Wayne Gretzky on taking your shot

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take"

- Wayne Gretzky

Hockey Great and Coach

With this quote in mind and the encouragement of family and friends I am taking my shot.  Creating this blog with the ultimate goal of building a Sales and Success Coaching following while making a positive difference in people's lives and businesses.  I have been fortunate to have been able to overcome obstacles  in both my personal and professional lives creating, 10's of millions of dollars in sales of products, services and real estate over the last 40 years.  However, with all that success I am most proud of my role as husband, dad and friend.

I have been lucky to have been mentored and "coached" by many people along the way, and have found for myself some of the best motivational, inspiration and insightful information comes from the quotes and stories of successful people and coaches.   I love the sports coaches being an athlete and coach, with their motivational and sometimes quirky ways of saying things that don't just apply to sports but to real life as well.  But not all coaches are sports coaches, take for instance Abraham Lincoln, he coached the Union vs. the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War, didn't he?  Or Winston Churchill, who coached the
British vs. the  German and Axis forces in WWII.  They were incredible coaches with awesome stories and great quotes.

Thank you for taking the time to read this introduction and the blog, please leave comments, quotes or ideas to share with everyone, and forward this blog along to anyone you know who will enjoy it.
Now on with the show............

"You miss 100% of the shots you never take"

What is it that makes us not take that shot?  Whether it's in a game, at a sales meeting or when an incredible, maybe even seemingly impossible opportunity comes our way?  Well, the #1 answer to that is usually the "fear of failure"!  So what are we afraid of?  What family or friends might say?  What your teammates might think, what will the coach say?  That the buyer will say no?  The fear of rejection is the #1 reason people say they would never go into sales.   Successful people embrace failure as a step towards winning and a lesson in what didn't work.  They know that they will not make 100% of the shots they take, but know if they don't take the shot they won't make (reach) the goal.

As coaches sometimes we may put this fear into a player without realizing it.  Have you ever been in or heard the situation where a player is next to the goal or alone under the basket for an easy shot but passes instead?  And everyone is thinking or yelling out "take the shot."  Later you ask the player why they didn't take the shot, many times they say that they were afraid to miss the shot, and when asked why, the response is usually, "I didn't want you to be mad at me for missing the shot."  Encourage your players and salespeople to take the shots, even when they miss the ones the they should have made, if their not out there taking shots they will never score.  

Encourage yourself, your players, partners, friends and family to Go For It - Be Positive
Be Confident

Have a plan or strategy

Get over it (perceived failure) and move on

Failure in sports or business is not fatal, just temporary