Selfish Egos Will Bring Down Your Business
By Cheval John
The University of Texas has been the innovators in what intercollegiate athletics is all about today.
They were one of the first universities to have sponsorships from major brands like Nike.
They had a strong football tradition of winning national championships under great coaches like Darrell Royal and Mack Brown.
They also have the largest athletics budget in the nation.
Texas is one of the most recognizable universities in the world.
In the last couple of years, Texas has been going through hell.
First, they let go of Mr. Brown, who won them their first national championship (2005) since the glory times of coach Royal.
They were expecting coach Brown to win a championship ever year since they spent millions of dollars in facilities upgrade.
One could say that the struggles of the football team under coach Brown to win another championship since 2005 was the start of the turmoil for Texas.
Next came the retirement of DeLoss Dodds.
Some could say that Dodds was the clue that held the athletic department together.
He was responsible for making Texas a powerhouse because of his innovation and also bringing in Mack Brown as the football coach and hiring Rick Barnes as the basketball coach.
He also stood behind coach Brown amidst the public outcry of people who wanted him to be fired.
The powerbrokers, “a.k.a.” the board of regents hired Steve Patterson as Texas athletic director to stem the turmoil.
Patterson added to the turmoil when he fired Barnes, tried to raise the ticket prices for football games and even mentioned that the city of Austin should put in money to renovate Erwin Center.
And now Mr. Patterson is out as the athletic director.
The lesson that entrepreneurs can learn from this fiasco is to make sure that you don’t bring in people who have egos because it can ruin your business in the end.
You Have To Believe To Succeed
By Cheval John
For many sport teams, it would be difficult for them to succeed if they are facing an opponent that seems better than them.
The opponent would have the bigger budget to have the quality players for their team like the New York Yankees.
Or in the case of college football, teams from the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) having more scholarships than teams from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS).
When the teams from the FBS compete against teams from the FCS, it should be an easy conclusion that the teams from the FBS should always win.
It should be a warm up matchup for the FBS teams to get that easy win.
However, that is not always the case.
Like the time when Appalachian State, who were in the FCS at the time, defeated Michigan 34-32 televised in the inauguration of the Big Ten Network, that brought shock waves to the college football world.
Everyone including the ESPN analyst were “upset” mentioned that Michigan should have won that matchup because they had all of the talent and the bigger budget.
What they should have understand is that Appalachian State were a team that should not have been taken lightly because they were at that time a two-time FCS champion.
Plus, they had the mindset that they could beat Michigan when they faced them.
And Sam Houston State had the same mindset that they could have beaten Texas Tech when they faced them last Saturday in Lubbock.
Even though they lost by the score of 59-45, the Bearkats kept Texas Tech on their toes.
The Bearkats had 671 yards, which is the most yards they have ever produced against a team from the FBS.
Sam Houston did not go into that matchup thinking that they would not win because they were from the FCS.
Instead, the Bearkats believed that they could beat Texas Tech and almost won.
The important lesson that everyone can learn is that even if you are not the most talented person in your industry like public relations, etc, if you have the mindset to believe that you can succeed, then success will come to you.
And even if you don’t win at your industry like public relations, etc. at least you gave it your all to be successful and did not allow doubt to stop you from achieving success.
Who knows, competing against a company that is larger than your company can allow you to eventually win in your specific market like writing, etc.
Video courtesy of Our Honor Defend
What Are You Blabbing About?
By Cheval John
Photo courtesy of V3+Broadsuite
Blab is one of the best live video streaming platforms in the world of social media.
The company is very innovative and raw in how they do business.
Normally businesses would test out their product before launching it out to the world.
Not blab.
They basically took the risk and launch their product in beta form to get feedback from their users.
And that risk is truly paying off.
The user base for blab has increased since launching in April
And probably the biggest reason for the growth of Blab is because of Founder and CEO, Shaan Puri.
