Business and Football: How’s Your Week 2 Going?

Game 2 of the NFL season looms extra large. I am fascinated by a statistic quoted on the tv show, ESPN First Take (which is how I start my weekday mornings) by host Dana Jacobson (a fellow NJG– Nice Jewish Girl from the Midwest, and a GREAT sports commentator). It appears week 2 is crucial: 4 Playoff teams last year who LOST their week 1 game rebounded in week 2 to win that game. There’s a “gotta win” attitude after a first failure that should be veeerrry familiar to us corporate/entrepreneurial/salesy kinda folks.

At the beginning of OUR season (January 1, fiscal year, July 1, whenever) all bets are on. Fabulous possibilities are in our future. The best of us shake off the gaffes of the last year, just as they do on the gridiron. Anybody can win! Then the first game (sales quarter, etc.) comes and goes. Pressure mounts. In the 24/7 media, they have already crowned the NFL playoff teams, Super Bowl contenders and the Winner! Sports pundits make cases for their teams, argue ferociously. Vegas has odds, bets, and don’t even get me started on Fantasy Football teams and their proponents! See other blogs I’ve written on this non-team-based endeavor. . .

So our second effort, too, assumes even more importance. Instead of the 24/7 media judging your every move, you have The Little Voice in the back of your head—24/7 judgments on your every move and everyone else’s too. . .calling you “stupid” or worse. You need to thank it for sharing  and MOVE ON.

In my business, the speaking business, you don’t GET a second game if you stink it up the first time. Every speech needs to score a huge touchdown! And when I do get a second speech or seminar opportunity, the return-audience has even higher expectations! Sometimes, they want the same “story” (the men and women going to lunch story) so they can show me off to their first-timers—they don’t want their build-up to be wrong, heaven forbid. But you have to come up with “new stuff” too, to thrill and delight. The NFL gets “new stuff” in the Draft; now, can they deliver? We shall see. What do YOU need to do, with your second chance?

People, we ALWAYS can get a second chance SOMEWHERE, to make it on the job. I admit, the corporate world would never hire back a convicted felon after jail-time served, and then award him Comeback Player of the Year. But we are fortunate: or job performance is not watched and judged by millions of people every week! Just because we can’t make it with THIS boss doesn’t mean we can’t make it with another. I don’t usually support quitting, but you may have to dust off your resume. . .For me, the new NFL season always meant a new evaluation of my present job situation. . .and all of my corporate jobs always started in January.

So, now is the time to take stock. How did your second effort go? Watch week 2 of the NFL this weekend, and see which losing teams rebound with a win. Be inspired—you can do it, too.