Early last week, we urged you to consider the Olympics as a model for your small business. Now, we’re going to take a slightly different tack.
You, personally, should be like an Olympic athlete at your small business. No, I don’t mean you should chug protein shakes, nail your landings off the balance bar and shave your entire body. I also don’t mean you should parade around the office with a giant torch and medals around your neck. That’s a fire hazard.
What I mean is that you should always strive to better yourself, to push you and your business to the limits, to be at the pinnacle of your particular niche in the business ecosystem. That doesn’t mean you have to be a world-beater, or that you have to put in 80 hours while everyone else is putting in 40. It just means you’re constantly challenging yourself to be the best carpet-cleaning business in Kalamazoo.
There’s a few ways you can emulate athletes in all the right ways.
- Identify what you do well, and start doing it better. Address weaknesses and strengths alike with an eye on improvement. Don’t rest until you are, clearly, the top (insert business here) in (insert location here).
- Reward yourself and your employees. You’re not going to work your tail off for nothing. Olympic athletes do it for the glory, for the medals and perhaps the lucrative sponsorships, as well as their own pride. You should do it for the recognition, yes, but you should also give your team thanks for hitting milestones.
- Identify your competitors and seek to triumph over them. No Olympic athlete competes against his or herself, but against the best. Figure out who’s in your league and seek to be better than them.
So that’s our advice for emulating an Olympic athlete. Share yours in the comments!
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