The Seattle Mariners, like quite a few teams, started their 2017 season very slowly, going 2-8 at one point. The press and the casual fans started to panic, then they won 4 games in a row.
You see, the baseball season is like a life, it’s long and has many ups and downs. A baseball team with a 50-50 record at the All-Star break has plenty of time, there’s still a lot of season left.
By contrast, football is like a year of life. There’s 10% of the games (in football versus baseball), and a bad few games, like a bad few months in life or business, can wreck your season/year. A football team that is 5-5 at the same 5/8 point of the season better go at least 5-1 the rest of the way or they’re in trouble.
It’s why, in life and business, we need a balance between the short and long term. We can’t panic every time we lose a deal and we can’t get overly excited when we do get a deal. Our focus should be on what we need to do every day to keep a steady stream of customers coming in our door, which means long term strategy implementation.
However, we can’t lose urgency. Some things need be done now. You can’t put off phone calls for a month and expect potential customers to still be there. I can’t miss three weeks of this memo and then have four come out in one week.
For years I’ve told all my clients (buy-sell, coaching, mentoring, etc.) if they keep doing the things they are supposed to do, good things will happen. Of course, it usually takes someone who knows what the heck they’re doing to make sure the things they’re doing are the right things being done the right way.
“Status quo, you know, is Latin for ‘the mess we’re in’.” Ronald Reagan
