Did you see Messi’s goal?          

No, stay with me! This football related analogy has an important message for your business.

I’ve been a Liverpool FC fan for more years than I can remember. Last week they played Barcelona FC in the semi-final of the Champions League. They are demonstrably two of the best teams in Europe if not the World

Liverpool lost 3-0.

Not because they played badly. They didn’t. They actually played out of their skins. But Barcelona were better. And Messi in particular.

He scored their third goal from a free kick from just outside the penalty box. I could describe how good it was but that still wouldn’t do it justice. See for yourself.

How good was that?

Messi has played for Barcelona since he was 17 years old; in that time he’s scored 600 goals. This was his 600^th. To put that in perspective the top goalscorer for Manchester United, Wayne Rooney, has a total of 253 and the top goalscorer for Liverpool, Ian Rush, has 346.

Messi has more than Rooney and Rush put together!

So what does this have to do with your entrepreneurial business?

Everything.

But Messi is super-talented you may be thinking. Sure he is, but he isn’t twice as talented as Rooney or Rush (well maybe Rooney!).

He did however have one thing going for him back when he was 17 when he decided to become the best in the world.

He didn’t know it was impossible. 

You see most people think of ways and reasons that things can’t be done. Their limiting beliefs get in their way. And when someone is super-successful they think they’ve got more talent, or were just luckier.

They haven’t

Becoming super successful is about a certain way of thinking and practising certain behaviours.

In Messi’s case he thought he could be the best in the world, so that’s what he has become. But he also had to practice… a lot. And be disciplined and persistent. It doesn’t happen by accident. It takes a plan and work.

Every successful entrepreneur knows that.

Do you?

To your success.

 

Noel Guilford