Everybody wants an edge that will give him or her a competitive advantage that will help him or her accomplish a goal faster, easier or better. Athletes will train harder and longer. They will eat right, sleep right and even give up sex if they think it will give them a winning edge. Some athletes have gone as far as taking up ballet, yoga or illegal drugs to improve performance.In business,
winning edge may be a critical piece of information, an inside connection, a chance meeting with a key decision maker or a well-rehearsed sales presentation. It doesn’t matter what edge is as long as you have it and your competition doesn’t.
As African Americans, winning edge in business has historically been denied us. Access to capital, ownership rights, quality education and relationships with White decision makers in business world were historically hard to come by. Many tried to succeed and did but many more fell by wayside, unable to overcome these huge barriers.
We no longer live in day and age where these obstacles are forced in place by society. That doesn’t mean however, that we have full access and participation in “ownership society.” The changing world economy though, offers us a prime opportunity to achieve significant gains in entrepreneurship, asset accumulation and wealth.
However, we need to adopt first winning edge in business, sports and, even, relationships. That edge is a winning attitude or mindset.
A winning attitude produces winners. A losing attitude produces losers. Its not much more complicated then that however, some explanation is in order.
I define a winner as someone that wins more then he loses. A person that wins when winning matters most.
Take note that a winner is not someone who always wins and never loses. You can lose all day play slot machines at a casino but if you win big once and walk away with more then you started, you’re considered a winner that day. In fact, casino always wins but they know that occasionally letting you win will keep you coming back to try out your luck.
In business, you could start 3 failing business but if your fourth one takes off, everyone will talk about what a success you are. Getting it right once can make you a winner. Most people never make first attempt in business, relationships, public speaking and a whole host of things because of fear. These people may never fail but not failing is not same as winning. Many will give up on these things after a single failure. On other hand, winner always wins at least once after several and sometimes many failures. The second part of definition involves winning when winning matters most. The Bible says, “What does it profit a man if he should gain whole world and lose his own soul.” Winning often involves sacrifice but there is a limit to how much we should sacrifice.
