Be Dominant

January 25, 2019

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In an early round match at the 2018 Australian Open, Simona Halep, the best player in the world, kept making inexplicable unforced errors.

She made so many she found herself down match point.

In an early round match at the 2019 Australian Open, Simona Halep, the best player in the world, kept making inexplicable unforced errors.

She made so many she found herself down 4-2 in the final set.

On both occasions, she “miraculously” came back to win.

Congratulations?

In our lives, there’s one surefire can’t-miss predictor of who is going to be successful.

Margin of victory.

Almost without exception, the most successful teams are the ones who win by the most.

Not the ones who keep barely pulling it out in the end.

If you want to know who will win the championship, just look for the team that won by the most.

On the other hand, the teams that give themselves credit for putting out the fire they started in their living room are the ones who come up short.

Case in point.

In the 2017 French Open final, Simona Halep, the best player in the world, was up a set and 3-0. She was just three games from her first Major.

Inexplicably, after losing a point, Simona threw a tantrum, violently hitting her racquet on the clay. The match turned after the tantrum. Ostapenko took home the trophy.

Halep was cruising. All she had to do was maintain. And yet she set fire to her living room instead.

Have you ever known someone who would’ve been ten minutes early to the appointment but decided to run an errand and take two calls at the last minute?

How many times does that person actually make it on time? 50%? 25%?

He could’ve been early. He could’ve been stress-free. He could’ve been calm and prepared.

Instead, he was frazzled and distracted and late.

Wow, it’s amazing you were able to fit all those things in before you got here. But we had to start the meeting without you, sorry. Maybe we can reschedule for another time.

You know who wins the title? The team that starts fast and then keeps up relentless pressure.

You know who gets the promotion? The person who’s always ready, always on time, always un-distracted.

You know who falls short? The person who attempts amazing thrill-seeking liquor store hold-ups with a born-to-lose tattoo on his chest.

Sometimes he pulls it off. Sometimes he ends up in prison. Sometimes he loses French Open finals.

So beware the amazing comeback.

If we want a guarantee of success, be dominant.

My book is called The Inevitability of Becoming Rich, and you can find that here.