I still remember my first cocktail party talk at a former employer’s home in New York. It was about how Tom Brady led his team down the field, setting up Adam Vinatieri’s game-winning 48-yard field goal as time expired in the previous Sunday’s game, resulting in the Patriots defeating the Rams. . What began to build the legend of Tom Brady in his long tenure in the NFL.
For a South American boy who grew up playing real soccer and admiring legends like Pelé and Maradona. Football was as strange as my accent sounded to the guys at the cocktail party as I tried to keep up the football talk.
When you’re in Rome you should act like the Romans do, the adage goes, so I tried to learn as much as I could about football; terms, teams, players, stats and then I picked a team, actually I picked a whole city: Boston.
With more than 35 championships in their history, the last 15 years have seen the Red Sox lift the curse of the Bambino with two championships, the amazing Bruins, the legendary Celtics and The Patriots now show off three rings and potentially a fourth after the game of this Sunday.
I chose them because they are results-oriented teams. I love Tampa and its teams, but we’re not goal oriented, so it’s hard to come away with wins. Teams are like businesses, either you focus on winning or you end up losing. It’s your choice.
In football, as in business, all the joy goes out the window when helmets collide and the ball flies down the field on its way to a touchdown. Time is ticking and you need to regroup and try harder than before just to get past this hurdle called scoring.
You must have the right mind at the right time to push, pull, move and keep going, you must have the right strategy that allows you to see the open spaces that the rivals cannot see, the opportunities to take advantage of. , which will allow you to win this game.
Strategies are important for a soccer team, they are rehearsed a thousand times during a few seconds of the game, those seconds separate a winner from a loser. A coach with great strategies and a good team can still win. Vince Lombardi taught us that.
Companies need strategies and someone to help them implement them. Coaching may come from strange places, but the results are what matter. Take Brady as an example, how he is surviving in the Not For Long league (as the players called it) by being able to be flexible in his approach and find solutions outside of the football industry. He has a coach who trains MLB pitchers to help him pitch, a fitness coach with a radical approach to help him be at the top of his game with fewer injuries.
Do you have a trainer? How do you keep up with changes in your industry? What strategies are you putting in place to make sure customers continue to line up at your door like they did 10 years ago? Are you up to date with online advertising and social media? Do you have a Patriots mentality to wait for the next ring or just survive like our beloved Bucs?
No man is an island, we all need help to grow, to see the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead and see what is the best approach to follow. The PROS are looking for every possible help they can get to stay in the game. Deflated balls or not. You, as a business owner, need to seek advice to keep the competitive edge at your doorstep.
Hire a consultant. Join a group of masterminds, subscribe to a paid publication that targets your industry. Call another company like yours in non-competitive areas and pick their ideas. Don’t do one thing at a time, multi-task, innovate, get out of your comfort zone and you’ll find, like Tom Brady and the Patriots, the path to victory lines up over and over again.