Why Some Succeed While Others Fail — And What It Takes To Win

If you’ve ever spent time watching or playing tennis, you know there are a lot of players with dynamite serves, beautiful forehands, great net presence.

But oddly enough, they don’t always win.

Often, the players who come out on top don’t look quite as good.

If you watch them on tape, you might cringe at their form. They have worse equipment. But they sense the situation and adapt to it.

They may not be pretty, but they’re scrappy.

And they win.

They have what it takes to succeed.

It’s not just the skills you have, it’s about your ability to force yourself across the finish line.

Let me explain.

The Law Of Increasing Effort

Most projects don’t operate in a linear way.

Some people think they have to put in a certain amount of effort for a designated amount of time, and that will be enough.

That’s not true.

You actually need to increase effort as you get closer to the finish line. The last 20% takes a heroic amount of effort — often as much as the original 80%.

In running, they call it the “kick.”

In business, they call it the “close.”

Some people have the mentality that allows them to finish strong. To win. They know when they need their kick to push across the finish line, to close the deal, to complete the project. When near the end of a project, a switch flips in their mind. They begin to see the finish line and gear up for the last 20%.

But it’s not a coast.

You have to marshal a ferocity the closer you are to the end. You have to finish strong each and every time. Not everyone understands that.

Why People Don’t Win

Sometimes, the candidate with the best resume isn’t necessarily the best performer.

They’re like the skilled tennis player who doesn’t beat their opponent.

We once hired an employee with an Ivy League education and a crème de la crème resume. She was smart, likable — she had all the raw ingredients. But she could never really do her job well.

In the Fighter’s Mind: Inside the Mental Game, Sheridan writes about this issue:

“I had noticed a similar thing at Harvard, on a smaller scale. Kids finish high school, seventeen or eighteen, and right at that moment of learning their place in the world they get into Harvard and their inflated sense of self-worth is validated. I am that great.”

It was as though at some point, her mentality had switched from being a winner to looking like a winner.

We eventually had to let her go. People were incredulous when they heard about it. Why would we ever let someone like that go? Well, we needed someone to actually do the job.

She was coasting rather than closing.

Some people don’t maintain that closing mentality, because they start resting on their laurels and riding credentials.

They get used to looking like a top performer and forget the race is never finished. They don’t capitalize on what they have.

But there are others without a stellar resume who have a knack for delivering. They know the race is never won. They know how and when to turn on the kick. They continue to focus on closing and value it above all else.

How To Develop Your Kick

Winning compounds on itself.

The more you succeed, the more momentum you build.

So, how do you start building momentum?

In the beginning of your career, you usually learn and participate in very directed activities. As you mature, you will naturally dive into more unexplored territory. You don’t know where the value is initially, because you can’t see the finish line.

It’s important to get used to uncertainty. Feeling lost is a good sign.

Use that feeling to your advantage, as a signal that you’re directed properly. Constantly working on a new portfolio of projects and having a diverse set of experiences helps.

Think about it this way:

Doing research, building things, traveling to uncertain places, mastering and competing in sports. These are not staged situations. You don’t know what the end is going to look like — and that makes it exciting. Since these situations build on each other, every success is a stepping stone to more difficult projects. You get used to uncertainty and getting things done without a finish line in sight.

Over time, you’ll become confident in the face of uncertainty.

You may not be completely sure how something is going to work, or how to make it a success, but you drive forward through that uncertainty because on some level, you’ve done it before.

But always keep your objective in mind. Don’t be afraid to throw aside the plan when an unforeseen opportunity emerges.

And when the finish line does finally come into view, throw everything you have into making it across.