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 the question, “why did the Panthers lose the Superbowl?”
They had been the favorite to win. After all, the team had finished the regular season 15-1 and they had Cam Newton. So why didn’t they win it all? Tom speculates that the team didn’t realize how focused Denver would be on shutting down Cam. In other words, the Panthers depended on being underestimated.
Tom quotes the writer, Jim Collins, who distilled the ability to survive difficulty to just two mental attitudes:
“Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of difficulties”
And
“Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
The Panthers certainly had faith that they would prevail, but they did not confront the reality that of course the Broncos would bring their A game. The Panthers also had weaknesses of their own, and, quite predictably, Denver knew what they were and targeted them. And won.
Tom then takes the lesson home by asking “what are the weak spots in your business?”
He uses the unexpected loss of the Panthers as an opportunity to recommend that we in business take Jim Collins’ advice closer to heart—have confidence, but at the same time, recognize reality and prepare for the real challenges life if going to throw at you. That’s how to win, and he fully expects the Panthers to do just that next year.
Again, that is just a summary. To read the original, go check out the blog on the Hamilton Edwards website, here.
Photo credit: Carolina Panthers – Bank of America Stadium via photopin (license)