Dropping The Ball

I recently heard former NFL player Johnnie Johnson give a talk where he told the story about his first varsity football game in high school. He was a freshman and the coach put him in the game to return the kick-off. With the stands full of his family and friends, Johnnie dropped the ball.

Four years later in his first college game at the University of Texas in front of 55,000 fans he did the same thing.

Four years later he was the number one draft pick by the Los Angeles Rams.

Dropping the ball is not the end of the world. World-class athletes, like Johnson, have all fumbled footballs, struck out at the plate, missed a free-through and botched the critical putt. These mistakes do not derail their careers.

The same is true in business. Many of the most successful have lost key accounts, failed to get promotions and have been fired. So what? The journey to victory can be long and hard. To excel you need to continue to keep going and discover ways to reach your goals, despite the road blocks along the way.

I was laid-off three times in six years because of companies going out of business or closing their local offices. It is not fun to have your job evaporate. But I kept going. Like Johnson, I had to pick up the ball and start running. Regardless of how bad I felt. I now have the best job of my career and a new book. As for those lay-offs, they are now part of history. Without those unfortunate events I may not be where I am today!

The old saying "what does not kill you makes you stronger" is true. Look to the future, not to the dropped ball. Batting .300 in baseball means you only get a hit one third of the time.

I have many things I want to accomplish in my career and personal life. I find my job to be challenging. Some days I fail. But I am back the next day looking for ways to decode success.

Promoting a book is harder than writing a book. While lots of people think it is "cool" that I wrote a book, not everyone buys it (But you can buy it at Amazon.com!). I have long term plans for "Some Assembly Required: How to Make, Grow and Keep Your Business Relationships". The title of the book says it all....you have to do the work to put it all together, success does not just happen!!! I cannot spend my time focusing on where I have dropped the ball....I have to pick it up and run like hell.

Have A Great Day.

Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com

***Thank you for reading The Some Assembly Requried Blog. If you are intersted in having an energetic and informative training presentation on business networking skills at your law firm, accounting firm, business or industry conference, please contact me at thom@thomsinger.com.