Sokanu: The Blog

This post was inspired from a post I read from Jesse Pujji on his fantastic blog Shootin' From The Don't.  I watch a lot of sports, and love competition.  I can relate to what Mark Cuban talks about in his post The Sport Of Business.  Business is the ultimate sport, and the competition is high. If you are reading this blog right now (thank you) then that is one person that is not looking at Facebook, Google, Yahoo, or any other site on the Internet.  That means that I have competed for your time and have won the right for you to read this.  I appreciate that.

Looking at strategies, both in startups and in life, we can also use sports as an analogy.  Here is a portion of the blog post written by Jesse.

The Sports Analogy

You are the head coach of an NBA basketball team. As the game goes on, your team starts losing…badly. By the third quarter, they are down 30 points. So, you chalk the game up to bad travel and you put in your second string. You figure it’s a good learning experience and makes sense to rest the starters. As the fourth quarter progresses, all of a sudden, your team is coming back! With two minutes left in the game, your team has pulled within 6 points!!

Now the question is: What do you do? Do you keep the second string in? After all, they’ve been playing tremendously well and have momentum. Or, do you put your starters in? The best players you have, who are well rested and ready to close the game?

(Please write down your answer.)

Of course, this is a trick question. His answer was simple: It doesn’t matter what you do. People will judge your “decision” based on the OUTCOME of the game. In other words, whether you bring in the starters or keep the benchwarmers in, people will only care what the outcome is. If you win, you’re a genius. If you lose, you’re an idiot. Can’t you just hear the announcers?

Win with Starters: “Well that is GREAT coaching, even though the second string was hot, he took the time and prudence to put in the better players…and that is why they won the game.”

Win with Bench: “Well that is GREAT coaching, he played with the momentum and kept the right guys in…and that is why they won the game.”

And on the other hand…

Lost with Starters: “Well of course he lost! He put in the cold starters who had allowed the other team to outscore them 2-1. What an idiot!”

Lost with Bench: “Well of course he lost! He made a simple rookie mistake, when the game is on the line, you MUST have your best players on the floor.”

One recent example of this has been Bill Belicheck and the 2009-2010 New England Patriots. Now I love to see them struggle, don’t get me wrong. But this year, everyone ridiculed Belicheck for “taking chances,” “going for it on fourth down” and “gambling.” No less than 2 years ago, he coached exactly the same, and was considered a “BOLD GENIUS.”

Sports isn’t the only place we see this phenomenon. It’s present in entertainment, politics, our personal lives and of course… in business and entrepreneurship.  The press has an obvious bias in this, especially for entrepreneurs.

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The idea point behind this idea is that in life, no matter what you do, people are going to judge you. In any profession, people are going to have opinions on the way you talk, the way you dress, how you work, etc...  Life is filled with questions that we sometimes don't know the best way to answer.  The journey that we take doesn't matter once we reach success.  Each failure that we had in the past is something that is used as a positive once we succeed.  People will tell you that you are either brilliant or stupid depending on the outcome of the result, not the journey.

What it comes down to, whether starting a new career, opening up a new business, etc... is that execution is the most important thing.  And like the saying goes, "there is more than one way to skin a cat", this definately holds true in business and in life.  There are so many seperate journeys that sometimes we just need to put our heads down and do what we think will result in the best outcome.

I sometimes struggle with this, being in the startup world.  I read a ton of content every day telling me the best way to run my business. I have multiple phone calls a week with people that either love what we are doing or don't quite get the vision.  And that's okay. Everyone has an opinion as to what the "correct" journey is for a company.  I sometimes forget to just ignore the "noise" and just focus on building the best product possible.

Jesse provides these great points as examples of why to focus on the outcome and stick to it:

• It gets rid of “Paralysis by Analysis” – this is where I find it most useful.  I will say, well doesn’t matter which direction we go… if we’re successful, we’ll be geniuses.  This makes us focus on execution as opposed to getting caught up in overanalyzing (we still do, but it helps).
• Allows you to be your biggest critic and make your own path -when you realize the world will almost always judge you based on outcome, it forces you to clear your own path (and realize if you’re successful, everyone will craft a story about ‘YOUR way’ of doing things.)
• You can take advice in the proper context – every succesful person will have tons of advice.  But this helps you realize that their path is one way to success and your could be different.
• It makes failure more palatable -again, you don’t get caught up in your methods… because you realize outcome is paramount.  If you fail, you know that if you pick back up and make it work… people will later call you a ‘genius’ and look at your failure as a stepping stone.
• Keeps you focused on the goal.  If that’s all you’ll be judged on, maybe its all you need to worry about.

So no matter what path you take in life, and no matter where you come from, just focus on your goals.  It doesn't matter what your path is to get there, as long as you win.  You will be remembered for your successes, and anything along the way will just be a stepping stone. If they can do it, Sokanu!