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The Top 3 Entrepreneurial Lessons Learned From Watching Football

This article is more than 8 years old.

NFL Conference Championships are upon us, and that means that many Americans will be glued to their televisions or flocking to stadiums. There are so many great entrepreneurial lessons that can be learned from the gridiron, and I thought that this would be the perfect time to explore them.

Lesson #1: It’s all in your head

Football is as much about psychology as it is about physicality.  Psychological momentum is defined as a state of mind where an individual or teams feels things are going unstoppably their way.  It’s a well-accepted concept throughout the world of sports.  In fact, according to the American Psychological Association’s Review of General Psychology, 92% of football coaches believe their performance is “crucially determined by momentum.”  Put simply, regardless of whether or not it’s true, participants believe that initial success frequently leads to more success.  Perceived momentum leads to increased confidence, which may, in turn, lead to more activity and better performance.  The impact is so strong, studies have shown that football coaches frequently change their overall behavior and adopt a more aggressive strategy after a single successful play early in the game.

We often deal with issues of psychological momentum at my company, BodeTree. Observers are often amazed by our ability to sign deals with much larger partners and manage the business with a fairly small team.  I attribute this to the momentum we’ve been able to foster internally.  This momentum isn’t necessarily due to specific successes, but rather how we perceive the actions we take as a team.  After all, the launch of a new product or signing of a new contract often leads to more work, challenges, and headaches for the team.  There’s also the ever-present risk of encountering failures and setbacks along the way, which can derail a team’s progress and hurt morale.

Lesson #2: Businesses win one inch at a time

Football is a game of inches, where the difference between winning and losing can come down to the smallest of things. The same can be said of running your own business. Most businesses grow through the steady march of small wins rather than one or two major runs. This can seem tedious at times, but recognizing that entrepreneurship is a game of inches is vital to success. Each day, entrepreneurs, leaders, and team members have to find the will to work (and sometimes fight) for the next inch of progress. It is in that struggle that successful businesses are forged.

This is something we’ve struggled with at BodeTree. We sell primarily to banks and other traditional organizations, so our sales cycle tends to be on the long side. Weeks will go by where we don’t see major movement in some of the deals we’re working on, but rather inch forward slowly but surely. At times, it has been excruciating, but now that I look back I can see that it was those little wins that created a strong foundation for the business. It’s important for leaders to recognize this and reinforce the value of these little wins to the entire team.

Lesson #3: You either win as a team or lose alone

These little wins are only possible when you have a team that is aligned, both culturally and intellectually. When you’re pushing forward with a plan, it’s all too easy to let your personal goals and ambitions get in the way of what is best for the team. Sometimes it’s a short-term focus on hitting a bonus target, other times it’s the temptation to do what is best for you as a founder. It doesn’t matter what form it takes. Whenever we put ourselves ahead of the team, the business suffers. You either win as a team or lose as individuals and only an honest, aligned, and fully attuned team has any hope of winning a game of inches.

Most successful businesses are defined by the sum of all of the little decisions and interactions that happen each and every day, and not by grand strategic moves. This simple truth puts the responsibility on both leaders and teams to make every single moment count. There’s no doubt about it: creating, running, and growing a business is hard. It’s the ability to keep moving forward, inch by inch, that separates the winners from the losers. More importantly, it’s the ability to remain positive and aligned while gaining those inches that separates good companies from great ones. So as you’re watching the conference championships this weekend, remember the things you see on the field are also applicable in your business.

 

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