What do you do with a growth opportunity?
Let me start by saying that – as far as growth and opportunities are concerned – today was a great day.
All the dashboards, of course, came out well.
The actual blog is live, and I’m very happy with the look of it. I need to create a home page still, but it’s a very clean layout.
I finished my first 36-hours fast. I ate a wonderful meal of rigatoni, meaty marinara, and Italian sausage. And then I started another fast.
Also, it was the first day of Winter Workouts for the Regulators Baseball Club. We had right at 50 kids. And while there were some hiccups, it flowed better than expected.
The key to it was planning and trying to account for the variables we cannot control. For example, the weather. It was cold last night. But, with a tight schedule, the kids keep moving, and they get all their reps in.
We planned it right, and most of the kids never noticed the cold. Especially the older kids. Some of the younger ones noticed. But it’s a chance to talk about those controllables. We cannot control the weather. We can control our hustle, effort. and attitude about the cold.
Starting and growing the baseball program was an opportunity seized. I realized when Cameron was 10 or so that the travel baseball world is egocentric. It isn’t about development (on average). Having played at Yale, I saw that there was an opportunity to build something that filled a gap in the market. But at the same time, there was an opportunity to be closer to Cameron and Cole’s own baseball development. It was a win-win.
As Cameron was transitioning from his 11-year-old to 12-year-old season, I knew there were some nice fields available. If someone were willing to take action, they could lock them up for an extended period of time. The finances were right, and I invested in the opportunities in front of me. We started with one team, and now we have seven. That means we’ve seen 700% growth in two short years.
I’m proud of that.
But this brings me to the other side of the growth opportunity coin. The only thing that didn’t go as planned was a potential client meeting. It went well, and there will be lots of future business there, but we weren’t able to close it yesterday. My tech and development team wasn’t ready for prime time. We’re building out a service called Zeal Stream. This potential client wants the ability to live stream. It’s on our roadmap, but a little farther down the road. We’ve since moved it up, but we weren’t able to meet their needs today.
But, we were able to offer them some things that will bring them on board in the next month or two.
I would have liked to have been ready though. Taking advantage of growth opportunities that fall into your lap like this one is a key to success. It’s the part of growing a business that is often not talked about. Seeing an opportunity and then taking advantage of it. This was an opportunity we failed to take advantage of.
The only thing we can do now is move forward. This, if you look at it right, and control your controllable, is a growth opportunity. I could be upset that we weren’t ready. I could kick and stomp and feel sorry for myself. Or I could add it to the FMEA. I can figure out ways to be more prepared the next time. That’s the growth opportunity from this setback. Fail forward.
That said, I am grateful that we have those opportunities. We’ve been able to take advantage of most of them, and that’s been a key factor in our success.
I am grateful for winter hats (my Canadian wife calls them a touque, I call them a toboggan). But either way, tonight, at baseball, it was cold, but my ears were warm.
I am grateful for the flexibility that entrepreneurship offers me. I’m able to have my businesses. And I’m able to coach a sport I love. And I’m able to spend time with my family at the field. We all participate in growing the program.
We (as a family) are successful with hustle, effort, attitude, and teamwork. HEAT.
See you in the morning, I’m off to brush and get some sleep!
