Sports is 100% about performance (skill) and results (stats, winning). No amount of connections or politics can overpower these.
Business is performance- and results-based too. However, business requires an additional step.
Since “business” is the exchange between seller and buyer, your marketing efforts play a big role in the results you get (or don’t get) in business. Marketing is the relationship between you and the people you serve. And relationships are always subjective.
In sports, a great performer, even if they’re a total jerk/bitch, will eventually be seen and known. The game is set up to make it happen. A high-level sports performer can go far in their game without ever mastering marketing, relationships or people skills.
In business, a great performer will… just be a great performer. Perhaps this fact will be known only by the performer himself, a handful of believers and maybe their pet dogs.
Performance in business can be giving a great speech, how well your product works, hosting a life-altering online workshop. In sports, that would be all you need: just do it, and we see.
In business, though, the only way you can prove it is by creating exchanges with people who need them — THEN you can show your game. Sometimes this is reversed: show your game, then get the exchange — the fact is, it’s a 2-step process that you’re fully responsible for. Sports is a one-step process; step 2 (reward) happens on its own. The NBA, for example, has a pay scale that guarantees a minimum 6-figure salary for everyone with a job.
If you’re in business, you’re in BUSINESS — you need to create exchanges to get results for your performance.
In sports, results are built into the fabric of the games. The winners get the trophies; the best players get MVP awards. It’s all laid out clearly for all to see.
In business, the results (exchanges) are achieved by those who do the best job of making their performance known to the right people in the right places at the right times (aka marketing). This is an additional step that a lot of athletes never have to worry about (there are some exceptions, myself being one of them).
I was lucky enough that I had to learn this, and I had the requisite skill to use it. There are some really good athletes out there who will never get the proper results for their skills, because they (wrongly) think that the first job — performing — is their only job.
They may be right — if so, you’ll see them in the NBA and NFL. Those guys only need to perform; marketing is extra icing on the cake.
If they’re wrong? You’ll never know their names and all that talent goes to waste.
For the most part, when you watch professional sports, you know you’re watching the best of the best the sport has to offer. Again, the sports world is designed to identify and elevate the best. Straight Meritocracy.
In business, there will often be someone who’s decidedly better than the known commodity, but no one knows about them — because that person couldn’t or didn’t make the sale that would lead to the proper attention.
In sports, the performance is everything.
In business, performance matters, but the sale is everything.
Know the Game you’re in.
I wrote The Seller’s Mindset to help you develop and ingrained this mindset of creating exchange because the marketing game never ends. Get your copy so you can start creating and reaping your just rewards for your work.
Order it here: http://WorkOnMyGame.com/Sell
Be sure to check the following MasterClasses on this topic —
#1034: Performance Is Only HALF The Job
#504: Why Can’t You Have Everything?
#503: How To Practice Your Peak Performance Mindset
#434: Determining Your “Retail Value” in Life & Business
#363 :How To Increase Your Personal Value As A Business
#293: The 6 KEYS to Selling Yourself and Your Stuff
#292: The 10 Essential Roles of *You, Inc.* Media Company
How would you like to access not only these, but 1,507+ ADDITIONAL MasterClasses on every possible topic to advance your Mindset, Business and Life — without having to go searching for the best stuff on your own?
(Oh yeah: did I mention the EXCLUSIVE smartphone app that has EVERY MasterClass I’ve ever made?)
With the Game Group Membership, you’ll have unlimited access to the best daily teaching — which means it will be nearly impossible for your game to ever fall off like it did in the past.
When you become a Game Group Member, you get immediate access to ALL of the best material that Dre Baldwin (that’s me) has ever created, all organized and structured for you— PLUS six exclusive bonus courses.
I’ve created a FREE 14-day trial for you to experience the Game Group for yourself, which includes over 1,500 hours of my BEST material since 2005.
Get started with your free trial here: http://WorkOnYourGameU.com