When faced with choices, there are the safe ones and there are the best ones and they are rarely the same thing. In sports we have a popular saying: “You play to win. You don’t play NOT to lose.”
When we play “not to lose” we are making timid choices. We coach scared, we play scared, we don’t take risks with our business, we simply protect what’s ours. This usually happens when a team is up and ‘defending’ a lead. In business this happens when we have developed a successful product or service and we shift our mindset in order to NOT lose customers. We get comfortable and we do what we have to (which is usually the bare minimum) to keep the lead or customers we have instead of going out on a limb for more.
We operate with the mindset that there is more apparent risk in ambition than there is in maintaining our current situation. The sad part is that when we start playing “not to lose” we change the mindset that got us that upper hand to begin with. Don’t play NOT to lose this week, play to win.
