Recently in Golf Category

One of the joys of teaching at Belmont is that I get to keep in touch with so many of our alumni.  I offer my students a life time warranty on their entrepreneurship education, which translates into my willingness to continue to help them out on their entrepreneurial journey after they leave our campus.  We have made a policy in our program to never charge for consulting with alumni businesses and to never take an ownership stake in their firms.

I met for lunch yesterday with my former student Adam Wynia.  Adam was a member of the Belmont golf team.  His final business plan in our program dealt with becoming a professional golfer.  He has been working to implement this plan by playing the developmental professional golf tours since graduation.

Adam also is doing some golf teaching.  He is part of a program that teaches golf in a rather unconventional manner.  It is an approach that takes a rather holistic approach, focusing less on the technical details of the golf swing and more on how the body works together to get a natural, consistent, predictable swing.

The philosophy they take is that the golf swing starts with the ankles, which must work with the legs to help open the hips and get the proper shoulder turn.  The arms and hands are just an extension of the proper movement from the rest of the body.  Too many golfers focus only on their arms and hands.  It takes the whole body working together to get a consistent swing.

Adam said that by focusing on the golf swing this way, the golfer is able to focus on balance.  With the body being balanced, the body can swing naturally and consistently.

I know....this is supposed to be a blog about entrepreneurship, not golf.  But, this has been such a long winter that spring fever has hit me hard and it seems that I can't get my mind off of golf!

As I listened to Adam describe how they teach the golf swing it dawned on me that this is how I am trying to teach entrepreneurship.

The proper golf swing begins with the ankles, which provide the proper foundation needed for balance.  A new venture needs to start with a solid foundation, which comes from proper fundamental assessment of the opportunity -- Is this idea a real business opportunity? 

With a proper foundation, the legs, hips and shoulders can all work together to get the proper swing while staying in balance.  In a new venture, it is the business model that defines how all of the parts need to work together -- in balance, if you will -- to meet the needs of the market.

If you do everything in balance with your ankles, legs, hips and shoulders, your arms and hands will follow.  The result is a consistent, predictable swing.  Think of your business plan as your arms and hands -- it is the natural extension of getting the opportunity assessment and business model right, thus ensuring that all parts of the venture are working together.

Adam said that only focusing on your arms and hands will not lead to a consistent swing. 

Likewise, focusing only on the technical details of the business plan will not lead to a predictable entry into the market. 

I have been really enjoying golf lately. And much of that has to do with technology.

I never used to play any woods. I found them too hard for me to hit. So I slogged my way around the course hitting irons. Luckily I hit them fairly well most of the time.

But this year I decided to make a change -- I guess it is an age thing, as I noticed my irons were not going as far as they used to.

First I tried one of the new hybrid clubs. What an easy club it was to hit! So I bought another, and another, and then another. I hit them all so well that I stuck my 1-4 irons (yes, I even carried a 1 iron) in the garage. Then I did the unthinkable. I started hitting one of those really big-headed drivers. I had not hit a driver since high school, and even then could not hit it very well. But, are the new drivers easy to hit.

Now you still have to make a good swing. They don't hit it for you. But when you swing well it goes farther. And when you are little off, you hardly notice and it still goes pretty far.

The same thing is true for technology in business. It can't make a poor business model work, or an incompetent manager any better. But the right technology in the right hands can improve productivity and performance. It makes you more efficient.

I still think it is wise to be a late adopter. All of these golf clubs have been around for a while -- many of you probably chuckled when I called them "new." I waited for two things to happen. I wanted them to get the kinks out of the new clubs, and I wanted the prices to come down.

That is also how technology can work best for a small business. Wait until they get it right and wait until the wild-eyed first adopters are done bidding the prices for the latest and greatest gadget up. I was one of the last people I knew in business to get a fax machine in the 1980s. But by the time I bought one they worked really well and the prices had fallen through the floor.

My new driver was a gift from a golf buddy. He got it at Wal-Mart for $19.96. I hit it as far as any $400 driver. And my hybrids were all last year model on close-out in the bargain bin.

Always remember that efficiency is a simple ratio of performance over cost. Since I am not the brightest business person, and definitely not a very talented athlete, I always work on getting the bottom number of that ratio as low as possible. I wait for the cost of any technology, be it for golf, business or entertainment, to go down -- way down. That always puts the efficiency ratio in my favor!

