Not everyone is excellent, and not every organization is great.
We all have our own definitions of success. Whatever success means to you, find it and embrace it.
Whether it’s a business hitting their goals, growing their team, supporting their clients, or supporting their community — there are different levels and definitions of success and excellence.
If you’ve been watching the Michael Jordan documentary The Last Dance, you’ll be familiar with Phil Jackson. This is someone who is no stranger to success. He’s got 11 rings and 11 championships. He has a quote from when the Chicago Bulls had won two championships and they were going into the third year that really resonated with me
They had to consider that before they won the first championship, there was a level of hunger because they’d never won a championship before. After they won the first one, how can they be as hungry going for the second one, let alone the third championship? A lot of other teams out there all wanted to win that championship — and they’ve already done it twice in a row.
How did they maintain that hunger going into the third time? This was the theme for the team that year as they were going after that third championship.
Phil said, “You’re only a success at the moment that you perform a successful act.”
This means that if you did something successful, you had a great year, you won a championship — you have to do it again.
A lot of people’s problem is that they are living in the past. They talk about a great month that they had two years ago instead of focusing on the future.
Excellence is infectious, just as mediocrity is infectious.
Whichever one you are, that will resonate throughout your whole organization.
If you have an organization of mediocrity, and that is the standard that you have set, then that is what everyone in your organization will feel — no matter their level of talent, their skill set, or their capability.
Golfer Dylan Frittelli says that in golf there are small margins, and the difference between the 10th best golfer in the world and the 100th best golfer in the world is less than a quarter of a shot over a year.
The margin between success and failure is that thin.
Winners are always saying, “What’s next?” They achieve a successful act, they celebrate it, and then they get right back to it.
You should always focus on making the future greater than the past or the present — because you always believe there’s that next level.
I remember thinking after our first conference, leading up to the second one, that the first one was just a fluke and that we got lucky. Throughout the years, we were working towards everything from the marketing, to the planning, to the content — everything we had to do to put it together was all about making it a better experience for our attendees.
On the Saturday after the event, my wife and I were driving out of there. I turned to her and said, “The next one,” which would be a year later, “we can improve here and here.”
The event had just ended, but the day after, we started planning the next one.
You have to consider the fact that no player wants their team to lose. You need to believe that on the other end, you will turn things around, learn from it, improve, and grow.
Failure is not final. And because you will not allow yourself to lose, you will succeed.
If you agree or disagree with anything Michael said here, he wants to know about it. Text him at 404-531-7691 to share your thoughts.
