Nothing has changed
Last week, I was reminded of an age old lesson.  That lesson is that there are no shortcuts to success. Despite all of the advances in technology, medicine and cognitive understanding only effort and hard work truly bring success. Unfortunately, I learned this lesson at my daughter’s tennis lesson.  I say unfortunately because I have been steering her towards golf since she was born and after all that effort, out of the blue she tells me that she wants to be a tennis star.  Why?  Because my parents took her to a professional tennis match a few months ago and she met and got autographs from some of the top female tennis players in the world.  That experience lit a spark in her and now she wants to travel the world and compete against them.  When she gets older I will remind her that I took her to two LPGA golf tournaments and it did not faze her.  I digress.

It takes that much to succeed
Let me return to my point about hard work and effort.  So there I was at my daughter’s tennis lesson.  As the class was doing various drills, I overheard a conversation between another parent and the head instructor of the tennis club.  While I did not hear all of the details, I did hear something that really stuck with me.  The parent asked the instructor if he still competes in tournaments (apparently he used to be a big name player).  The instructor said no because he is only able to practice 2-3 hours a day.  He went on to say that when he was successful and winning tournaments, he would practice 4-6 hours a day. The instructor said, “If I am not prepared to compete at the highest level, then it does not make sense to do so.”

How about us
As I reflect on the conversation between the parent and the instructor, I thought about our lives as business professionals. How much do we prepare before we are “On Stage” or competing so to speak; whether it is before a sales call, big meeting, performance review with an employee, marketing presentation or any myriad of times when we have to perform? Fortunately, I have had bosses and mentors who drilled the importance of planning in my head since I was a very young professional.  It is no mystery that that the better I perform is in direct correlation to how much I have practiced and prepared. When I have an opportunity to mentor young adults and other professionals, I tell them that despite what they say their ambitions are in life, their level of effort in planning and practicing is the true indication of their ambitions.

What do the greats do?
A long time ago, I was talking to someone about the greatest athletes of all time.  Of course, Muhammad Ali’s name came up. Muhammad Ali was once quoted as saying something to the effect of, “I have already won the fight by the time I step into the ring.” Basically, what he was saying is because he had put in so much effort and was so prepared leading up to the fight that all he had to do was step in and execute…which he arguably did better than any other fighter of his generation.

To Your Story!

Ja Marr Brown