THEY LIE! It's Easier To Repeat

Who said it’s harder to repeat?

The prevailing wisdom is that it’s harder to stay on top than it is to get to the top. When you win a championship it’s harder to repeat. If you are the leader in your industry, it's harder to stay on top than it was to work your way to the top. What a bunch of garbage. Yes, it’s hard, nothing is guaranteed but it’s nothing like the effort it takes to climb to the top and make the first breakthrough.

When you get on top you are not plagued by the doubts and insecurities of those who never made it. You have proven to yourself and everyone else you’re good enough. You’ve developed a proven championship team. The mentality of your organization has changed. The expectations of your organization have changed forever and people perform up to their level of expectations.

You’ve learned valuable lessons that only those very very few who’ve made it to the top know. You know pitfalls to avoid. You know ways to compress time frames. You know keys to look for to maintain momentum and which ones to avoid to get off track.  You have training and insight that all your competition lacks.  Of course, there can be some satisfaction and some let off in intensity due to having reached the top, but that’s a small challenge compared to all of the advantages you have. 

Who would you rather be?
If you’re running for president would you rather be Obama with no challengers soaking up all of the Democratic contributions, building your war chest, using the power, prestige, popularity that goes with being the incumbent? Or would you rather be a Republican challenger? If you were a country, would you rather be the United States, the clear cut #1 super power in the world—even in spite of our recent problems, or another country having to work your way up the ladder? Do you really think it’s harder for the US to stay #1 than it is for the other countries that are trying to grow and develop to this level?

If you’re a hamburger franchise would you rather be McDonald’s or Burger King? Somehow it doesn’t seem to be that hard for McDonald’s to stay #1 in their industry. The same can be said for Coca-Cola, Walmart, and a vast array of industry leaders.

The same goes in entertainment. Would you rather be Tom Cruise or one of the dozen or so other prominent leading men? If you were a professional sport would you rather be the NFL or would you rather be the NBA or the NHL? Who do you think has the better odds of holding on to the #1 position in professional sports, the NFL or maybe you think major league soccer can explode up the ranks to #1? Do you think maybe it’s easier? It’s easier for major league soccer to overcome the ranks of football because they don’t have the pressures and spotlight of #1 on them all the time? Most people would bet on the NFL.

It’s worth a million times more than you think

Until you get there you can’t imagine how great it is to be on top. There is no way you can appreciate the advantages, the momentum, and new possibilities and Rewards! There’s no way you can know the lessons that you will learn and the lessons you’ll teach yourself on your way to the top.  The effort of getting to the top will teach you things you could never learn any other way. From the top of the mountain you can see things that no one else can see.

You can see new opportunities. You can see clearly a variety of ways to improve.  You also have the advantage of knowing that you won in spite of not being even close to perfect. You have the benefits of the things that worked well that you can go to and use again but you also have the benefit of seeing the areas that you can improve and get more help from next time. Of course there are going to be challenges but you tell me, does it really seem like it’s harder for the top dog to stay on top than for the little dog to fight his way to the top. It’s worth the price because the view from the top, the benefits of being on top, are beyond your wildest dreams. Trust me.

Once you get to the top of the mountain you are not opening the door to a whole bigger nightmare of problems that you’ve ever faced before in your life. You’ll have problems, but nothing like you faced getting started.  

If you’ve got a chance to be #1 go for it with everything you’ve got.  The rewards will blow your mind!

Winner's Book Club Selection of the Week: When the Game Was Ours

What are their Winner Credientials?

These men are basketball legends and hardly need introduction. Together Bird and Johnson collected eight NBA Championships and six MVP awards.

Book Description

From the moment these two legendary players took the court on opposing sides, they engaged in a fierce physical and psychological battle. In Celtic green was Larry Bird, the hick from French Lick, with laser-beam focus, relentless determination, and a deadly jump shot, a player who demanded excellence from everyone around him and whose caustic wit left opponents quaking in their high-tops. Magic Johnson was Mr. Showtime, a magnetic personality with all the right moves. Young, indomitable, he was a pied piper in purple and gold. And he burned with an inextinguishable desire to win.
 
Their uncommonly competitive relationship came to symbolize the most thrilling rivalry in the NBA—East vs. West, physical vs. finesse, old school vs. Showtime, even white vs. black. Each pushed the other to greatness, and, helping to save a floundering NBA. At the start they were bitter rivals, but along the way they became lifelong friends.   
 
With intimate detail, When the Game Was Ours transports readers to an electric era and reveals for the first time the inner workings of two players dead set on besting each other. It is a compelling portrait of two giants of the game, during professional basketball’s best times.

Read the Amazon Exclusive Q&A with Larry Bird and Magic Johnson

Have you read this book? If so, did you enjoy it and if not, do you plan to read it?

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To next post, "Cold Blooded on Clutter"

I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO WIN A CHAMPIONSHIP

Rookie Chicago Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau was recently named NBA Coach of the Year.

Successful coaching involves a lot of things but at the top of the list is motivating your players. You can train them all you want. You can get them in peak condition. You can design great plays, but all that is useless if you can’t motivate your players to make the extra effort required to separate them from everyone else.

Because in the final analysis, winning championships comes down to effort under pressure, performing at your peak when the stakes are the highest.

Coach Tibs showed he knew how to motivate players even before the season began.

Preparing for the season as a new coach with a young team required massive preseason activity. He had the players in the gym all summer, running plays, learning a new offense, learning a new defense along with endless conditioning drills.

Late one Friday afternoon, after a particularly strenuous day, he called out to his center, Yannick Noah to come back out on the court for some additional work. Yannick was not excited about the idea.

“Come on coach!” he said. 

“Its Friday night. Let’s go get a beer. Its time to relax.”

The rookie coach knew just what to say. He didn’t argue, he just said,

“I thought you wanted to win a Championship.”

Case closed. Back to the court.

The rookie coach showed at that moment he knew exactly how to motivate players.

The Bulls finished the season with the best record in the NBA and made it all the way to the conference finals of the playoffs.

Coach Tibs knew that the way to get the best out his players was to go for something great. When you’re going for a championship, you’ll pay the extra price because you know it’s going to be worth it.

If you want the best …out of people you are leading or even children you are raising then give them a Big Goal, something special to go for. 

Give them a reason to make a special effort, give them a championship to go for!