You've Only Got to be Better Once

The things that come to you when playing digital mini-golf with your kids...

We were playing and competing and shouting and having a great time. He's competitive, and so am I. And he's 15. So we play for real; we both want to win.

What I realized is that I only have to be better than him once. I need to be "as good as" the rest of the time, otherwise I'm playing catch up. But if I'm as good as him for 2 rounds and I can be better by 1 stroke in the third round, or even the shootout, I can win.

This is the same for your business.

I went Christmas shopping with my wife as one does this time of year. There were stores with good service and stores without. There were some good deals, and some not so great. And then there were a couple of stores with warm drinks, two of them with cider and cookies. But one of those had a one-third full bottle of Captain Morgan's Rum next to the cider. I didn't drink the rum or the cider, but I'm sharing this with you because one of the stores stood out above all others. They were as good as the other stores in everything else. And they went just a little bit further.

When you're "as good as" your competition, you are essentially invisible. You blend in. But it doesn't take much to be one better. A bottle of Captain Morgan's is $14 at Target. This store essentially did everything the other best stores were doing and they added a $14 item that served over 20 people and made an impression on many more.

Being better once is not that hard, as long as you can be "as good as" the rest of the time. But it does take intention.

What do you intend to do to stand out between now and the end of the year?