IT’S NOT THE SCORE

I’m learning how to play golf and since I’m pretty darn ambitious I want to be good all at once. Well, good luck. Golf isn’t like that, generally. I do know a man who started in his 40s (or maybe 50s) and won the championship at his club several years later. He’s a member of Atlantic and it’s a damned hard course, so that’s a major accomplishment, but he’s an amazing guy.

Anyway, something I’ve been told is it isn’t about the score, but each shot, one shot at a time. Ok, that sounds good in theory but when you’re out there and sweating the crappy last hole and fretting about the next one, it’s hard to stay in the moment. But that’s exactly how one should play, at least in the beginning. And that’s also a great way to approach business. Yes, you need to plan. Yes, you need to know what the competition is up to and what the trends are. But what you don’t need to do is sit around lamenting the business you lost or the account you think you need. One meeting at a time, one conversation at a time—this is a simple, but healthy way of moving forward. And once you actually do it, you’ll be surprised just how productive it can make you on a daily basis.