+JMJ+
How can embracing failure like an 11-time NBA All-Star help you win in your business?
It’s all about learning from your losses, just like Chris Bosh.
FULL DISCLOSURE: As someone who is a less-than-casual fan of the Toronto Raptors, I’m thrilled Bosh won his rings, and I have zero animosity towards him for leaving the city.
I was a fan of his back in the day, so you can see why I was curious when I came across this headline back in 2022 on the “Men’s Health” website:
“What Chris Bosh Can Teach You About Embracing Failure”
The article takes you back to 2011, when Bosh was with the Miami Heat and in the NBA finals, playing with the likes of Lebron James and Dwayne Wade.
Their opponents – the Dallas Mavericks.
The Heat were one of those “Super Teams,” stacked with stars and built to win NOW.
The problem was, the Mavericks were better, even if they weren’t as “flashy.”
The loss was devastating for Chris and he cried on national television …
To say that kind of thing was an embarrassing moment would be an understatement.
What’s interesting, though, is how the team was able to pull back and evaluate what happened.
Check out what it said in the article about it:
“Their highs were too high, and their lows were too low. The Mavs stayed right in the middle, which helped them win. ‘We took it as a data point,’ Bosh told me. And they won the next year.”
The rest is history, but what about us, what can we take away from this and apply it to our own operations?
For that, the article pointed to an Ivy League specialist:
“In short, management experts like Susan David, Ph.D., a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, have helped popularize the idea that failure isn’t a finite thing. Each disappointing moment in your life contains a trove of information that, if viewed dispassionately, might hold clues that can help you eventually succeed.”
Bosh and the Miami Heat turned their losses into championship victories, and so can you, in your own business, especially when you keep your emotions in check.
The writer of that article puts everything into perspective like this:
“When it comes to defeat, you can begin by stepping back from every moment of perceived failure, as well as form every time you feel disrupted by forces of change, and ask yourself:
What did I just learn that I didn’t know before, and that other people may still not have learned?
It’s not an easy question. But if you drain the emotion out of any difficult or embarrassing moment, that question can help give your experience new purpose.”
Apply that to your marketing, for example, and you’ll learn about a lot of the things you shouldn’t do.
I like sending this kind of stuff around, so if you’re interested, I can pass along the link, just let me know.
Stay holy and God bless.
Vic
The Marketing Trad
Post Scriptum – You have until Thursday at midnight to save 45% off a new contract with The Marketing Trad. Shoot me a quick email at [email protected] and maybe we can work something out. Why Thursday? I turn 45 on the 25th, so I wanted to do something special!
Post Post Scriptum – I’m working on something humbling for the Lent emails.
Post Post Post Scriptum – I’m not really a fan of the NBA anymore. I used to be. Now? Meh! It’s the woke, what can I say?!