Secrets of World-Class Athletes and Entrepreneurs

Dr. North’s Creed …
Be present.
Tell the truth.
Play to win.
Don’t be attached to the outcome.

I adopted this magnificent creed early in my career. It’s multidimensional when fully implemented, and it’s easy to understand (yet takes practice to master). Over the next several posts, we’ll examine each part of the creed.

Here’s a brief description of the four parts:
1. Be present. Show up with a clean slate — your only agenda is to serve the person(s) you are with (selling and leadership) or focus on competing at your highest level in sports.
2. Tell the truth. Always be truthful and find ways to deliver the tough truths in a way they can be heard. Tell the truth to others and yourself. We delude ourselves much of the time. Tell the truth to yourself – deal with the reality of every aspect of your situation.
3. Play to win. In everything that’s important to you, play to win — and don’t be afraid to lose. If you are afraid to lose, you play in fear. You can’t play your best when playing in fear.
4. Don’t be attached to the outcome. If you’re too attached, you may focus on how not to lose, or suffer needlessly when you do lose. More importantly, when you focus on the outcome, you are living in the future, get over that, come back to the present, this is where you are competing!

Be present. In leadership and sales, your only agenda is being with and serving the person(s) you are with. You aren’t in the past or future, just in the present. Ask great questions, listen beyond the words you hear and suspend your thinking while listening, so you tune in to and sense the nuances of the conversation that others miss. (When salespeople learn this, sales flow.)

Here’s a success story: Disney asked Lacy, the CEO of a very small — yet successful — Colorado business, to give a proposal for a significant piece of work. When she arrived at Disney, she was able to just be present. Lacy said, “I was so prepared by the time I got there, I wasn’t as nervous as I expected, even though we were meeting with top brass and I’d never presented to such a powerful group of executives. About 20 minutes into the meeting, I was so engaged in listening to what they wanted and sharing what we could do for them that I’d taken my shoes off and was sitting on my feet.” The meeting went well and had a great outcome. Lacy has a wonderful ability to be present, listen (except when she noticed her feet) and engage with others.

Leave me your thoughts and comments below and I look forward to the conversation.

Dr. TC North