What’s On My Mind
It’s my birthday today!
(Good thing I write these a few days beforehand instead of getting up at 4 am, right?)
I like birthdays.
Birthdays are great times to pause and reflect.
To be grateful.
To connect with the people that matter most.
To celebrate our annual progress.
One thing I’m really grateful for this year is that, even from a really young age, it made sense to me to play the long game.
I know my dad having a stroke a few weeks ago has made me grateful for so many deep relationships.
(By the way, my dad is progressing nicely. He’s not recovering as quickly as he would like, but he’s putting in the work day after day. He’s playing the long game.)
I think I know why I’ve always focused on long-term, deep relationships.
It was growing up in rural Indiana.
We were sort of newcomers to the 100-person small town of Preble Indiana, but the neighbors around us lived on the same plots of land for generations.
It’s not like Atlanta, where you feel like living next to someone for three years is a long time.
There, many times families lived next to each other for three generations.
When you live in a community like that, you treat each other right.
Notice a fence needs to be mended?
You don’t just call your neighbor.
You get out of your truck and mend it yourself—right then and there.
You might not even mention it to anyone.
That’s playing the long game.
You are not thinking about yourself or what you want.
In business development, playing the long game is not thinking about short-term goals or what “closed deal” will make your year.
Instead, it’s always doing what’s right for others.
Every day.
Long game.
What’s Worth Checking Out
My friend Dorie Clark has a new book out.
And guess what.
Dorie was on the show back in the spring, and we got a sneak peek as she was finishing The Long Game manuscript.
These episodes are worth a listen or watch again.
Dorie was fantastic.
We had so much fun recording this, laughing so much, and sharing some great concepts.
Here’s a recap:
Here’s Dorie’s overview of how to play The Long Game.
Here’s her take on how we can use The Long Game mindset to grow our books of business.
Here’s how we can use The Long Game to build a relationship advantage.
Here’s how we can use The Long Game to hack our habits to succeed.
And, here are the top insights I got from our conversations.
Great stuff!
And most importantly…
Here’s the link to snag Dorie’s new book at Amazon.
It comes out next week!
What’s Worth Lingering On
Playing the long game is huge.
It’s a competitive advantage.
Our ego can pull us into worrying about ourselves and focusing on the short term.
What our expectations are for a meeting. What our goals are for the year.
Wishing things would move faster–and silently conveying we feel that way to others.
Think of a time when you were buying something, and the other side played the short game.
They were Pushy.
They put on Pressure.
They were going too fast.
Now think of time when you were buying something and the other side played the long game.
They were proactively investing in your relationship.
They were progressing at the perfect pace.
They were going above and beyond.
It’s a beautiful thing to buy from someone playing the long game.
It’s funny.
Do you know the shortest answer to getting short term results?
Play the long game.
Mo