Success: Focus on your Game

                When I was playing tennis in high school, my partner and I tied the number one seed team in our league.  We were decently skilled while our competition had been leading the league for four years.  How did we do it and how does this apply to the Nursery Industry? 

We played best of three sets, seven games per set.  The first two games were a massacre.  I recall the other guys wondering aloud if they could skunk us.  Then my partner and I had this “Bagger Vance” moment where we just decided to play our best and to have fun with it.  After that, things got much harder for our opponents and I’m convinced it all came down to our motivations.  They won the first set but just barely. 

Each point we scored got in the way of their goal of wiping the court with us.  The tension built.  Any hope of skunking us evaporated when we won our first game.  They started getting snippy with one another and playing the blame game.  They were determined to beat us and continued to focus harder.  Amygdala hijacks are great in an actual fight but are less effective in a precision sport like Tennis.  The madder they got, the worse they played, and the more desperate and mad they got.  Doom loop. 

To contrast, we were unlikely to win from the start so there was zero pressure.  When they’d score a point, it showed us a vulnerability of our strategy.  We could admire and compliment them for a good point because there was no internal conflict between our motivation to play a good game and their playing a good game.  Our goal to have fun kept us focused on the four C’s of Commitment, Communication, Collaboration, and Cooperation.  That’s a nice basis for teamwork. 

We won the second set but the match had to be called partway through the third set so we could make the trip home.  Overall, it was an incredible opportunity and a great experience, but it taught me a very simple principle.  Focus on YOUR game.  I’ve mentioned the Hedgehog Concept before from Jim Collin’s book “Good to Great” and it’s a great practical example of the idea I’m explaining. 

One thing you learn early on in the Nursery industry is that everyone has something that makes them successful.  They have unique product mixes, production plans, protocols, philosophies of service, technologies, target markets, and customer demographics.  Each one might have something cool or unique that you can retool to help improve what you’re doing but the goal needs to be your own continuous improvement.  I saw a nursery surround their delicate deciduous shrubs with cold hardy spreading junipers for winter.  Great idea!  Saved on insulation and protected the plants.

The more you focus on your game, the further you will be able to go.  Who knows?  You might outlast the competition, or you might end up working together for many years.  The future is open but only those who are successful will get to participate in it.  Everyone else has to watch from the sidelines.  Focus on your game. What is the portion of your game that needs improvement to take you to the next level?