Week 12: Watch the whole match, not just the highlights
Focus on the long term
as we roll into week 11 of my new start-up GTM Partners, I am reminded of what I shared with my son a few weeks ago.
Watch the whole match, not just the highlights.
here’s the back story:
Krish, my son, is a tennis player and his current priorities revolve around the games.
one day I saw him watching youtube videos of tennis matches.
i was immediately the proud father thinking it was better than playing mindless video games or a crazy show that I don’t want him to watch without supervision.
i was getting giddy-up and loving the fact that he was working on getting better and learning what the best in the world do.
but then, in a few minutes, I realized that what he was doing it all WRONG!
Krish was simply watching match highlights.
not the whole match - just the 2 min highlights of the best moments that helped the payer win!
winning as never taught anyone, ever.
as you know that living in someone else’s highlights will not help you win the match of tennis, business, or life.
for example, we discussed that he is completely missing the opportunities to learn this:
what did the player do during the breaks to recover after being down a set?
what was the new strategy and how was it tested over the opponent?
how were the emotions when he lost another point or made a point?
how did the player stay in the game and then at the right time overcame?
now, these are life lessons.
too often, just like Krish, we watch businesses and lives in highlight and make judgments (good or bad) and get frustrated why things take longer and never learn the lessons when things didn’t go as well as we wanted.
For my new startup:
are we exactly where we want to be - not even close
are we closing deals at a rocket speed - no
are we making progress - absolutely yes but setting metings
are we testing and giving it all - no doubt with a great team
are we doing our best - one day at a time
Leaderpoint: Don’t compare your match with someone else’s highlights.
Live your goal - one day at a time doing the best work of your life.
what’s your match (not just the highlight) you are working towards?
I left the corporate world 8 months ago to work as a freelance consultant. My wife joined me 3 months ago, and we’re finally getting close to stabilizing our income. At the moment, we’re trying to focus on delivering the very best service to our two clients while I am also actively on PEAK, $RISE and LinkedIn trying to contribute my voice to the marketing community. It’s one day at a time, one project at a time. God is good and I trust him for the future.
This is a profound truth on several levels. First, failure is the ONLY way we change. (If it's not BROKE, there's not way we will bother to fix anything)! Second, only when things STOP, do we stop to focus on them. Otherwise, we will just move on.
Where this gets interesting is thinking about enabling transformation... helping companies not only see the truth about their performance from a customer's perspective, but helping them actually CHANGE their behavior as we result.
Like friends or spouses, I think companies need feel "loved" before they can change hear what's not so good and needs to change. My role as a market insights "truth teller", is not just to deliver the "full reel lowdown" about their failed performance, but to combine it with the victorious "highlights" that can encourage the company to make want to change.