A few weeks back, I saw an interview with new Super Bowl champion Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. He was being asked for his thoughts on going to the Super Bowl in his sophomore season, and in response Wilson said, “…I trust the God-given ability that I have….I trust in what I can do, and in my preparation.”
I thought this was a pretty thoughtful response from the 25-year-old who has just become the first quarterback ever to lead the Seattle Seahawks to a Super Bowl win (and only the second-ever Seahawks quarterback to get to the Super Bowl), but what I noticed most was the importance he placed on preparation. It brought to mind the essential need for practice, and its undeniable role in success.
I relate to the importance of preparation in my everyday work as well. In fact, my team’s experience and our emphasis on preparation is the reason we achieve success for our own clients. A lot of people can put together a website, but the real value in our process is in the preparation. In other words, when our clients choose to work with my team, they’re hiring us to prepare, not just to play the game. I love what I do, and after all the preparation is done, building the website is the easy part. The caliber of work and the real, tangible results our websites produce is all thanks to a committed and very unique preparation process.
I don’t know what Wilson did to prepare for Sunday’s blowout, but I’m confident it was intense. And while it seems Wilson was better prepared than Manning for last Sunday’s matchup, Manning (arguably one of the best quarterbacks of all time) is well known for his focused preparation. Consider his regular practice of the “wet-ball drill,” in which he dedicates full days to working with his starting center, filling a bucket full of water, and having the center dip the ball into a bucket of water as he practices catching snap after snap. This exercise is frequently credited as the reason the Indianapolis Colts, against all predictions, beat the Chicago Bears in the relentlessly rainy 2007 Super Bowl. Who knows what the outcome would have been without such concentrated preparation?
In an interview a few weeks ago, Peyton Manning repeated what many NFL players know: “We play the game for free; we get paid to practice.” To my mind, this couldn’t be more true in any facet of business or life.
To your success!
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