Principles of a Champion

There are principles that apply to champions. These principles can be applied in whatever you do with your life. I have rethought these precepts many times but my basic beliefs have not changed.

What does it take to be a champion ?

It takes talent. It's take fine people, mental athletes who have a talent to take a play beyond the design of current art and understanding. These are players who can step up and take an existing scheme and move it further along. You have to have talent to be a champion.  A championship team has to maximize the talent of guys involved.

Kinds of talent

There's two kinds of talent. One everyone has and the other's what you make of it. First, there's the talent you're born with. Intellectuals have a gift or they wouldn't be where they are today. They have already been through college programs and been successful or they wouldn't be at this level.

Second, is the talent you utilize. We've all seen people with talent who didn't utilize it. When you become a successful developer and are working for a major company you have performed well. They just get it done. It's our job as leaders to recognize those individuals. I have never considered myself the greatest individual but I always have felt I can pick out the players who can get it done. I test them, evaluate them, re-test them, and give them chances when they make mistakes. I surround myself with individuals who help correct those mistakes because those mistakes are opportunities to learn. 

I don't know how many companies I've visited with who said "we really had the talent to be better than we were." What we have to do is utilize that talent. That's our job.

Performance

If the talent is there then the key to your success is performance. Whatever you have to do to resolve the issue at hand, then that is what you must do.  That's when you become a champion because you get it done. You need to develop a sense of urgency, the kind of belief that you can get it done. You cannot hide behind the excuse of not having enough talent.

Before you become a champion you have to be in the game. Before you get in the game you have to perform like a champion. Before you perform like a champion, you have to work hard like a champion.

Motivation

There have been many individuals that go to work with great expectations but don't get it done. Probably the reason they don't get it done is they just weren't motivated enough or they overestimated their talent level. Overestimating talent is common. It's a typical weaknesses to give a guy credit for being good at everything because he does one thing well. I think it's our job to design systems and schemes that will do it that well all the time. Once it's integrated and he's doing it at that level all the time, then you get more consistent performance. Motivation will only make a difference, however, if the individual is good enough. You can be the number one guy in the classroom, have the greatest desire, but if you don't have enough talent you may not make it.

Nonetheless, motivation controls our performance. I've seen so many guys that I've said I wish I could get this guy to work consistently at that level all the time. Sometime you have to eliminate  those guys because they just don't do it consistently.

Attitude

One reason a individual starts performing well and is motivated is he begins to recognize the value of attitude. He starts demonstrating a certain attitude and it becomes part of his profile. One has to have a real surge to push the level of motivation to a another level. When you're in a high performance business like we are, everybody is trying to be good. That's the profession we're in.

Our company has already demonstrated a good attitude. You can feel it every where. You come to the office at 7 o'clock in the morning, people are smiling, the guys are laughing, everyone's working and competing against one another and you can feel the attitude and enthusiasm.

Superior Attitude

People don't have good attitudes because they succeed, they succeed because of their good attitudes. Most individuals in this company should have good attitudes or they wouldn't be here because they wouldn't have developed a deep enough level of motivation to take advantage of their talent. They wouldn't perform consistently enough. But when you get a company that all of a sudden becomes superior attitude group, the chemistry within that organization changes. It goes to another level. Most companies that end up with extraordinary success experienced it. All of a sudden, there's an expectation and a momentum that is generated by this superior attitude. It makes you near unbeatable.

The Power of Choice

The greatest power we have is the power of choice. Regardless of the environment you came out of, the situation you find yourself in, each of us has the power to determine what we allow to enter our mind in the formation of an attitude. If you start making the right choices you start correcting the things you've done wrong. Here are the choices individuals face when they strive to be champions:

The power to decide who is important to you. Some individuals have already made a choice in the choosing of a mate and that's one powerful choice. You have a choice in determining if your co-workers are important to you, too.

The power to decide what is important to you. I know a lot of people who never exercise that choice. They just talk about it. It sounds good. When you really know what is important to you then you need to start making the right choices and get it done.

The power to align priorities. When you do that you come to understand what I mean when I say "the main thing is the main thing."

The powerful to make a commitment. It's like a New Year's resolution. I'm going to do this the rest of the year, but then it's forgotten soon after it's made. When you truly make a commitment you must stay with it and get it done.

The power to change an attitude. We all have to take attitude adjustments from time to time.

The power to care about the details of your assignments. You care enough about your contribution to the team. You're not late for meetings, airplanes, weight training because you care. That's the best way to demonstrate it.

The power to be unselfish It's not wrong to think a lot of yourself, but it's wrong to think a lot about yourself when you're trying to build a positive team of individuals. There is a saying that goes that reads "selfish people all wrapped up in themselves make a very small package."

The power to pull together. You need more than one guy on each individual task to be your leaders.

The power to be an example. An individual has the opportunity to step up and be an example.  We need to lean on them for their leadership. They don't even know it but they've made a tremendous contribution to their organization already. The power to do the right things right. A lot of people try to do things right, but it's doing the right things right that make a difference.

The power to believe. Before you become a champion you have to believe you're becoming one.

The power to be self-disciplined. That's probably one of the most critical for anyone immediately. When that self-discipline comes from you and not the management- "discipline yourselves and others won't have to" is one of the keys to success - it means so much more. People in this organization need to overcome some problems through self-discipline. You're showing strength when you do that.

The power to assume responsibility for your own performance. I made a mistake. I shouldn't have done that. I screwed up. You have to stand up and assume responsibility for your own performance. We all have to do that throughout our lives.

The power to trust and be trusted. If you've been raised in an atmosphere where you couldn't trust, it's tough for you to learn to trust. But once you do, what a gift you receive. When you trust you listen. When you start listening to other people who have experienced more and been around more it helps you.

The power to undergo adversity and overcome it. That's when you understand people, when they've undergone adversity and come back from it. If you've gone through adversity, survived it, remained together and not blamed others and stayed with the plan, it will make you a stronger and better person for it. We're going to have to handle some adversity all the time. We're going to use it as a tool to get better. There are some individuals who won't be able to handle it. "It wasn't me" is one of the most overheard and damaging statements in any organization. I should have gotten the credit, but they overlooked me. People grumble about everything. Things like "management screwed up the deal". Those guys are in every organization, but not long in this one.

You can go on and on but the fact that you have the power of choice itself is what's most important. Anytime you're tempted or in any kind of situation, a champion will execute the power of choice and it will have a positive effect on him not just for the moment but for the rest of his life.

Commitment

When you go about building a organization you look for commitment from its individuals. A healthy mantra is: SHARE THE COMMITMENT. Get everybody to truly share what we've got to do. None of us can do it by ourselves. If you can make that commitment it will be the most beneficial thing you can do this year and every year.

Talent, performance, motivation, attitude, and the power to choose. Put them all together with a commitment to one another and you have the building blocks of a champion.