How to be great at anything

Want to be great at something?

Master the little things.

Tiger Woods just won the Masters for the 5th time.

He won by just one stroke in what was statistically the most competitive Masters ever.

The key to victory? Sinking the long putt, as in putts over 20 feet.

He made five of them.

His five closest competitors combined only made three.

So the second place golfers made $302,833.25 less per day— $1,211,333 less over four days—because they couldn’t accurately roll a 1.65″ diameter ball weighing just 1.62 ounces into a 4.25″ hole 240 inches one time.

The fundamentals matter.

The fundamentals are all that matter.

Math should be learned with pencil and paper.

Golf should be learned from the green back to the tee.

Sales should be learned outbound, one-on-one.

The marketing medium is immaterial without a great offer.

The one who has better mastered the fundamentals is the master.

In fact, one cannot become a master without mastering the fundamentals.

But it’s “boring” to do 100 calculations by hand.

It’s boring to hit 100 putts from three feet, then 100 putts from six feet, then 100 putts from nine feet. I want to go to the range and LET THE BIG DAWG EAT!

It’s boring to lock yourself in a conference room for days on end until you come up with your defining message for your business.

My five year old daughter can putt a golf ball 20 or 30 or even 50 feet.

My five year old daughter can pick up the phone and dial it 20 or 30 or 50 times.

So if you are physically capable of performing a task but are still failing to achieve your goals, it’s due to only one of a few things:

• you have not done enough repetitions to make the task second nature,

• you are performing the wrong task,

• you have an imperfection in your process,

• you have the wrong mindset and are sabotaging your efforts.

Because Tiger made just one more putt than the three guys in second place he earned 241% more than they did: $2,070,000 vs $858,667.

He was 0.36% better than the three guys in second place over four days.

That’s just 0.09% better every day for four days!

But at least the guys in second place were paid.

In business, if your competition is nine hundredths better than you, they don’t earn 1% more or 241% more, they earn infinitely more because they get 100% of the sale and profits.

One hundred percent to ZERO!

Today, do 1% more.

If you normally do 5 sets of 10 reps at the gym, do 11 on the last set. That’s 2% more.

If you normally put two sugar cubes in your coffee and you drink three cups, put in one cube in the last cup. That’s 16.7% fewer empty calories.

If you normally make 30 outbound calls per day, make one more. That’s 3.33% more.

If you normally read for 15 minutes a day, read 16 minutes. That’s a 6.25% increase.

Great performances, historical victories, life-altering changes are imperceptible in their development.

They’re made at 5 am when your competitors are sleeping in.

They’re made at 5:01 pm when your competitors are hitting happy hour.

They’re made at 12:01 pm when you make that one extra call before heading to lunch.

They’re made at 7 pm when you’re reading that business book instead of vegging in front of the TV.

They’re made at 7 am when you’re listening to that business podcast instead of AM talk radio.

You have it in you to do whatever you set your mind to.

But it’s easier to achieve when you surround yourself with a great team.

Tiger has a swing coach, a strength/conditioning coach, a dietician, and of course his caddie who was there on the 72nd hole and was greeted with a “WE DID IT!” from Tiger after he sank his final putt.

Who’s on your team?

Who’s looking out for you?

Who’s inspiring you?

Who’s kicking your butt when you need it?

If you need an inspiring, butt-kicking, scout who has your back…let’s talk.

Now go sell something.