I was recently listening to an interview with the great Ray Allen (I used to try to mimic his form and quick release when playing). He was talking about his role as a coach, now that he is teaching the game to his teenagers. Developing a structured way to practice and develop all of the unique skills required to play at a high level is crucial, according to Ray to set yourself apart from the competition.
He is teaching his kids that most of their competition is mistakenly becoming casual driveway shooters by taking the same shots every day that they see their heroes in the NBA take on TV.
But the kids that will rise above the rest in their sport are practicing in a progressive structured way to acquire those vital and not-so-sexy skills no one else wants to perfect (picking, cutting, boxing out etc.).
Parallel this to your career as an executive or an entrepreneur. Are you just shooting around each day in your driveway like everyone else (i.e. - checking email, running from virtual meeting to virtual meeting, scrolling mindlessly through a social media timeline) OR are you working on those uncommon skills that your competition is too lazy or not disciplined enough to perfect (acquiring a key professional designation, re-writing your start-up's 3-year vision plan, improving your scale-ups recruiting process etc.)
#entrepreneurathlete #mindset