I recently read a great story about basketball l
egend Nate “Tiny” Archibald.
Nate was such a great player he was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.
But earlier in his career, he missed the first 20 shots of his South Bronx high school championship game!
In spite of this, his team stayed close and in the last minute had an opportunity to win with a last second shot.
The team’s coach, well aware of Nate’s deep slump, diagrammed a play to set up a shot for another player.
As he did, Nate jumped up and said, "Wait a minute, Coach! I want the shot. Give me the ball!”
The coach, against his better judgement but impressed by the display of confidence, changed the play to give Nate the last shot.
Which of course he made and was carried off by fans and teammates as the hero of the night.
When re-telling the story later in life, Nate was asked how he was able to stay so confident after all of those missed shots.
He answered, "Well, I've always been a 50% shooter. After I missed one, I figured the next one was likely to go in. After I missed two, I was overdue. After I had missed five, I figured the odds were increasing in my favor."
Then he was asked, "Okay, if that's how you think after you miss your first few shots, how do you think when you make your first six or seven in a row?"
"That's totally different," he said. "I feel that tonight's my night, I am on a hot streak, and that I am going to make everything."
"That's ridiculous," the questioner challenged, "You can't have it both ways."
And the future hall of famer so very sageley replied: "Of course you can."
Yes, great shooters serenely oscillate between these two equally empowering realities.
They are either due or they are hot.
Shouldn’t we think about our businesses this way?
If we are coming off a bad year, a bad month, a bad day, well then we are due for the next one to be very good.
And if things are going well, if we are seeing double digit growth, or if we just made a big sale, or if our new product launch is met with great reviews then...
...we are hot and should press our bets with more marketing spend, new hires, raising capital, etc.
In either case, the empowering stance is to frame whatever has gone before as a positive for our future prospects.
Feeling and acting this way has a number of awesome benefits to our businesses and ourselves.
First of all, with confidence we do everything faster.
Meetings are shorter, and more action-focused.
Conversations with prospects get to the point quicker.
Hiring (and firing) decisions are made far more rapidly.
And our confidence inspires all we touch.
I challenge you to name a great business leader whose persona was not dripping in confidence.
Think about the big and bold innovators from last week - Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon.
You don’t take on the challenge of fixing our nation’s broken healthcare system without oodles of confidence!
And, finally this eternally confident mindset is just a beautiful way to live and work, is it not?
Whether or not things in the end turn out as well as our strong and steadfast confidence should predict, at least between here and there we live and work in that magical and happy world where the second the ball leaves our hands...
...we just know it’s going in.
Is Your Business Hot? Or Due?
Either way would you like more of the “good stuff” - more sales, more profits, more equity?
Have a key business initiative or a key new product that you would like help in getting done and launched?
Well, then click here and complete this short questionnaire.
And whether your business is hot or due, we’ll reach out with our thoughts to help you.