My two sons (5th and 6th grade) love to play basketball.
Recently, we got into a discussion about rebounding.
Why are some NBA players so good at rebounding, when others seem to always be in the wrong place? I reminded them of Wayne Gretzky's quote on why he is such a good hockey player - "A good hockey player plays where the puck is.
A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
" Great NBA rebounders play the same way.
They have an uncanny way of knowing where the ball will rebound.
Human nature is to run to the hoop, but if you watch Kobe Bryant, he often stands outside the crowd and somehow knows the ball will rebound directly to him.
Business leadership is the same way.
It is easy to follow the herd and emulate the competition.
Most companies spend a lot of time on competitive analysis to anticipate and often copy their competitor's products.
We create websites that match our favorite competitor.
We copy their campaigns and trade show booth designs.
We build products that are very similar to theirs.
This type of "herd mentality" creates excellent second-place players.
However, none of us want to be in second place.
What is difficult is to stand alone on the court with conviction that the ball will come to us.
Identifying where the ball will go - or in this case where the market will go takes vision, but positioning your company in that direction when everyone else is moving in the other direction is counter-intuitive.
It is difficult to build a product that is unique and unexpected by the market.
It is difficult to create a website that stands out from the others.
It is difficult to create a new and untried channel of distribution or sales promotion.
However, this is how first place players are created.
To be fair, the "first to market" often fails and the "second to market" often learns from the failures of the first, to create a cheaper, better, faster version that ultimately becomes successful.
However, the 20 or so other players who stayed in the safe mature market simply emulating the leader, or making small incremental improvements over the prior version, rarely become cover page successes.
The bottom line is that it takes conviction, passion, nerve and just a little bit of insanity to step outside our comfort zones to take the risk.
However, once in a while, it is well worth it.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
" - Theodore Roosevelt
Recently, we got into a discussion about rebounding.
Why are some NBA players so good at rebounding, when others seem to always be in the wrong place? I reminded them of Wayne Gretzky's quote on why he is such a good hockey player - "A good hockey player plays where the puck is.
A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.
" Great NBA rebounders play the same way.
They have an uncanny way of knowing where the ball will rebound.
Human nature is to run to the hoop, but if you watch Kobe Bryant, he often stands outside the crowd and somehow knows the ball will rebound directly to him.
Business leadership is the same way.
It is easy to follow the herd and emulate the competition.
Most companies spend a lot of time on competitive analysis to anticipate and often copy their competitor's products.
We create websites that match our favorite competitor.
We copy their campaigns and trade show booth designs.
We build products that are very similar to theirs.
This type of "herd mentality" creates excellent second-place players.
However, none of us want to be in second place.
What is difficult is to stand alone on the court with conviction that the ball will come to us.
Identifying where the ball will go - or in this case where the market will go takes vision, but positioning your company in that direction when everyone else is moving in the other direction is counter-intuitive.
It is difficult to build a product that is unique and unexpected by the market.
It is difficult to create a website that stands out from the others.
It is difficult to create a new and untried channel of distribution or sales promotion.
However, this is how first place players are created.
To be fair, the "first to market" often fails and the "second to market" often learns from the failures of the first, to create a cheaper, better, faster version that ultimately becomes successful.
However, the 20 or so other players who stayed in the safe mature market simply emulating the leader, or making small incremental improvements over the prior version, rarely become cover page successes.
The bottom line is that it takes conviction, passion, nerve and just a little bit of insanity to step outside our comfort zones to take the risk.
However, once in a while, it is well worth it.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
" - Theodore Roosevelt
Source...