. Unless a company continues to focus on getting better it will slide down the charts.

The same thing works with people.

You establish yourself in life by what you can do. If you have risen to the top it’s because you fought your way there. You had to earn it. And if you are going to stay there you’ve got to keep getting better or the next guy will come up and knock you off.

So you can’t get side tracked. 

Don’t let distractions cause you to lose your main focus. You know what the big things are that make you special. So if you want to continue to improve and move up in life… 

Stay focused on doing your most important things better and better.

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How can you simplify and specialize in order to get better at what you NEED to be doing?

One Hopes, One Fights

You don't win by hoping.There are no prizes, no banners, no awards handed out for the ones who hoped the most.

You don't win by hoping. You hope when things are out of your hands. Someone else controls your destiny. You anxiously wait on the sidelines hoping things work out. And usually…they don’t.

But if you really want something to happen there is a better way. You find away to get involved where you can influence the outcome. This dramatically increases you odds of winning because….

You win when you fight.

You get involved. You get in a position to have an impact on the outcome.
You find the barriers and you attack them because they aren’t going to go away by themselves.

If you really want something, stop hoping and start fighting to make it happen.

There's Always Someone Yapping

When you win there’s always someone around yapping their mouth about something you did wrong.

It usually comes from someone who never did anything themselves. They are hung up on the unimportant, minor issues.  They are so caught up in the minutia that they miss the big picture.

It's called, "Majoring on the Minors."

They strain and nitpick and miss the main point and that’s that you WON! Don’t worry about them! If they knew what they were talking about they would have won themselves.

They may have a minor point, but they miss the major point—winning. They think winning means perfection
Wrong, wrong, wrong! Winning is doing enough to win—it has nothing to do with perfection.
The yappers need to focus on what you did right, not on what you did wrong.

Let them yap and you enjoy your win!