"Leave it all out there. If you’re not absolutely dead after this game, you may find yourself asking “what if?” Ryan Burnett press conference prior to the 2018 Robertson Cup Championship game
The kid made good on it – AND he was absolutely dead afterward, as witnessed in this photo. Ryan Burnett & the Shreveport MudBugs, your 2017 – 2018 North American Hockey League National Champions.
Few of us have the chance to recognize (much less capitalize) on an opportunity to achieve the highest possible level of success. Given one, most of us would fully embrace the chance to give everything and let the proverbial chips fall where they may. So, why do so many of us miss out on moments like these?
The path to any pinnacle is a long one. It takes twists and turns and is almost never as simple as starting as the best team and finishing as Champion. Adversity, injury, personality conflicts, and more stand in the way of realizing what is often a fleeting chance at the highest levels of success; it takes more than skill and luck and the breaks needed to get there.
Team sports, like business, need a number of elements in place for the mere hope of a chance at a Championship (or sales goal, or any other objective identified as a key to success), but most importantly, each member of the organization needs to focus on their own incremental growth and improvement to provide the greater whole the best chance to win.
Incremental growth requires focused concentration, dedicated effort, and a willingness to hold oneself accountable to the tasks necessary to foster that growth. It’s done when no one else is looking, when it’s just you, in all your honesty, allowing yourself to be comfortable with the reality of your current skill set, unafraid to commit to the work necessary to improve and willing to ask for help in your blind spots.
Lastly, it often takes a Coach and a subset of your peers willing to call you on your B.S. when it’s clear you’ve lost sight of your objective. As diligent as you may be on your quest for improvement, we’re human, and there are times when a reminder from someone you’re willing to hear it from can make all the difference in the world, both for you AND the team. Confidence in teammates is borne over a season, a season to sow the seeds necessary for harvest when the Championship opportunity presents itself. You can’t come together at the end, it has to be sometime along the way if the team is to prepare itself for the moment.
"I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious." - Vince Lombardi
Approach each day as a new opportunity to be better at what you did yesterday and you may just find yourself laying on the field, exhausted yet exhilarated with the reality that your incremental effort was the difference between victory and defeat.
Roger has spent 20+ years making complex concepts more understandable for both buyers and sellers alike, and has devoted the majority of his recent career to writing and executing sales and marketing plans for early and mid-stage businesses. He is a student of organizational behavior and the disciplines successful selling organizations use to achieve the greatest reach, even in instances of scarce resources. He loves the outdoors and seeks memorable experiences whenever possible. Contact Roger at roger@branded-logistics.com or 810-986-5369