With apologies to San Francisco 49er fans, I watched the Broncos vs. 49ers game Sunday night. This game was billed as the Kid vs. the Vet. Kid Colin Kaepernick is a complete physical specimen and a great athlete while Peyton Manning is supposedly at the twilight of his career given his advanced age and 4 neck surgeries. Here are a few of the facts and what we should all take away…
The 49er Quarterback is younger, faster, stronger, more mobile and can do things that the older Manning cannot even consider. What Manning has going for him is that he has seen everything that any team can throw at him, he does his homework at an level few can believe and when the coin is tossed before the game he knows that he’s done everything possible to get the win. While the win is never promised he over prepares himself, demands the same from his teammates and demonstrates what is expected. This is part of the reason he has thrown 510 touchdown passes in his career and will likely hit 600 according to his former coach Tony Dungy.
I am privileged to work with people that display this demand to win on a daily basis. One of those people holds the positions of Sales Manager and Lead Sales person for Brower Mechanical. Mark is slightly older than Peyton Manning and while he does not have the desire to climb around in attics or climb on roofs he has something that eliminates the requirement to do these things. Mark is a master at paying close attention to his customer while learning everything about them before deciding what to do next. There are times that Mark will walk away from what could be a sale because he knows that there’s not a fit between his solution and the prospect! He has learned a lot in his years of in home sales and knows what works and doesn’t work. Like Manning, Mark does his homework and over prepares for each situation he goes into. Mark is a great salesperson and he lives the mantra “They will never care how much you know until they know how much you care!”
From the reading I’ve done it’s clear to me that whenever anyone gets to the top in what they do, they are both a hard and smart worker. I recently learned that Jimmy Kimmell works between 75 and 90 hours every week and is always the first one to the show to get the ball rolling. This is why he’s able to make it all look so easy… He is over prepared and it shows! When things go wrong on his show or a joke bombs he takes responsibility for it and moves on. This is what Manning did after he lost the Super Bowl to the Seahawks and what Mark does when he doesn’t close a sale he believes he should have closed. Responsibility, when it’s combined with hard work is the easiest thing in the world to handle.
As you may know I took last week and spent it in Las Vegas. This was a combination of work and rest. While I was away I took in 5 webinars and met with 6 potential clients from the Las Vegas area. I am not sure who said that business and pleasure don’t mix but they were wrong! You not only can do both but you should do both in my estimation. The people I know that do well all have this in common and it shows. I had a client recently go to Italy for a week and told me in advance that he wanted and needed educational material for both he and his significant other for the flight there and back. He does this every time he goes away for pleasure and this is what keeps him at the cutting edge of what he does I’m convinced. Don’t take anything I’m writing to suggest that your life should be all about work because that is NOT what I’m saying. As Jeff Olson points out in the book The Slight Edge, it’s easy to do the things that will make you a success and it’s easy to not do the things that make you a success. Reading 10 pages of a good book every day is easy to do and easy to not do. Which easy thing are you going to do?
What about the rest of us? What could you add to what you do that your competition is unwilling to do? Are you going to simply outwork and out prepare your competition or are you willing to leave it to chance? Being a leader requires just a little more work than being a follower and unless you are the lead dog the view isn’t going to change!
If you demand to be the leader you were meant to be give me a call at 916-230-0176 or email me at steve@stevenclauson.com and let’s get to work! There is much to be done and less and less time to do it!