Mr. Puri is willing to get feedback from the users in order to make the platform better.
It is rare when a CEO wants to get feedback from their customers as the majority of CEOs would not want to get feedback from their users because they are afraid that their comments would hurt their egos.
They believe that if the customers don’t like their product, then it is their problem.
That is why most of the businesses are losing their customers because of their elitist attitude.
Mr. Puri is one of the great examples of how CEOs should be if they are running a business.
That is probably another reason of why blab is popular because it brings the humanity behind the brands and builds a strong community.
A huge example of this would be the Blab chat that was hosted by Tyler J. Anderson, founder/CEO of Casual Fridays, with guests Jon Loomer, Facebook Ads expert, Brian Fanzo, Chief Digital Strategist and Partner at BroadSuite Media, and Carlos Gil, Social Media Manager at BMC Software.
At one point during the chat, Mr. Loomer showed his vulnerability and humanity when he shared with the audience on why he is an entrepreneur and his journey towards becoming a Facebook ads expert.
That to me is the best part of Blab.
Anyone can be real and also build a loyal tribe.
Maybe that is the reason why Blab will trump Periscope and Meerkat because it allows anyone to truly participate in the conversation and not just be a viewer.
Hopefully many companies will follow the example of Mr. Puri and the team at Blab.
Tune In:
As a change of pace, tune in to this What’s The Word? episode featuring Patrick and Courtney Hennessy, host of Be Less Typical podcast.
Both work in the car sales industry and have started the podcast to break the bad reputation of the car sales industry.
You can listen to the interview below and leave your comments below about the show and article.
Transitioning From Engineer To Career Coach
By Cheval John
Angela Copeland is an awesome lady who has made a difference in the lives of those who are looking to be better job seekers.
She had the oppportunity to share her story of how she transitioned from an engineer to a career coach on What’s The Word? last night.
Here is the episode below:
Focus More On The Journey To Your Destination
By Cheval John
We see the infomercials of someone who achieved their goals of making millions of dollars or even losing weight in a “short” amount of time.
The people who are broadcasting the infomercials are selling that if they can follow their system, then you can achieve the same success that they and their clients have achieved.
Though they mean well and those claims are true to a degree depending on the person, we think to ourselves that we can achieve the same goals that they achieve.
Or what about the person who got out of debt whether it is school loans or credit card debt?
That is more believable because we see stories on how they got through the debt and live to share about it to many others who are currently fighting to get out of debt.
Example: Eventual Millionaire’s Jaime Tardy, who got out of $70,000 dollars of debt in a short amount of time because she and her family was disciplined in their spending and also side-hustling with various work to achieve their goal of financial freedom.
What about stories of those who are still working their way to financial freedom and are looking for inspiration from those who are on the same journey to success.
Shannon McLay returned on my podcast, “What’s The Word?,” to chat how “Next-Gen Financial” was a model for her new company, “The Financial Gym.”
We chatted about how her dream goal of the “Financial Gym” was a three year plan because of some obstacles that she faced and her podcast,”Martinis And Your Money,” especially the episode ,”Overcoming Financial Obstacles” with Melanie from Dear Debt, Tonya from Budget and The Beach and Mrs. Frugalwoods from Frugalwoods.
Each shared about the challenges of gaining and maintaining financial freedom.
What was interesting is that they were willing to be vulnerable about their journeys and not pretend that they were on top of the world.
They understand that they are others who are currently facing debt and are looking for inspiration like people who are facing a combined trillion dollars in student loan debt.
They also know that the journey to the destination of financial freedom is really the best part because of golden lessons that they can share with others.
So it is always important to not focus too much on the destination whether it is financial freedom, achieving millions of viewers for your blog, making more money or achieving that prestigious degree.
If you only focus on the end goal, you will miss out on enjoying the journey to that goal which will be enriching to your life.
What are your thoughts on enjoying your journey to achieving overall success in your life?
You can leave your comments below.
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