I recently watched the move "Air: Courting a Legend", based on Nike's search for relevance in basketball and one talent scout's relentless pursuit of Michael Jordan. It is an incredible movie. I'm an 80's kid and the music, the cars, the office décor, and the clothing were spot on and perhaps even more impressive than the story itself!
Spoiler Alert! There is a pivotal moment in the movie where Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon) is watching Game Tape of Michael Jordan during the 1982 national championship game between Jordan's North Carolina Tar Heels and Georgetown. Down by 1 with less than 20 seconds left in the game. Jordan is a freshman. He is 18 years old. North Carolina is not a dominant program, yet. Dean Smith is not a legendary coach, yet. James Worthy, the senior, and the soon to be number one pick in the upcoming NBA draft (and future hall of famer) is the decoy. The trust is placed fully in Jordan. Dean Smith bet his legacy on an 18-year-old freshman. He knew.
Game Tape is how Sonny Vaccaro figured it out. It's how he convinced Phil Knight (Ben Affleck) to go "All In" on Jordan. It c
hanged the shoe business. It catapulted Nike to the industry leader. It broke barriers for athletes and introduced revenue sharing opportunities to future athletes. One game tape learning moment changed the course of history.
My "Game Tape" is a 5X8 Moleskin. I take it everywhere. I journal thoughts, ideas, conversations, mistakes, wins and all types of junk that runs through my mind. From time to time, I review last year's Moleskin and the year before that and on and on. Annually I start with the first notebook (a spiral before Moleskin's existed) and read through to the current year before I file it away for safe keeping. My experiences are documented, the good the bad and the ugly. You probably have a version of game tape too. If not, develop one.
The first half of my business life was spent making a lot of mistakes, and I am sad to say that most of the mistakes were repeated because I didn't start watching game tape early enough in my career. Failure is inevitable, but repeating failure because we don't learn from our mistakes is avoidable. It is highly possible that your breakthrough or big win is in your game tape!
Attitude's a choice!
Shane
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