I have been working on my tee shots for the past two years -- to no avail -- until this week. A little adjustment in my swing (courtesy of my son) and all of a sudden I am finally smacking it off the tee box again. But alas, as soon as that problem is corrected, my faithful wedges have abandoned me. Which reminded me of something from my days as an entrepreneur....

As soon as we got through one crisis in our business, it seemed another reared its ugly head. It was a pattern that seemed to occur over and over.

I guess the continual challenge of the next crisis or problem is one of the things that makes golf -- and entrepreneurship -- so fascinating. Perfection is an unrealistic goal for either pursuit.

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If you are a golfer and have never played any of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama I cannot give it a strong enough recommendation. The courses are beautiful and challenging and the service is great. They are also a real bargain! Add it to your to-do list.

"Don't count your chickens until they're hatched."

"There is many a slip between the cup and the lip."

The wisdom of these says came home to me last evening. My wife and I went to watch the Belmont men's basketball team play down the road at Middle Tennessee State University. After leading for most of the game, Belmont lost to MTSU as our team's offense went cold. When we got home our beloved Green Bay Packers were playing on Monday Night Football. They were up 21 - 12 in the third quarter. But then, Seattle scored a touchdown -- and then another. That victory that had already played out in our minds, was also taken away from us.

The lessons here should be taken to heart by any entrepreneur. I can remember so many times when I was active in business letting my mind run ahead of where we actually were. So many big contracts that I was sure we would secure, never came to pass. And countless business deals that were "sure things' didn't turn out the way we thought they would. And when we first began talking with folks about selling our business, how many times I began to imagine what I would do with all the money we assumed we would be getting, only to have the deal go bad.

As I've said many times before, entrepreneurship is so much like playing golf. You birdie the first hole and begin thinking you are going to play a great round, only to score a 8 on the next hole. Or you follow a 39 on the front nine with a 52 on the back. (Both of these examples come from my personal memories,,,), One great shot never seems to determine the match, but one bad one can.

"That's why we play 18 holes."

Just because you score a victory today against your competition does not mean that you will have continued success tomorrow. Keep yourself grounded. Talk about a deal does not guarantee a final contract. Encouraging words from a customer does not always mean a sale.

"Keep your mind in the present."

Why are there so many sayings that relate to this same message? Because for many of us, it is human nature to be optimistic. And although optimism is a good trait to have when you are an entrepreneur, that same optimism can lead you to "get ahead of yourself." Although these thoughts are impossible to avoid, we must be diligent to never act on them carelessly. I have seen too many business owners commit to expenses for a contract that never gets signed. Or they start spending money assuming their business is about to sell, only to have that final deal not come to pass.

Remember....

"It isn't over until the fat lady sings."

Entrepreneurs can get quite isolated. We get into bad habits, ignore issues that need to be addressed but may cause us some discomfort or pain if we change things, and try to avoid dealing with things we just don't like to deal with. This can be a problem employee who needs to go, problem accounts receivable that need attention in collecting, or even calling on potential customers.

I have the same issue with my golf game. I have been playing on and off since I was a kid and have developed some bad habits in my swing. My son Russ, who is a great golfer, always spots my golf "issues" when we play together. While in Hawaii he saw something in a picture he took of my swing that he pointed out was probably the cause of my recent inconsistencies. Sure enough, he was right, and I am now hitting the ball better than I have in years.

As entrepreneurs we need this kind of outside eye on our businesses once in a while. Find someone who knows about business, knows you, and can be constructively blunt with you when you need it. Have that person spend some time with you and your business once in a while to help you work out the kinks in your business.

This doesn't have to be a hired consultant. I had a couple of fellow entrepreneurs who played this roll for me (and me for them in return). I now play this roll for some of our alumni.

There are plenty of cheerleaders who will inspire you to move ahead in your business. We need that. But we also need someone who will tell us like it really is.

Even professional golfers have a swing coach. Find one for your business.

We played golf today at Ko'olau, which is billed as the "World's Most Challenging Golf Course." While that may be a little hype, it is one of the toughest I have even played. Two lessons for entrepreneurs came to mind with our round.

Focus. Ko'olau is right next to the mountains. There is jungle along every fairway, and many sand bunkers in key places. Many holes have you hitting over jungle to get to the fairway. If I wasn't careful I found myself thinking a shot or two ahead, or thinking about everything around me and not about what I needed to do to execute my shot.

