The
Super Bowl will pit two championship coaches against each other: Pete Carrol of the Seahawks who has won championships
on the college and NFL levels and, Bill Belichick a multi-Super Bowl winner. By all accounts, they are successful in their
chosen careers and are possibly hall of famers.
However, they have a common denominator between them that involves
failure . . . the New York Jets.
Both
are former head coaches of the Jets. As
a long suffering Jets fan, I remember them well. Although Belichick was head coach for
only one day before bolting to the Patriots (no I am not bitter), he was on the sideline for heartbreaking losses including the Jets loss
in the AFC championship game to the Broncos when the Jets were leading at
halftime. Bill also was head coach of the
Browns before they moved to Baltimore. That
history speaks for itself. Pete failed
to bring championships not only to the Jets, but also, as head coach of the
Patriots.
I am
sure on Sunday, my fellow Jets fans (and even some Browns fans) may be thinking:
“What if they stayed to coach our team?”
Well, the
truth of the matter is that all Patriot Fans and Seahawk fans owe a debt of
gratitude to the Jets for allowing both Pete and Bill to make their mistakes
and learn from them to go on to build championship teams. Had Bill and Pete not “bled Jet green” at one
time, they would not be facing each other on the biggest stage in sports.
If you
are a small business owner, you must keep this lesson in mind. You are going to face struggles and
challenges in your business. Sometimes
it’s hard to get through the day. It’s all
part of being a small business owner.
You must expect to make mistakes, take on challenges and keep pushing to learn
what will work. There is no one way to
do things and you must keep trying different ways until it all comes together.
I leave you with one of my favorite
quotes from Thomas Edison on how long it took him to figure out how to make a
light bulb. He said: “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” (Part 2- The Jets creation of perfection).
