Grow your business: Learn from failure
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Basketball phenom Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors is no stranger to losing, much less failure, even though he is one of the most successful professional basketball players of today. His record-breaking career has had countless ups and downs.
As best selling author John Maxwell has said many times, “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn”. In the case of Stephen Curry, no truer words have ever been spoken. In a documentary about Curry entitled “Underrated,” his journey from Davidson University to the Warriors is filled with many failures, as well as many successes. While he was a student at Davidson, his very first college basketball game credited him with 13 turnovers. But his coach at Davidson, Bob McKillop, did not give up on Curry. In fact, it was quite the opposite.
McKillop said he saw something in Curry earlier in his career, that other players did not have at the time. “In a summer tournament in Las Vegas, while all the attention was on high-profile prospects in the main gym, Stephen was in a back auxiliary gym, making mistakes, missing shots, but never lamenting them. He cheered for his teammates, looked his coach in the eyes during every timeout, and most importantly, he got everyone to believe in him. He transcended time and mistakes.” Fast forward to the second game of his college career against the University of Michigan. After his first game with 13 turnovers, Curry came out and scored 32 points, had nine rebounds, and four assists. But his persistence and tenacity paid off.
The key ingredient in the success of Steph Curry, according to McKillop, was his drive to succeed, in spite of his failures. He did not let any one else impose their expectations on him or allow their beliefs to limit him. What a huge lesson for anyone who is in business and wants to see their company grow to the next level.
Consider putting success, failure, winning, or losing, however you would like to view it, in perspective, when it comes to sports. In his career-to-date, Steph Curry is scoring 47% of the time he shoots. That means he misses 53% percent of his shots.
Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky is credited with saying, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” In other words, if you never try to score, you never will score. Gretzky would be one who knows since he is one of the highest scoring forwards in National Hockey League history.
In the game of baseball, most people agree, a batting average of .300 is considered to be outstanding. To put that statistic into perspective, Major League Baseball players swing and miss seventy percent of the time.
Success and growth in your business is very analogous to sports. In basketball, you are a superstar if you can make anywhere near 50% of your shots. In baseball, you would be one of the best hitters in the major leagues, if you could get a hit more than 30% of the time. Finally, in hockey, specifically, the National Hockey League, you are a star if you can score more than 15% of the times you shoot on goal.
As you venture into areas of growth for your company, keep these statistics in mind. Every customer you try to do business with might not be interested. If they are NOT interested, take good notes on why they are not interested and move on to the next possibility. Every sale you strive to make will not be successful.
Some employees you try and hire will not be interested in joining your firm. Find out why and move on to someone else.
Finally, you will not be completely successful in all the contracts you are awarded or in all of the projects you try and finish. Do the best you can; persist and stay determined. Failures are clearly a certainty in your life and the life of your business. It is how you deal with them and forge ahead in spite of them, that determines your ultimate success. Thomas Edison said, “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”
In the world of business, persistence can overcome failure after failure. Determination can result in the continued growth of your company, in spite of failure. Stay persistent and determined to achieve your goals and you will succeed.