But, I found that when I blocked out the beauty, the danger, the hazards, and just focused on each shot, I did alright. I hit some great shots that sailed over the jungle and landed where they should. Then I went to the ball and made my next shot.

Focus on one shot at a time. Don't think ahead.

So, too, as entrepreneurs we need to learn to block out that which would distract us. We get excited by all the opportunities that we see out there and start thinking about what to do next. Many entrepreneurs jump too soon to the next deal before the current business they are just getting going is even stable.

Focus on one shot at a time. Don't think ahead.

Set Realistic Goals and Stay Within Your Limits. My son Russ and I both went at this course with the understanding that we would likely score quite high. We set out to keep our scores in our normal range, and played our games to reach this goal. We did not try to shoot a very low score, as that was just not realistic on this course under the conditions we played in.

As entrepreneurs we need to set realistic goals. Don't try to turn a nice business into something bigger than it is or bigger than it ever realistically can become. Understand what the business can give back to you and work hard to reach that goal.

I am not saying that we should never challenge ourselves and reach for a goal that may seem hard to achieve. However, we can try too hard.

In golf you should never try to swing too hard. If you do, you usually don't hit it very well. If you swing smooth and easy the ball will almost always go farther and straighter. Do the same in your business. Know your limits and do the best within those limits. Over time, this will lead to more successes.

By the way, by setting a realistic goal today and playing within our limits, we both shot within our typical range of scores on this quite demanding golf course.

I will be blogging for most of this week from Honolulu where I am attending the Academy of Management Annual Meetings (and squeezing in a little golf with our son, as well).

This is the finishing hole of the Hawaiian Prince, which we played yesterday.

(Picture taken by Russ Cornwall).

I was watching more highlights of the British Open this morning on the Golf Channel, and I was struck by another lesson golf offers entrepreneurs. Even after all of the preparation and planning, sometimes the Open comes down to one or two unlucky bounces. The links courses are infamous for their quirky landscapes that create quite unpredictable outcomes from perfectly executed shots.

There is a certain randomness that we can never completely prepare for in golf, just as in business. I saw several well struck shots hit a mound just wrong and go in directions the players never imagined. The same is true in business. No matter how much we plan and no matter how much data we gather, random acts happen. We had a business that was providing vocational assessment and training for workman's comp cases that was growing quite nicely until one day we woke up and found out that the state legislature had added language to a bill that basically took away most of our funding from workman's comp insurance. It was a bad bounce from which we could not recover. Nobody saw it coming. It was as if we were playing our way around the course flawlessly, but on the final hole we caught a bounce that sent our ball out of bounds to cost us the championship.

Luckily for us, this was a small part of our total operation, but it taught us an important lesson. Although we could manage our risk by careful planning and solid execution, we could never eliminate the random outcomes that arise from uncertainty. Bad luck can happen at any time and without warning.

Depending how bad the bounce is, the golfer either plays on from where they are, or if the bounce is bad enough, knows that he will be able to play again tomorrow and hope that the golf gods will be kinder. A good lesson for entrepreneurs, too.

Thanks to Bill Hobbs for bringing the golf picture back to my site! Public pressure is a powerful weapon, sometimes.

Speaking of golf, while I was out this morning I was thinking about how my swing had been going so well for the past few rounds. But, now it was once again starting to fall apart this week. It reminded me of my days as an entrepreneur. When things started to run smoothly I would find myself relaxing just a bit too much. I would start to take my mind off the little things--not paying attention to details like I should. I would not pay attention to A/R like I should. I would not keep my eye on managers that needed me keeping an eye on them. And then, bit by bit things would start to get off track.

That is like my swing, I'm afraid. When I finally get it worked out I stop thinking about the little things that keep me hitting the ball straight and solid. I forget to keep my head still. I get off plane on my back swing. I tighten up my grip too much.

Certainly one can over analyze a business or a golf swing. But neither can completely take care of themselves. Even golfers with "natural swings" have to focus on what they are doing. And even the best business opportunity requires careful implementation and management. They really both come down to one thing: execution.

My site sure looked different when I checked in on it yesterday. Bill Hobbs and the IT crew here at Belmont have helped with the transition to upgraded software. So we are playing with some new layouts and features. Hope you like it. I do, except I do miss my golf picture....I always like to point at it when I tell entrepreneurs they need to FOCUS. Although I like to use lots of different metaphors, I can think of no better one for entrepreneurship than the game of golf.

Well, I'm off to my tee time....