When athletes “play” a sport for a living, it is easy to forget that their performance in those “games” is their job.  They aren’t doing it just for fun.  The stakes are as high for a professional athlete to win against top competitors as it is for business owners, leaders and managers to do their jobs exceptionally well and achieve success.  Playing a sport professionally is serious business.  And for players who are considered the “Greatest of all Time” (GOAT), it is even more consequential.  Their work generates millions of dollars in income not only from game play but also from endorsements, advertisements, and brand deals. 

Consider these earnings.  Soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was the highest-paid athlete in 2023, with total earnings of $275 million, including $60 million in sponsorships with Nike and endorsements with DAZN, Electronic Arts, and Tag Heuer.  Basketball icon LeBron James earned $128 Million in salary, endorsements, ads and appearances last year.  And golf star John Rahm earned on- and off-field nearly $120 million.  Likewise, soccer great Lionel Messi made $135 million in on- and off-field earnings. 

At some point in every athletic career, time inflicts wear and tear on performance. Natural physiological changes coupled with the deterioration caused by years of training have an impact on the body.  Psychological changes also affect an athlete during this time.  There is a toll paid for aging. 

The most elite athletes will hit their peak level of fitness and skill in their 20s and 30s.  It varies by sport.  Swimmers and gymnasts, who often start training during grade school, typically achieve top ranks in their sports as early as their teens.  On the other hand, golf and tennis pros often reach their best performance much later in life.  Athletes often feel a conflict between their aging body and their memories of a body at its best.

At Michael Jordan’s Hall of Fame Honor speech, Jordan shared a story about a conversation he had with his coach right after a game they had won.  He recalled, “It was the fourth quarter and were down 10 points. But in that last quarter, I scored 25 points and we won the game. As we were heading to the locker room after the game, Coach said to me ’Michael, there is no “I” in Team.’ I replied, ’That’s right, Coach. There isn’t an “I” in “Team” but there is an “I” in “Win.”  For Jordan, it wasn’t about taking credit.  It was about taking responsibility.  Jordan understood that to win, sometimes he needed to change things up and find new ways to triumph.  That ability to reinvent himself and be able to change it up is part of what made him basketball’s GOAT – Greatest of all Time.

Want to be the GOAT — Greatest Of All Time — in your profession?  Not just good.  Not just great.  Not just greatest in this moment.  But the greatest ever.  Being the “Greatest Of All Time” in any occupation or profession is incredibly difficult.  And hanging on to that title for longer than a minute is even harder.  How about being the GOAT in a profession for years or even decades?  It’s nearly inconceivable. Yet, most every athletic sport has a long-time GOAT. 

The prevailing wisdom is that to make it big, you must emulate those who have achieved what you hope to achieve.  Those who have been there and done that.  They’ve walked a mile in those moccasins and know a thing or two about the pains and pitfalls to avoid as well as the options and opportunities to seek. 

In the world of sports, athletes look for advice about training, diet, exercise and perseverance from Olympic medalists and those at the top of their sport.  In basketball, aspiring players emulate LeBron James or Michael Jordan.  In golf, they take their cues from Tiger Wood or Jack Nichlaus.  In tennis, they look to Roger Federer or Serena Williams. 

Entrepreneurs who share their business advice have each had their own unique journey to building a successful business. They’re all different. Some come from backgrounds of wealth and influential connections.  Others have built empires from scratch.  So, what makes sense for one business leader may not work at all for someone else.  Don’t take the business advice as gospel to be followed word-for-word. Rather, use it as a tool to inform big decisions and major strategic business moves. That said, listening to those who clawed their way from the very bottom to build massively successful businesses just makes sense. 

For the last three weeks, we’ve looked at pieces of advice billionaires have shared.  Here are a few more sage words of wisdom.  Use what makes sense.

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery.  But perhaps even more flattering is having someone emulate rather than imitate.  Here’s why.  While the two concepts are similar, what underlies them is quite different. 

Imitation is the act of copying someone’s actions, style, or habits to replicate what they’ve done.  For example, a businessman might choose to wear gray t-shirts every day just like Mark Zuckerberg.  That is, however, unlikely to make him a billionaire at any age.  That’s because imitation involves no thought or creativity, and it doesn’t get to the root of why he does what he does and how that has helped him. 

From Warren Buffet to Jeff Bezos and from Michael Bloomberg to Sergey Brin, when billionaires speak, people listen. Rightly so.  These are individuals who each took the seed of an idea and converted it into a multi-billion dollar empire.  Some are household names like Mark Zuckerberg and others less mainstream such as David Koch.  But these titans of business all are not just incredibly successful but also have devoted audiences of listeners and readers, depending on whether they blog, podcast, give interviews or post on social media.  People hang on their every word.  Arianna Huffington and Oprah Winfrey are media moguls who not only have direct control over media outlets but are often the face of it.  And then there are billionaires like Sir Richard Branson, Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and Bill Gates who are media darlings.  They are constantly quoted and promoted.

Everyone is trying to ‘get ahead.’  Never before in the history of the world has humanity been so deeply focused on their success.  Baby Boomers believed in the virtues of hard work and productivity to achieve modest success.  Theirs was a nose-to-the-grindstone mentality.  Gen Xers – the generation that ushered in the age of technology to supercharge productivity — believed the key to success was in working smarter, not harder.  Millennials, on the other hand, are convinced that the key to success is financial independence achieved through a host of side hustles.  And Zellennials measure success in terms of investing in themselves, taking risks and pursuing dreams.  Each generation has gone about finding success a little differently.  But the one thing they all do agree on is that to succeed, it helps to look at those who have already achieved great success… especially if they did it almost entirely on their own.

Making Changes vs Solving Problems

Last week, we looked at the issues facing Boeing as a case study in how to drill down to the root cause of a problem and then formulate a plan for fixing it.  Indeed, for decades, the names Boeing and quality were synonymous. The company was a titan of industry, designing and building aircraft that pushed the boundaries of human exploration. However, a series of catastrophic failures in recent years has cast a long shadow over this once-impeccable reputation.

So what steps are needed for Boeing – or any company experiencing a major quality breakdown and crisis of confidence — to not only overcome a persistent quality control issue but also emerge stronger and more resilient. Using Boeing as a case in point, let’s outline a strategic approach that can be applied to any organization facing a major challenge.