I used to row at school. In my final year we had a good crew but never quite seemed to be able to win at regattas. It was frustrating to lose in semi-finals or finals. Then we had a new coach for a few weeks, a teacher who had been an Olympic weightlifter. I am not sure if he was a top-level rower, but with his experience at the highest level of sport he instilled in us a very positive desire to win – which we duly did triumphing at the last two regattas before school broke up and we all left for university or work.
The funny thing was that whilst it was great to win – and we celebrated in traditional style by throwing the cox in the river and drinking (a lot of) beer from the large silver cups we won and the pewter tankers that came with them – there was also, a day or so later, a sense of anti-climax now we had achieved what we had been working towards all year.
When you are striving to win in any sport failure is a great motivator – winning can lead to complacency and loss of direction if not managed properly.
The same is true in a business transaction. I have just finished a large deal after more than six months of concentrated work with a tight knit team. Completion is a success and vindicates all of the hard work – but it also brings with it as well as a sense of achievement a feeling almost of let-down - a sort of what do you do next.
This article sums it up: When it comes to sustaining success, we often believe that once we have achieved success, that we will continue to be successful.
But it doesn’t always work like that, sometimes once we have achieved our goal we lose the hunger, we lose our edge, our eye of the tiger, the drive which made us successful in the first place.
While this sporting article entitled Sustaining success! The Coach’s Holy Grail has some ideas on sustaining success.
One other useful contribution to this topic is that in a business context it is better to start changing when you are still strong, not when you are already weak. In other words when you have just signed one deal take the experience and the momentum into the next one.
As Henry Miller said: “One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”
In a broader context it may also be helpful to recognise that it is not just about the winning and crossing the finishing line first. It is also about the journey and the lessons learned. As the tennis player Arthur Ashe is quoted as saying Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
The funny thing was that whilst it was great to win – and we celebrated in traditional style by throwing the cox in the river and drinking (a lot of) beer from the large silver cups we won and the pewter tankers that came with them – there was also, a day or so later, a sense of anti-climax now we had achieved what we had been working towards all year.
When you are striving to win in any sport failure is a great motivator – winning can lead to complacency and loss of direction if not managed properly.
The same is true in a business transaction. I have just finished a large deal after more than six months of concentrated work with a tight knit team. Completion is a success and vindicates all of the hard work – but it also brings with it as well as a sense of achievement a feeling almost of let-down - a sort of what do you do next.
This article sums it up: When it comes to sustaining success, we often believe that once we have achieved success, that we will continue to be successful.
But it doesn’t always work like that, sometimes once we have achieved our goal we lose the hunger, we lose our edge, our eye of the tiger, the drive which made us successful in the first place.
While this sporting article entitled Sustaining success! The Coach’s Holy Grail has some ideas on sustaining success.
One other useful contribution to this topic is that in a business context it is better to start changing when you are still strong, not when you are already weak. In other words when you have just signed one deal take the experience and the momentum into the next one.
As Henry Miller said: “One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.”
In a broader context it may also be helpful to recognise that it is not just about the winning and crossing the finishing line first. It is also about the journey and the lessons learned. As the tennis player Arthur Ashe is quoted as saying Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
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