Elite performers are driven by mastery, not money. They combine hard work with deliberate practice, focused training on weak spots. Serena Williams, Tiger Woods, and top financial advisors all delegate non-essentials to spend time where it matters most.
Chapters
What are the success clues that you've learned from the greatest performers, either how they think or what they do? Well, the thing that comes to mind initially is what I would say is at the foundation of that belief, whether it's the belief system in psychology, we refer to it as achievement motivation. It's their motive to achieve. And I don't, you know, there's still, you know, is that something that you're born with? Is that something that you is kind of nature versus nurture? You know, did you learn that because you were around other high achievers and they imparted that on you? Was it your family and how your parents raised. There's debate about that. There's still research that kind of say. And the research always comes down to, it's a little mix of all of that. But clearly once you start working with elite performers, you see really quickly that certain people are just wired to achieve. They, they are looking to achieve mastery of their craft. So when you get around the Serena Williams in tennis or, you know, I've been lucky, I've been around Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, Djokovic, Nadal, these guys, they're just, they're wired differently. They, so at a core they are trying to master a craft. They're not necessarily doing it for money at all. They're, they're not doing it for the physical trophy. They're trying to see how good they can get and they're trying to be at the top of their trade. And that's what, and in business, no different in business, you know, I see with financial advisors, they, they just want to be the go to advisor for business owners in their community. They want to know that, hey, I'm the, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of the lead dog of the pack and I want to be that and I want to master. And if that, and if doing that means I have to learn more about business succession or lending or risk management or financing or you know, valuation, they, they're going to go learn all that because they feel they need to learn all that to be, become the top of the, the pack that way. So that, that I always say that's the fuel that drives them. And then as you said, the behaviors are kind of like, what do I need to fulfill that, that achievement, that mastery. And then the behaviors become things like just simply like the will to work there. They'll put in more hours than will other people. Initially, what I see is they certainly are willing to work. But then over the years they Learn what we call in sports science, deliberate practice, which is the efficiency of the work. My role with athletes and business owners is oftentimes increasing productivity. It comes from the science of deliberate practice. Meaning if Tiger woods is practicing for an hour on a range, does he get an hour of production out of that practice? If they're working on their craft for a month, do they get a month of production out of that work? Most. There's many athletes that put in the work, but they don't necessarily. So they might stand right next to another athlete working just as long. But when you actually see the productivity that comes out of that work, elite performers, the deliberateness of the work is so, so much better. They just aren't wasting time on what I call necessary non essentials. So they're spending time on the parts of the game that are most important. I remember Greg Nor I was on the range with Greg Norman. He was number one, kind of in the mid-90s, early 90s to the mid-90s. And I was on the range with 1995. And we were talking about his practice and I asked him just this, like, how do you allocate your day? He would practice from sun up to sundown, like every day. Just a workaholic in terms of golf. And I said, well, how do you actually distribute that practice? How do you know what to work on? And his words where he says, I work on the parts of my game that cost me the most shots in competition. And I thought it was just, it was an athlete's way of. It's what their science of deliberate practice basically says is having an understanding of what are the parts of the game that actually cost the most results if you were to either master them or not that way. And I find that true with financial advisors. And I'm sure you see that with agents as well. They have this keen ability to go, you know, with financial advisors, it's really about I need to spend time in front of people with money. I need to be coaching and consulting them and solving problems with them. I don't need to be sitting at my computer screen managing assets or allocating funds or doing a trade or onboarding a client. They hire and delegate all those other necessary non essentials to other people. Because what's important for them, for advisors is what's important is to be consulting with people with money. I've always said with golfers, it's they spend their day hitting a ball with a stick at a hole. That's how they spend their time. And then the issue is what kind of drills do we do while we're doing that? But they're not spending time booking their hotel rooms, filling their planes with gas, you know, cleaning their golf clubs. They're just not doing that. Other people are.
