Winners Win – The Mantra for 2015

Happy New Year to all my Black Entrepreneur Blueprint family. The mantra for 2015 is “Winners Win”. Let’s make a point to win in business and in life in 2015. I was asked at a recent entrepreneur boot camp that I hosted, “what is the best advice you ever received”? I answered; “Winners Win”. Let me tell you where that advice came from. My dad and I had a strange relationship. My parents were separated when I was seven years old and subsequently divorced. My dad basically vanished from my life from the age of nine until I turned twenty eight. I will call those the missing years. He got remarried and didn’t really have an interest in my brother, my sister, and myself for some reason. That’s another long story we can tackle at another time. Well; some of the few early memories I have with my dad were sports related. I used to sit on the floor and watch all the football and basketball games with him on Saturday and Sunday while he sat on the couch. Our conversations would always be about who won and why. After several hundred of these conversations; my dad became tired of explaining the nuances of why one team won and the other team lost, and that’s when the greatest quote I ever heard was uttered. He said, “son, winners win”, “there is something inside of them that drives them to win no matter what the circumstances are, they just win”.

I never forgot that quote. In my mind I was thinking about my sports heroes like Muhammad Ali, and Dr. J (more so in the ABA than NBA). What made them different from the rest? Why did they win when others lost? I didn’t know the answer at that young age, but now I do. Winners win because they are determined not to lose. Many times winners win because they endure and stick it out longer than others can. I have been telling my kids since they were young that the easiest thing to do is quit. It takes absolutely no effort what so ever. So as 2015 comes upon us, let us take the mantra of “Winners Win”. Let us continue to build our businesses and prosper in 2015 and beyond. I know the road gets tough some times, but we must remember to keep pushing forward towards our goals. Nothing worthwhile in life comes easy, so let my dad’s words keep you pressing forward and always remember that “Winners Win”.