Spirit of a Champion
Some people are born to win. They may not have read books on the strategies of success, they may never have attended a seminar on the subject of personal achievement and growth, they may never have given winning a thought, but somehow success comes to such people very naturally. These people are born champions and do not know the meaning of the words ‘lose’ or ‘give up’.
I distinctly recollect the face of the middle-aged gentleman with thinning hair, Mark Piscopo, whom I saw at three of my seminars in the UK. At the conclusion of the third seminar, he met me backstage. Perhaps I had grown as curious about him as he had about me. In his deep voice, he recounted his financial crises that never really seemed to end. Not that he was broke or up to his ears in debt, but despite trying every trick in the trade, he just wasn’t able to rise beyond a humdrum ordinary lifestyle. When he started his confectionery business 15 years back, he had dreamt of becoming rich, but riches didn’t come his way and his dreams began to fade away. I enquired about his business and told him I’d like to visit his establishment before I left the UK. He was very happy; he’d hoped I’d say those exact words to him.
One Saturday afternoon I paid a visit to his confectionary store from which wonderful aromas wafted out into the street. The shop was at a good location, on a street where there were several other confectionary stores as well. The street was known as a confectionary market. The store was just as well-decorated as other similar stores on the same street. It had no fewer footfalls than any of the other stores. So, where was the problem? I even checked his accounts and there seemed to be no real problem as such. But it was also true that his establishment was not a tool to become rich, as he had once hoped and envisioned. “You know,” I told him, “the real problem is not in the fact that yours is not a very big store. Nor can we say that your products are not up to the mark. The real problem is that there are other similar stores in the vicinity and their model has been amalgamated in your mind. Not just in your mind, but it has affected the mind of everyone who is doing similar business on this street. Every confectioner seems to follow the model of others, and with the result, all of you are just trying to defend your own position. Unless you change the way you think and start thinking like a winner, your crisis and present financial condition is not going to improve.” Then I gave him the example of the McDonald’s chain and said, “Didn’t it start just as humbly as your establishment?” McDonald’s started as a single outlet in 1940. And in 1955, the CEO of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc, started the first franchised outlet which was the ninth outlet of McDonald’s. In fact that was the beginning of the concept of the franchisee system of business. McDonald’s today has outlets in 119 countries with 50 million customers eating McDonald’s products each day.
I did not tell him that his bakery could also one day become like McDonald’s, but I advised him to take a loan from his bank and change the way the store looked. I told him that it ought to look a little different from other shops on the same street. Once his store stopped looking like a clone of the others, he would automatically stop competing with the rest and defending himself from his neighbours. Secondly, I told him to read up on McDonald’s and KFC’s growth. That would make him start thinking big, and stop competing with his neighbours. “If you want to emulate, it is definitely better to emulate McDonald’s and KFC, rather than imitate your neighbours,” I suggested. The constant competition with his neighbours had switched off Mark’s winning spirit. He had always been trying to defend himself from losing business to his neighbours. I explained to him that no one in history had become a champion by playing defensive. Winners almost certainly always play aggressive. I was able to make him understand that the fault was not in his business or location. The real fault was in the way he thought and dealt with his business.
Almost eight months later, in 2005, I received a Christmas card from Mark. He thanked me for my advice and sent some photographs of his store as it stands today. The transformation was extraordinary. He had expanded it to a family restaurant that kept him very busy, and most important, he had stopped trying to defend losing out to his neighbours and had started thinking like a winner. This is also the material that helps build the minds of millionaires, the king-size people. Never do they try to defend their positions. They play aggressively – with just one goal in front of them – winning.
One Saturday afternoon I paid a visit to his confectionary store from which wonderful aromas wafted out into the street. The shop was at a good location, on a street where there were several other confectionary stores as well. The street was known as a confectionary market. The store was just as well-decorated as other similar stores on the same street. It had no fewer footfalls than any of the other stores. So, where was the problem? I even checked his accounts and there seemed to be no real problem as such. But it was also true that his establishment was not a tool to become rich, as he had once hoped and envisioned. “You know,” I told him, “the real problem is not in the fact that yours is not a very big store. Nor can we say that your products are not up to the mark. The real problem is that there are other similar stores in the vicinity and their model has been amalgamated in your mind. Not just in your mind, but it has affected the mind of everyone who is doing similar business on this street. Every confectioner seems to follow the model of others, and with the result, all of you are just trying to defend your own position. Unless you change the way you think and start thinking like a winner, your crisis and present financial condition is not going to improve.” Then I gave him the example of the McDonald’s chain and said, “Didn’t it start just as humbly as your establishment?” McDonald’s started as a single outlet in 1940. And in 1955, the CEO of McDonald’s, Ray Kroc, started the first franchised outlet which was the ninth outlet of McDonald’s. In fact that was the beginning of the concept of the franchisee system of business. McDonald’s today has outlets in 119 countries with 50 million customers eating McDonald’s products each day.
I did not tell him that his bakery could also one day become like McDonald’s, but I advised him to take a loan from his bank and change the way the store looked. I told him that it ought to look a little different from other shops on the same street. Once his store stopped looking like a clone of the others, he would automatically stop competing with the rest and defending himself from his neighbours. Secondly, I told him to read up on McDonald’s and KFC’s growth. That would make him start thinking big, and stop competing with his neighbours. “If you want to emulate, it is definitely better to emulate McDonald’s and KFC, rather than imitate your neighbours,” I suggested. The constant competition with his neighbours had switched off Mark’s winning spirit. He had always been trying to defend himself from losing business to his neighbours. I explained to him that no one in history had become a champion by playing defensive. Winners almost certainly always play aggressive. I was able to make him understand that the fault was not in his business or location. The real fault was in the way he thought and dealt with his business.
Almost eight months later, in 2005, I received a Christmas card from Mark. He thanked me for my advice and sent some photographs of his store as it stands today. The transformation was extraordinary. He had expanded it to a family restaurant that kept him very busy, and most important, he had stopped trying to defend losing out to his neighbours and had started thinking like a winner. This is also the material that helps build the minds of millionaires, the king-size people. Never do they try to defend their positions. They play aggressively – with just one goal in front of them – winning.
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