Mark Schott

The best advice on how to be successful I’ve heard: On Nick Saban’s radio show, a young athlete asked him a bold question. What advice would the Alabama football coach give him – a basketball player – to improve in his sport? Saban’s response is gold: “I think for any athlete, it's the same thing. What's your goal? What's your aspiration? What do you want to accomplish? That's the first thing. “Second thing is to define what it takes to do it. What does it entail for you to be the kind of basketball player that you want to be? “Then you got to make the decision. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to go work every day and do the things you need to do and take 500 shots a day like Kobe Bryant did so that you can be the kind of player that you want to be? “And then do you have enough discipline to make yourself do it every day? Whether you feel like it or not. “You got to choose to get up. You got to choose to study. You got to choose to go make the shots. You got to choose to work out. People that can do that, they can reach their full potential. “If you choose to make that kind of commitment to it, you can do the same thing, but it's not going to just come to you. It's not going to come easy. “And you're going to have to overcome a lot of adversity to be able to persevere and sustain it to get where you want to go.” – It’s a beautiful response for sports, business and life. Replace the young basketball player with yourself – investor, business owner, manager, teacher, whatever – and the same framework applies. Some key takeaways: 1. Everything begins with a vision. What do you want to achieve? 2. Vision alone isn’t enough. You need a detailed plan of how to achieve it. 3. Commitment separates those who dream from those who do. Most people aren’t willing to do what it takes. 4. Daily execution is the hardest (and most valuable) part. 5. Feelings are irrelevant. You can do what needs to be done despite how you feel. 6. One day of effort is overrated. Daily effort is underrated. 7. Improvement is a lifelong process. Embrace it, cherish it, commit to it. ||| Hope this is helpful. Follow me @TMitrosilis for more writing.