I am a huge New England Patriots fan and acknowledge that maybe luck was in our favor on Sunday night when the Patriots won the Super Bowl. In football, like many sports, when two equally talented teams play it is often just the bounce of a ball that can determine a winner. Like many fans, I thought the lucky bounce of the football had once again “done us in” when the Seattle receiver, Jermaine Kearse, made a remarkable catch of a ball that bounced from hand to body to hand many times.
Then Malcolm Butler made a great interception on the goal line. Luck had finally turned in our favor. But was it really luck? Not really. It was where preparation, talent, and effort allowed him to seize an opportunity. On that play, if Butler had just gone through the motions, the Seahawks receiver, Ricardo Lockette, would have scored the winning touchdown. But Butler, using natural instincts and good training, drove himself toward the ball and got there a fraction of a second ahead of Lockette. (Photo by Kathy Willens/Associated Press)
It was Butler’s instinct and extra effort that allowed him to seize that opportunity, not luck. While defensive backs and receivers are trained to do this, many times their instincts or effort let them down and they miss opportunities.
This is true in life and business, too. It is preparation, talent, and effort that seize opportunities when they arise. And, in most cases, it is effort that is most important. If you are in sales, do you push yourself to make more calls? If you are in customer service, do you work hard at understanding and empathizing with the customer? If you are in accounting, do you double-check the entries?
I was listening to a Nerdist podcast when they were interviewing Tom Bergeron, the host of Dancing with the Stars and America’s Funniest Home Videos. Bergeron, who many of us have met and is a native of this area, said one of the keys to his success was that he did a lot of things and rarely said, “no.” Some programs he did were complete flops. And it was at one of the flops that he met Whoopi Goldberg. They hit it off and when she bought the rights to Hollywood Squares she remembered Bergeron and hired him to host. His big break came because of who he met when he took the extra effort to do a show that flopped.
Every time I think of this Patriot’s victory I will think about how Malcolm Butler’s preparation, talent, and effort allowed him to seize an opportunity and win the day. How can we do the same thing in our worlds?
