March 11, 2009

Don't give up the game until it is over

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Yesterday I had a speaking gig in Cleveland.  

During the day, I found out that the Middle American Conference was opening it's 2009 NCAA conference tourney at the Quicken Loans center -- right behind my hotel. I love a good game, especially March madness. I bought a cheap ticket, wiggled my way to a floor seat and settled in for the Akron/Toledo matchup.  

The game took a long time, and a few of the Akron fans behind me were really unruly and loud. One man behind me screamed at the Akron coaches, the kids and the refs. In that order.  With about six minutes to go, Akron was trailing by a dozen points and the kids on the bench were hanging their heads. Lowly Toledo was about to pull an upset.  

The jerk behind me screamed, "it is over!" and somehow I fell victim to his negativity. I decided that it was time to call it a night, so at 9:30 I made my way out of the arena to find a quick bite to eat. I've left games early countless times, and usually have a good nose for a blowout.  This time I was wrong. 

When I got back to my hotel room, I looked up the score online out of curiosity. Turns out the end of the game was a thriller (an overtime victory for Akron). 

When I got my coffee this morning, people in the lobby were talking about "how insane" the end of the game was. Yikes. I love nothing more than a thrilling game, and I missed it because I hit the exits too early. Instead of wallowing in this, I decided to derive a lesson from it: Don't leave the game until it is over -- even if the jerks are telling you that it is over. 

This applies to your business life too. These days, the game looks like it is over for some of our customers and partners. Don't leave them, you might miss a thrilling turnaround and be rewarded for your stick-to-it-ness. Same goes for your company -- don't split just because your team is behind in the second half. 
Posted at 9:11 AM in Business Effectiveness  |  Permalink  |  Comments (4)  |  TrackBack (0)

Comments

Commentor

Tim --

I love this post. It's a timely reminder in a lot of ways. Don't give up on this economy, don't give up on the environment, don't let the endless drumbeat of bad news in the media get you down. Hang in there to the end. It's worth it.

Posted by: Nick Morgan  |  March 16, 2009 at 08:52 AM

Commentor

Tim, Thanks for sharing and I hate that you missed the ending. These types of stories take me back to my high school days where we were down 5 with 25 seconds in a big game against our largest rival, and the rival's fans started to leave thinking they had it in the bag, but we scored 8 points in 25 seconds to win the game by 3. I still have the highlight on VHS and my brother and I relive it frequently. Funny how your mobile photo has a photo of someone taking a mobile photo of the same moment...I wonder what HIS story was?! Morals of the story: 1) everyone has a story, and 2) don't ever give up!!

Posted by: John Gallagher  |  March 11, 2009 at 07:59 PM

Commentor

Tim, this is a useful insight about staying in it till the end... and it's interesting that another bonus insight comes up *right at the end*. The bonus insight is in your demonstration of turning a disappointment into a learning opportunity. So go ahead, stay till the end, and if you team (still) loses, there's learning in that, too. Thanks!

Posted by: CV Harquail  |  March 11, 2009 at 11:11 AM

Commentor

Tim,

Another great post, after watching the news, reading papers and biz mags it is hard to keep your head up. Coming to your blog is refreshing, fun and really helps me and my team see the light at the end of tunnel, which is coming.

Keep it up
Mike

Posted by: mike  |  March 11, 2009 at 10:58 AM

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