What Do The Olympics Have To Do With Your Business?
July 23rd, 2012 by Diane Conklin under Uncategorized. No Comments.
Not everyone is a sports fan, but everyone can be a fan of the Olympics. They are always full of stories of triumph, overcoming odds, and what it takes to be a champion.
And, if the opening ceremonies of the games don’t inspire you, well, I’m just not sure anything can or will. There is so much pageantry, preparation, and choreography. The artistic beauty, the coming together of countries – all in the name of sports and competition! It always seems magical to me.
That’s only the beginning of what happens as the games unfold. Favorites win, others are upset, unknowns come out of nowhere to win medals, injuries occur, stories develop, and it is the Olympics.
At this point you might be asking what does any of this have to do with business or marketing. A lot, I think, so let me share some of the parallels I see for just a minute or so.
First, most of us see the Olympics as a two week event that happens every four years. That’s because that’s what we see. For the athletes, it’s at least a four year event, and for some it encompasses their lifetimes.
Isn’t business sort of like that too? For many of us, on the outside, we see the glory of a business person, the accolades they get from others, we see them on stage speaking, and we think they were an overnight success. We too forget about their day-today struggles, the four years (or more) of preparation that it took for them to get where they are today. We only see what’s immediately in front of us, not all the hard work, dedication, and struggle it took to get there.
As I have said many times before, there are almost no overnight successes. We see it that way, but the entrepreneur knows what it took them to get there – just like the athlete standing on the medal platform.
Athletic success comes from hard work, training, drilling on fundamentals, strength training, flexibility, good nutrition, dedication, and a lot more.
Business success comes from hard work, planning, being flexible, following up, execution and implementation, and a lot more.
Athletes get injured and knocked out of competition sometimes. They have to then take time off while their bodies heal, spend time rehabilitating, and build their minds and bodies back up to competition level and beyond.
We all have down turns in our businesses. Sometimes we have to take some time away to regroup and get back on track. Things happen in our businesses that create challenges for us that we have to deal with and solve, so we can get back on track and be profitable again.
A business associate of mine, just recently found out he had an employee stealing from him and it almost caused his business to shut down, but he’s back on his feet now, rebuilding, making changes and adjustments, and is going to come out on the other end better than before.
We may not be competing for World or Olympic Records in our businesses, but we’re always competing to get better, to grow, to add new products and services, and to make money by making a positive difference in our client’s lives.
There are many lessons that can be taken from athletics in general, specifically from the Olympic Games, and applied to our everyday and business lives.
I hope you will take some time to enjoy the Olympic spirit and ideals during the next couple weeks and well beyond that into the future – in everything you do.
