I was reading today about how to succeed, what it takes and all the work involved in such. I’ve heard so many times that for you to succeed, you need to master one art and that will help you go to the top. Specializing in something, will help you hit the big paycheck. I don’t think this is correct, you need more than that.
I’m a big fan of basketball, since I was a kid I was always watching NBA games, I’m a Magic fan since the 90’s, I played basketball in high school and college.
The reason I’m bringing basketball to the conversation is because the season is almost over, today is the day for the big star to hit the big shot and I’ll try to explain here how you can compare success with the NBA star and what you need to make it big.
In basketball there are two types of players, the star and the roll player.
The roll player
These players do one thing in their team, defense or offense (or cheerleader roll with a towel in the sideline… yes I’m mean). In business this are the employees, the guys that are hired to do one thing and live for a payroll, time to time they shine, but they are not the type of people that can be defined as a successful stars.
The Star player
The star is the player that is specialist in one art, but (here is why I don’t agree with my initial paragraph) that art alone don’t make the players to go to the top alone. These players normally master one art, can be scoring or defense, they guide their team in both events, they will do whatever it takes, they will take the last shot with couple of seconds left, they take action, in the end they succeed and are the ones doing the interviews. This players fail several times (Link to video bellow in youtube), but they bounce back come back, stronger and with the lesson learned.
I think this is what makes the difference, one art is not enough, you need to do more, you need to do whatever it takes, you need to bounce back. In business they are the owners, the guys who take the risk, the guys running the show, the guys taking responsibility, the stars.
This is true. To be successful you do have to be the big star. I think that you should “be like Mike”. Michael Jordan did everything, he never gave up, never stopped until he reached the end of the game. In business and marketing the buzzer never goes off. There will be no last second buzzer shot. You just can not be afraid to take the shot. Quit passing it off to the next guy. If your not gonna shoot, then get off the court. I like basketball its a great metaphor. Keep the posts coming.
I love basketball as well, and I have even played basketball in the US (at high school).
Great analogy. I was a roll player on the court, but inside of me I was THE star 🙂
I'll stop messing around. I was not the star player, but I was kind of a star player since I was sacrificing myself for the team. I would do anything the coach and my team mates told me to do. I was “crazy” in defence, and especially at rebounds.
Being a team player when it comes to teams are important, and that way we can all become stars. Some people are artists, and have amazing skills, but they lack relations with people. It's hard to be a lone ranger when it comes to business.
I believe that networking and being a team player is one of the most important skills in any business.
The point I'm trying to pass is that you do what you have to do to make things happen. If you did that for your team and you have the mentality, for me you are the star, you are doing whatever it takes to win.
I agree with you, networking is one of the most powerful tools in business. Thanks for the comment.
MJ was the best on this. For him don't matter how many times you fell, but that you get up and try again. Thank you for the comment.
I used to play basketball but then I twisted my knee and gave up, reading this makes me think maybe I should never of given up.
Well, did you give up? Your into something else now, maybe you didn't actually give up. You just changed the game. Sometimes when we are playing a game, we get injured. This is where we either continue on, or we change the game. Don't think of it as giving up.
Exactly! did you saw the game yesterday, Lakers didn't gave up after 13-point second-half deficit and in the end they won. That's the right mentality, also I think is not only about that, is about not giving up in life, you took your chance on that, now is the time to do it in other ways…
I recommend a very interesting book by Seth Godin, it's called The Dip, and it's actually about when to quit 🙂