Olympic Business

August 5, 2012

What strikes me about the Olympics is how much the mind plays a role in the physical performance. The start one gets in a sprint, the ability to hit a target, the need to avoid a foul at a critical moment—the mind can exploit or undermine the body.

At times, this can take hold of an entire team, once up two games to none, now struggling in a two-two tie; or rowers who see another team catching up, and either move on to greater exertion or flag in their efforts.

We generally don’t have competitors in the buyer’s office, except in our minds. We don’t have people setting world records just before our visit, except in our imaginations. If you’re not convinced that you can provide tremendous value, that you can perform the job, that you can behave and be seen as a peer of the buyer, then your other skills (content, methodology, discipline, organization, etc.) might as well be left on the starting blocks.

You’re not going to win that race. In fact, you’re not even going to compete in that race.

Get your head in the game. Understand your strengths and build on them (stop trying to correct weaknesses that somebody’s self-help books insists are important to correct), and practice applying them repeatedly, until they are second nature.

You haven’t observed a single Olympic competitor, let alone victor, who is “winging it,” competing without practice, discipline, or self-belief. And, do you see that swimmer finishing last in lane one? She’s still the eighth best in the world. That’s what her coach and family should be reminding her.

And that’s what I’m telling you. Get your head in the game.