Did you happen to catch any of the “top 10” finishes of the Winter Olympics? For me, the best part is seeing someone have all their training and preparation pay off in a glorious win, especially if they won
by a mere fraction of a second or a “big” lead. The look on their faces, the excitement in the annoucers voice, the winners circle, and the tears of sheer joy and accomplishment. Often makes me cry myself.
But imagine for a moment those who lose. Countless hours of training and hard preparation down the drain…the bitterness, the pain and crushing disappointment. You’re the 2nd fastest, best and most skilled athelete in the world and you get ZERO recognition – and some never to have a second chance. Competitive sport is like that…full of one season wonders, even one-game wonders. I saw George Foreman speak one time about his comeback and how difficult it was to overcome the unbelievable negativity and outright taunts launched at him over and over again from the media and public. He said, “One minute you’re the heavy weight champion of the world and everyone admires and respects you…then the next minute you’re just George, a has-been.”
Business is like that too; an endless string of medicore results, dissapointments and failed objectives with shining brief moments of unbelievable success. Knowing that, it’s important to do two things:
1. Make sure you celebrate your “wins” when they happen. They are fleeting, and within moments you’re attention will be swept away by some stress-filled problem or dillemma.
2. Constantly work on recharging your batteries. It bugs me that personal development gets such a bad rap; it doesn’t surprise me because those who are failing find it much easier to attack anyone or anything suggesting personal responsibility. But you as an entrepreneur have to be smarter than that. You cannot get inspired results from uninspired people – and if you aren’t reading, listening or ‘consuming’ some type of on-going motivational and educational material that reawakens the go-getter in you, I know you’re performing at a less than optimal level.
For me, working on my company vision and strategy juices me. Listening to my mentors and learning an elegant idea that I hadn’t thought of before — be it a new opportunity, a new marketing approach or a better way of accomplishing a goal — charges me more than a week’s vacation. But mostely, hanging around with successful, like-minded entrepreneurs is what re-energizes me the most. This week in the office Martin Howey is coming to “Robin Central” to deliver a one-day training on how to close a managed services sale, and I’m EXCITED about it. Some of my BEST students are also coming in and I’m absolutely 1,000% certain everyone will leave with batteries charged to the max because those coming are battery-chargers, not battery drainers. I know I’m going to spend the entire day on Saturday distilling and documenting what I learned – and I’ll be enthusiastic to do it.
So my question to you is this: what have you done over the last week, month or quarter to recharge your batteries? To re-inspire yourself about your business and gain that edge of enthusiasim that makes you jump out of bed in the morning rarin’ to go for your gold?
