March Madness is here, the grueling six-game playoffs of college basketball. Many factors lead to success, including talent, matchups, and hard work, but in the end, the team that gets on a hot streak will be crowned National Champions. Experts have argued for years over whether hot streaks really exist, but the latest research suggests
I have a colleague, Tom Hamilton, an entrepreneur who maintains a blog for his company, Hamilton Edwards, and recently posted something that made me think about Sportsepreneur. I thought it would be good to summarize it for you and then send you to his website so you can see it for yourself. The piece starts with
You’ve seen it before. It’s third and two. If the defense stops them, the momentum will turn. The quarterback calls out his cadence–the stadium thunders–this is it! Except… The defense jumps offsides before the play even happens. 5 yard penalty. First down for the offense. This is what I think about when someone I don’t
Picture yourself as a high school student who is exceptionally good at football. In walks a college football coach. He is going to try to convince you to join his program. He tells you: We have won 2 conference championships in the past 5 years We send players to the NFL every year We have
The 5th grade boys basketball team that I coach finished its season recently. We won one game! More importantly, memories were made and lessons were learned—lessons that reach far beyond boys’ basketball. 1. Focus on the fundamentals Not once throughout the season did we face a team that played man-to-man defense. Not one time.
During a recent drive I caught some of Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s show on SiriusXM. While I’d heard the show before, this time I was really struck by how well informed he is, not just about college basketball and other sports, but about business in general. It got me thinking about how we go about finding
I am not a die-hard NASCAR fan, but it has always amazed me how closely the people involved with racing work together. Watch the pit crews, for example; every movement is so carefully choreographed that they can refuel, change tires, even make minor repairs, all in just a few seconds. A race can be won
Professional sports is often all business. While there are moments of happiness, too many people forget to have fun and enjoy the journey. And then along comes the Carolina Panthers. The Panthers celebrate all their successes on the field, from first downs on. And since they won the NFC Championship, the hate they have drawn
Playoff football! The drama, the passion, the excitement… It’s 4th & One. You have to gain the yard to stay in the game. You simply have no choice. As you watch playoff football games, you will see teams go for it on 4th & One because in that moment that one yard is the difference between success
How often do you hear stories about young players in sports frustrated by how little they get to play? When high school players move up to college, or college players turn pro, all of a sudden they’re not stars anymore. As “the new kid on the block,” they don’t receive the same playing time, they
Miracle Speech – You Were Born For This: In 1980, the US Olympic Hockey Team won an upset victory over the Soviets and then went on to win gold. The “Miracle on Ice” gave America a much-needed burst of national pride in the depths of the Cold War. The movie, Miracle, shows how Coach Herb
This is the second of a series of posts each discussing a different iconic scene in a popular sports movie. We all know these scenes, but you might be surprised by how much they can tell you about running your business. Friday Night Lights: Being perfect is not about winning 1st place; it’s about knowing
This is the first of a series of posts each discussing a different iconic scene in a popular sports movie. We all know these scenes, but you might be surprised by how much they can tell you about running your business. Any Given Sunday | Al Pacino Speech The final speech from the movie “Any
We’ve all seen Allen Iverson’s practice rant, but actually we should talk about practice. Practice is important precisely because it’s not a game. Practice is how new players come up to speed and how established players try new things without the distraction of risk. It’s when the team can work on skills they don’t use every
Remember that great upset in the 1996 NCAA Basketball Tournament? The one where the defending champion, the talent-laden UCLA Bruins, lost in a thrilling last-minute game to Princeton? Watch it here: Go to 4:07 of the video. UCLA was favored in every way–talent, point spread, seeding. And while upsets do happen, the way Princeton did it
It seems like every time you achieve some kind of victory there’s someone who stands up to say “you just got lucky.” What do you do? Get discouraged? That’s a natural response, but it’s not recommended. Far better to let their doubt fuel your fire—or even just ignore it and move on. Actually, you need
The Punt. It’s perhaps the most boring play in football. A guy takes a snap and kicks a football high into the air. Usually, another player catches it, it’s a fair catch, and then the game goes to a commercial. What’s the big deal? Business will not always go well. Actually, sometimes things might go
If you watch any sporting event, live or on television, you will see the team members talking with each other. Not all of that talk is helpful (yelling and complaining does nobody any good), but the best teams communicate well and often. The same is true in business. Here are three ways you can use
Congratulations to the 2015 World Series Champions, the Kansas City Royals. Last year, the Royals came within just two runs of winning the World Series, but lost in Game 7 to the San Francisco Giants. Imagine getting that close only to come up short—and then coming back the next year to push even harder and
Forget the injuries. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost the 2015 NBA Finals for one reason; LeBron James did not listen to his coach. It’s that simple. Cleveland was up 2-1 in the best of 7 NBA Finals. The Golden State Warriors were a good team, but they hadn’t been playing well and Lebron had overwhelmed every
Evernote Scannable – A tool I couldn’t do without When you’re watching an NFL game, ever notice the quarterback and offensive coordinator on the sidelines talking…and they’re both looking at something? That something is a tablet. Technology makes transferring and reviewing information simpler, faster, and more efficient—and that’s what you want, in both sports and
We’ve been talking about brand recognition, why it’s important, and what happens when negative press threatens your reputation. But how do you build your brand to begin with? Of course, if you don’t win, people won’t watch. You can run an elaborate and fun offense, but if it doesn’t work against good teams no one
So, you’ve taken a risk, tried a few new things (that worked) and now the public is watching. That’s the good news—brand recognition is a big part of business success. But the bad news is that the public is watching and anything that goes wrong, or even seems to go wrong, can lead to bad
This is the second in a four-part series on branding. I’ve already talked in the introduction about how an unrecognized team can succeed, but to keep that success coming you’ve got to build name recognition—you’ve got to build your brand. And you can do that through innovation. That’s as true in college football as it
It seems like every year we see a blue chip program, a college football team everyone expects to win, beaten by a relative unknown. How is this possible? The public just didn’t recognize the second team’s brand. People like what they know—that doesn’t mean unknown teams can’t be any good. It all is a part
In the previous post we talked about Knowing the Playbook. Now is the time to prepare for the big game. You show up to the meeting with your perfect potential customer. He is so excited to see you–how great is this? You can’t wait. He sits you down in the conference room. You small-talk with
NFL and College Football seasons are underway. That means players across the country have been studying their playbooks. Some are more complicated than others, but all are essential—they explain not just what to do but why, and how the plan might change on the fly with just a nod or a hand signal. Show up on
3 Step Process to Changing Perception As a life long fan of Ohio State, Saturdays in the fall mean football to me. And while football is just a game for some, for many it is a lot more. For example, Ohio State can teach you a lot about the business world. Now, maybe right now
