CustomerTrax CustomerTrax Magazine | Page 15

“A PLAYER WHO IS FULLY PREPARED ON THE PRACTICE FIELD WILL FEEL READY TO MEET WHATEVER COMES HIS WAY ON GAME DAY AND THUS, FEEL MORE CONFIDENT AND ABLE TO MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS OF FEAR AND DOUBT.” papers, I took on a caddie job at our local, private country club. The caddie master turned me down initially, laughing that the bags were bigger than me. I told him I would just hang around at the caddie shack and wait for an opportunity. The other caddies tore into me as I spent days waiting for an opportunity that just wasn’t coming. They said if it ever did, I wouldn’t be able to “loop eighteen”. Well, one day that opportunity came late in the day and I was the only kid left to carry a bag. Not only did I make it around the course, but the member requested me for his next round the next day! It turns out that I befriended hundreds of members over several years and their advice significantly helped me in my future entrepreneurial pursuits. GRIT! Now 17 years old and I get a job at a national chain grocery store as a cart boy. Soon thereafter, I was a stock clerk. I’ve always enjoyed an extra amount of energy and would challenge myself to fill my assigned shelves faster than the full-time adult stockers. Those guys sure rubbed it in, laughing that with the union we were in, they could coast and make the same as I was making hustling around. In my second year in the store, I was named assistant store manager, where we employed around 200 employees. GRIT! It was painful in my high school freshman year to be the last guy cut from making the team. I hate to lose! The summer following I spent no less than six hours each day practicing the game. I not only made the team sophomore year but I was also ranked in the number one position on the team. Junior year, I was named player-coach. GRIT! There’s just not enough space here to note the many times grit came into play as I led six start-up businesses into national platforms. And then leaving the comfort of business success to start over as a “starving speaker”. So much GRIT was the key along the way. I laugh all the time thinking back to being fifty-eight and not knowing how to swim and me with my bucket list of racing an Ironman. And now I have 15 Ironmans completed, including the World Championship. GRIT! Again, pearls from Saban: “The characteristics that made up our 2003 national championship team are the same attributes that form my philosophy for success. Terms like conviction, dominate, adversity, perseverance, commitment, attitude, teamwork, road map, pride, relentless, and intensity. Now, how good do you want to be?” The keys for me on the journey of life have been clear goal focus and practice, practice, practice. Duckworth in her book says that “deliberate practice predicted advancing to further rounds in final competition far better than any other kind of preparation. Gritty people do more deliberate practice and experience more flow, and flow is for performance.” Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks coach: “A player who is fully prepared on the practice field will feel ready to meet whatever comes his way on game day and thus, feel more confident and able to minimize distractions of fear and doubt.” My all-time favorite book on GRIT is Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing, telling of Shackleton’s 1914 voyage to Antarctica. Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare. How bad do you want it? Let’s finish with a few more pearls from Angela Duckworth: “To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times and rise eight.” So, HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT? ABOUT JACK DALY JACK DALY is an experienced and world recognized sales speaker and sales training expert, who inspires audiences to take action in the areas of sales, sales management and corporate culture. He brings 30 plus years of field-proven experience from a starting base with CPA firm Arthur Andersen, a captain in the U.S. Army to the CEO of several national companies. Jack is a proven CEO/ Entrepreneur, having built 6 companies into national firms, two of which he subsequently sold to the Wall Street firms of Solomon Brothers and First Boston. His professional sales trainer know-how has turned him into an accomplished sales coaching authority and author of books including Hyper Sales Growth, The Sales Playbook For Hyper Sales Growth and Paper Napkin Wisdom, all Amazon #1 Bestsellers. JackDaly.net 1. youtube.com/watch?v=45gf _W0tNMA 15