Blog

No matter the scale of defeat, the greats always come back.
…

When I was swimming, my dad always used to say, “The greats always come back.” No matter how bad the defeat or how shocking the loss, the great people always overcome it and eventually come back. We witnessed that just last week with the US Women’s World Cup Soccer Team. They were the 2015 World Cup champions, and they’ve repeated it again this year. It was phenomenal watching them!

However, in between these two World Cups was a very disappointing 2016 Olympic campaign. As world champions, they went into that as gold medal favorites, and they didn’t even make the last playoff group within their division. Jill Ellis, the coach, said she had to deconstruct the entire team and then rebuild it back.

Sometimes as advisors, we have to do that with ourselves — when we have a disappointing performance or disappointing meeting, when it should have been a slam-dunk bringing on a prospect and having them become a client (not in a way that you got over-confident) but it just didn’t happen. When you know you didn’t do as well as you could have and don’t bring that prospect on board, it can be hugely disappointing. People in your office can know about it and start forming their opinions.

You’ve got to remember that US Women’s soccer team’s 2016 Olympic “failure,” so to speak, was very, very public. Often they would have people comment to them out in public about the disappointing result, asking them what happened, and so they had no place to hide. I say that to encourage you to keep perspective: as advisors, it can feel like the end of the world [when you make a mistake or a deal doesn’t go your way], and, as I said, people in your office may know about it and form their own opinions. That can really start to irritate and get under your skin.

So,

1. When you have disappointment, keep it in check. Keep perspective on it. The entire world hasn’t seen it. It hasn’t been broadcast live.


2. Analyze and understand what went wrong. Take a good look at the process. Be harsh on yourself. Be a little overly critical and call yourself on things if you didn’t pay attention to certain aspects, if you didn’t have the appropriate materials that you know you should have had, if you got over-confident in your performance. Name those things for what they are.


3. Anticipate the next experience as a winning experience. Don’t reflect back on what happened and therefore project what could go wrong this time and become insecure about that, even before the opportunity comes about.

The US Women’s soccer team was a great example in coming back from a huge defeat in 2016 to three years later making history. You can do exactly the same thing and have the exact same feelings of elation when you learn from your mistakes, understand the world didn’t see, and then perform brilliantly next time around.

I look forward to bringing you another Distraction-Proof Advisor Idea next week.