Winning Takes More Than Merely Turning Up

So an interesting few days have passed. On Friday I watched with increasing gloom the England Vs Algeria football match. As is always the case when England play (football, rugby, cricket etc.), whether justified or not, there is always an enormous expectation of victory. In fact a rout would be preferable!

It's indicative of the England performance, or lack thereof, that my 2 young sons, whom for both this is the first World Cup that's been of interest, first complained of it being boring and then took themselves off to bed before the match limped to a close.

So what went wrong? Did the England players turn up to the World Cup Finals expecting to walk through their group opposition? Where was the hunger, the determination to succeed? Have they forgotten that it's an honour to represent ones country? It certainly looked to be the case.

We could be forgiven for thinking that they turned up for the game expecting to casually thrash Algeria. No effort, physical or mental, just turn up, win and go home. Put like that it sounds pretty stupid doesn't it?

This happens a lot in business. We have a great idea or product. Or we're naturally talented and our skills are in demand for a while. We're surprised when an orderly queue for our product or services doesn't form.

It takes concerted effort to not only achieve initial success but to stay successful. Look at Coca Cola. It's been the number one soft drink for how many years? And yet it advertises all year round to ensure it stays in our minds and more importantly our wallets. I still love the Christmas ads. What can I say?

Very little in life it seems, unless you're incredibly lucky, is a 'gimme'. We have to work not only hard but smart too. Consistently. Back to the sprint vs marathon analogy.

Sometimes we can't see the wood for the trees and that's where it can help to have an objective pair of eyes take a look.

I'm always happy to help. Thanks for stopping by.

Things go wrong. It's how you react that counts....

For those of following the 2010 FIFA World Cup, you may be in the same position as me. Which is disappointed. After lots of build up the first match took place and it didn't turn out as expected. In my case it was England Vs USA, a game that England were expected to win. The final result was 1-1. There were two big cases of things going wrong in that game and reaction to them will be key.

The first point is the result itself. For England to progress to the knock-out stages it's likely that they now must achieve a victory in Friday's game Vs Algeria. With that requirement comes added pressure for all involved.

The second point is that the England goalkeeper, Rob Green, made a howler of a mistake that could haunt him forever if he allows it to. A mundane shot requiring the sort of save he would normally make with his eyes close ended up in the net after he failed to simply get his hands behind the ball. An error a schoolboy would be disapppointed with. To make matters worse, his error was watching by millions of people across the globe.

I hope that Rob Green gets the support of his team mates and family at this difficult time but the fact is, none of us can change what has gone before. We can learn from it, react to it, try to ensure that the negatives don't repeat and that the positives very much do.

What is done is done. We are where we are. How we choose to go forward is what counts.

Once again, it's how we execute which is so vitally important. Review yesterday, plan for tomorrow, make it happen today.