I play to win, whether during practice or a real game. And I will not let anything get in the way of me and my competitive enthusiasm to win. -Micheal Jordan
Entrepreneurs and athletes can be so much alike. First of all, they can earn a lot of money. Well, the successful ones at least. But did you know that you can be successful by learning from athletes if you’re an entrepreneur? You can improve your entrepreneur knowledge by looking at successful athletes and how they outwork competition in order to end up on top.
It’s All About Being on Top
Successful athletes have one thing in mind – to be on top. They train long and hard because they want to be on top. An athlete that’s preparing but doesn’t want it as bad – won’t be successful. If you want to be successful, you have to have a specific goal in mind – that is to end up on top.
No self-respecting athlete will prefer 2nd place over 1st place, and the discrepancy of the smiles and celebrations between the gold medalist and the silver medalist on the podium is proof of this.
In fact, most athletes even prefer to set higher goals. Usain Bolt didn’t want to just end up with the gold medal. He wanted to break personal and world records, and he did countless of times. In a lot of the times that he didn’t break the world record, he still ended up with the gold medal. That’s not a bad fallback at all.
Keep this in mind while you’re in the process of improving your entrepreneur knowledge. Have this mindset so you can outwork and outlearn competition. You’ll be up against lesser-prepared business owners. The mere fact that you prepared to break barriers and end up on top will put you at a huge advantage.
Doing Better than the Competition
Athletes know that in order to be on top, they have to be better than their competition. LeBron James knows that he and his Miami Heat team needs to beat more than 400 players in 29 other teams in order to hoist the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy and have that Championship Parade in the streets of Miami.
By recognizing that you have competition, you’re able to establish a good plan of attack. Look at how NBA players train in order to become better than their competition. LeBron James understood that he’ll be spending a lot of time in the post this season against taller and stronger players, so he trained with Hakeem Olajuwon in order to become better. He knows that he’ll be faced with stiff competition, so he did something to outwork competition.
Add this to your entrepreneur knowledge. Understand the fact that your business is constantly up against similar businesses that are just waiting for you to rest just so they can steal your customers. This is why you have to “train” really hard and you can do this by improving your entrepreneur knowledge.
Here are the things that you can do in order to become better than your competitors:
- Learn and understand new strategies that you can implement in your business. Find strategies that will work and implement them.
- Find mentors that can help train you to become better. Find your “Hakeem Olajuwon”.
- Invest in materials that can help you improve your entrepreneur knowledge.
- Invest in products and services that can help you outwork competition. For example, set up a website if you don’t have one yet.
- Hire the right people. Don’t try to save money by hiring mediocre people. Michael Jordan paid Tim Grover a lot of money because he knows that Tim is the right man for him, and the fact that he paid more for Tim’s services rather than some cheaper trainer proved to be a very good move.
Don’t Rest On Your Laurels
This is why athletes like Kobe Bryant are very successful. They don’t rest on their laurels. In fact, they work hard to add to their laurels. Kobe can rest easy knowing that he already has 5 championship rings, but he’d rather continue to work harder so he can match or surpass Jordan’s 6 championship rings.
Don’t rest on your laurels. Outwork competition regularly. If you had a good month in your business, don’t rest. Build on that success so you can have a successful year. After that, build on that year’s success so you can have another successful year. The eye must always be focused on improvement.
Take Care of your Business
You have to take care of your business just like how athletes take care of their body. Athletes will do everything to take care of their body. The successful athletes follow a very strict workout and diet plan. They’re not going to do things that can harm their body.
You should also take care of your business. You can pump it with “nutrition” by improving your entrepreneur knowledge. Don’t do things that you know will be bad for your business. Before doing anything, ask yourself if it’s going to be good or bad for your business.
If you take care of your business, it will be very easy to outwork competition.