There was a book written around 1998 called “Success Is A Choice” which is one of my favorite business books because of the athletic paradigms referenced throughout. The book was written by Rick Pitino who is one of the best college basketball coaches in America. He is currently head coach of the University of Louisville where he has consistently taken his team to the upper echelon of the NCAA college basketball tournament each and every year. In fact, as head coach of the University of Kentucky, he won the National Championship in 1996. He also has experience as head coach of the New York Knicks in the NBA as well as serving as head coach for Boston University and Providence College. Pitino is widely known for taking lackluster, underperforming players and teams and turning them into competitive winners. Rick Pitino has successfully taken his message to the corporate world, teaching thousands of people in companies across America how to apply his very successful coaching strategies to the business world. Pitino’s message is loud and clear. Specifically, he believes that no matter how you spend your time—in business, school, sports or everyday living—Success Is A Choice!
The concept of success being a choice got me to thinking about life in sales and sales management. Could it be true that if success is a choice than so is failure?
How does Pitino go about motivating people to succeed? What’s his secret?
Without a doubt, Rick Pitino has charm and charisma not to mention extraordinary coaching ability. But what sets him apart in my eyes is his mental toughness, discipline and ability to get people to achieve more than they ever thought was possible.
As a Sales Manager, there were times when I saw salespeople choosing to fail either because of laziness or they lacked focus, discipline and mental toughness. Therefore, while I agree that Success Is A Choice, I also believe that “Failure Is A Choice” as well. In the end, as sales leaders it is impossible to truly motivate our direct reports. However, we can be instrumental in helping others to discover the motivation that lies within. In his book “Success Is A Choice” Pitino argues that most of us continually underestimate ourselves, and we settle for less than we deserve. He believes we become conditioned to thinking that we can’t attain the goals we set for ourselves to achieve due to our negative thought process and poor attitude.
In my experience as a sales leader over the years, I worked with some immensely talented and capable salespeople who chose to fail more times than they chose to succeed.
Why, you might ask?
The answer is simple, and even I have struggled at times with making the right decision to succeed. Choosing success over failure requires focus, discipline, commitment and mental toughness. Many business professionals aren’t prepared or willing to make the supreme sacrifice to become a top performer or superstar salesperson or sales manager. If you think about it, there’s a reason why 20% of the salespeople make 80% of all the money. These individuals made the decision by their actions and chose to succeed.
In the end “Success Is A Choice,” but so is failure.
I say…choose to succeed!
