Run Your Business Like the Cardinals: 3 Ways to Win Despite the Odds in a Negative Economy

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated my favorite team, the Atlanta Braves, on the last day of the regular season to make the National League play-off series.

The Phillies were supposed to sweep the Cardinals in the league championship.

The Cards beat them.

In the World Series, the smart money was on the Texas Rangers.

The Cardinals defeated them, too, and are now the World Champions.

Their post-season run to become World Champions included 13 games they won by a single run. Of those, they won 3 by walk-off hits. Five of those 13 games were decided in the final at-bat.

So how did the Cardinals do it?

How did they continue to win despite all the odds against them?

And what can you as a business owner learn from their experiences so you can win in this negative economy?

Perceive a positive result.
Deciding the outcome will be negative before you finish predetermines your results. Your mind focuses on failure before you’ve completed the effort. And guess what you get? Yup, a negative consequence.

The Cardinals had every reason to quit on multiple occasions. The Rangers had two occasions when, with just one more strike, they would become World Champions. Rather than seeing themselves as down to the final strike, the Cardinals seized the opportunity of one more strike and hit the ball successfully.

You can, too. Perceive the positive in your business by focusing on the opportunities and solutions, not the challenges and problems. Your actions follow your thoughts to achieve outstanding results.

Persevere when you want to quit.
How many times have you given up before you gave it your every effort?

You know your outcomes when you quit. You experience failure.

St. Louis succeeded by continuing to make their best effort. Even when the outcomes were painful, like committing so many fielding errors giving Texas unea
ed runs, they put the play behind them, stayed in the moment, and persisted.

You can persevere, too. Remind yourself of previous moments when you were tempted to quit, yet you continued to a positive outcome. You can do it again. Persevere.

Persist in believing.
Tiny aco
s still grow into 100-foot oak trees.

A pinch of yeast leavens an entire loaf of bread.

A single apple seed contains what’s necessary to produce an infinite number of apples.

The Cardinals refused to listen to the negative oddsmakers. They avoided the doomsayers who predicted their defeat. They paid attention only to the fact that they were in the game and still had a chance to win.

And they did.

When you believe in your business, you leverage your greatest asset—your emotional engagement with your work. You recall previous occasions when unexplainable positive results happened—a client you gave up on called and wrote a contract twice the size of the one you pitched. A customer walked through your door, had a great experience, and now sends all of her friends to you, but can’t say how she discovered you.

To win despite the odds in this negative economy, you’ve got to believe that as you perceive a positive result and persevere when you want to quit, you will succeed.

So go ahead and ice down the champagne and print the “World Champion” shirts.
Run your business like the Cardinals and win!