I'm mourning the news that baseball great Yogi Berra passed away this week at the age of 90. Best known as one of the all-time greatest Yankees, Berra also played in a few games for my beloved New York Mets, before coaching them to one World Series in 1969 and managing them to another in 1973 -- solidifying his place among my fondest childhood memories.
He was one of the most successful, honest, humble and likable athletes of all time -- but what he's best-known for are his many "Yogi-isms," his seemingly-nonsensical statements that actually make a whole lot of sense, and have him widely-viewed as "the most-often quoted American."
In honor of Yogi, here are some of his best-known Yogi-isms, and their application to the lives and careers of small business owners and entrepreneurs.
"It ain't over 'til it's over."
As in baseball, perseverance in the face of adversity is a key to success in business. When's the last time everything in your business went perfectly as planned? The difference between the many businesses that fail and those that succeed is often a matter of what I call good, old-fashioned "stickativity" -- and a consistent positive attitude that things will get better if we get the right guidance and take enough of the right actions.
"We made too many wrong mistakes."
A business mentor of mine said to me long ago, "Make every mistake -- but make it just once." One key to success in business is to continually test new strategies and tactics -- especially with our advertising and marketing efforts. The "right mistake" is one where you take a calculated risk on a high-probability action that doesn't work out. The "wrong mistake" is when you do something that has a low probability of working, or you keep doing the same things that don't work, or you do nothing at all -- all usually due to not learning from experience or getting the right guidance.
"If the people don't want to come out to the ballpark, nobody's going to stop them."
A big mistake I've seen many business owners make is trying to convince people who don't want to buy to give them money. The far smarter strategy is to first find out what people want, then simply offer it to them. We call that "the low-hanging fruit" -- the easiest, quickest sales to make. Why work harder than you have to, and add more risk and uncertainty to your life?
"You can observe a lot just watching."
Too many business owners are not students of their own industry, nor of business and marketing in general -- instead choosing to focus almost all of their time and energy on the mere "doing" of their businesses. I have a poster in the room at all of my educational business seminars that says, "Lifetime Learners Are Lifetime Earners." Take Yogi's sage advice and make sure to keep your head up and constantly be looking around for examples of success to model -- and of failure to avoid.
"You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you are going, because you might not get there."
Every business owner should know the power of proper goal-setting and business planning. How often do you set and review your goals, and are they the right ones for your situation and desires?
"You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six."
Don't count on your prospects and customers to be math whizzes. Never say "33% Off" when you can say "Buy Two, Get One FREE!" instead.
"It was impossible to get a conversation going. Everybody was talking too much."
For sharp marketers, social media -- like all of marketing -- is about putting money in to get money out. It's not about putting in a lot of time and hoping you'll get something out of it. Let the public complain about how much Facebook knows about everybody; smart marketers LOVE that fact, and we take advantage of it by running highly-targeted Facebook ad campaigns -- not by posting photos of what we had for lunch every day or wasting time looking at everyone else's.
"All pitchers are liars or crybabies."
Yogi was a catcher, so his job was to deal with pitchers. Business owners often say the same thing about customers -- but our job is to deal with them. If you think your prospects and customers are liars and complainers, deliver excellent value, and you'll discover that their character miraculously changes. Even better yet -- start taking the right steps to attract better customers, clients or patients to begin with. I've done that myself and helped thousands of business owners to do the same. It's easier than you think.
"If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be."
America is increasingly moving away from self-reliance and towards more of "being taken care of" by handouts from Big Government or jobs with Big Businesses. We didn't get into business for ourselves because we thought it was going to be a smooth ride full of guarantees. In fact, some of the fondest memories I have of all the successful businesses I've built is how crazy, unpredictable, wild -- and just plain FUN! -- things were in the beginning, and during each period of massive change. Successful business owners would get bored if we weren't constantly riding a roller coaster!
"How can you think and hit at the same time?"
Study business and marketing, get the right help, and keep taking massive action until you reach the level known as "unconscious competence," where you consistently do the right things to grow your business without having to think about them. Over-thinking and perfectionism of the owners have killed many businesses before they ever grew to the successes they could have become.
"The future ain't what it used to be."
The world is changing faster than ever. If you're not constantly changing with it and embracing the improvements that technology makes possible, you and your business will quickly and surely be left behind, wondering what went wrong. Always examine your business systems with an eye towards improvement, and keep a constant eye out for innovations of businesses both inside and outside of your industry that you can model for the benefit of your customers and yourself.
A business mentor of mine is fond of saying, "If you're still doing business five years from now the same way you are now, you won't be."
Hmmm... Sounds like he's a big fan of Yogi Berra. Isn't everybody?