Ignore the outcome? In this episode, we look beyond results to see the things that matter more in your journey to success.
Success is about achieving results; it’s also about how you get there.
In this episode of Success Through Failure, we explore the value of performance and the importance of focusing on what you can control.
We also look at how failure can be viewed as an option that leads to greater success. And as always, we’ll leave you with an actionable takeaway that you can apply in your life right now.
Whether you’re an entrepreneur, leader, athlete, or simply someone looking to move forward, this episode is for you.
Tune in now and focus on the things that truly matter as you start your journey towards success!
If you don’t have time to listen to the entire episode or if you hear something that you like but don’t have time to write it down, be sure to grab your free copy of the Action Plan from this episode— as well as get access to action plans from EVERY episode— at JimHarshawJr.com/Action.
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[00:00] Results are the only thing that matters. Welcome to another episode of Success Through Failure, the show for successful people and for those who want to become. Successful. The only show that reveals the true nature of success. This is your host, Jim Harshaw, Jr. And today I’m bringing you a solo episode.
[00:24] But before I do, I wanna say thank you for listening, 400 episodes. This is episode 402. 400, it was a huge milestone. So thank you for all the congratulations. Thank you for the shares. Gave away a bunch of t-shirts to those who shared and liked and commented on the pinned post that we are promoting there for the last several episodes.
[00:44] I’m just grateful for you, the listener. You’re the reason why I do this. It’s so fun to hear. I. Who’s on the other end of the line. So if I’ve not connected with you, connect with me on social media, follow me, engage with me, I love to engage with you. You can comment on any of the posts and I will comment back directly to you.
[01:02] I really just do love to hear from you and engage with you. And one more comment before we get into today’s episode. So recently in the NCAA basketball Championships in March Madness. Like they do every year. They name the national coach of the year, the AP National coach of the year. This year it was Shaka Smart.
[01:23] Shaka Smart is the head basketball coach at Marquette University. He’s had a long and storied career. He was at VCU and then he was at Texas and now he’s at Marquette and he’s had some really, really good teams. He’s considered, well, obviously one of the greatest coaches in college basketball right now.
[01:39] Shaka Smart. Okay. He has a coach. He works with an executive coach, a leadership development coach for himself and his program and his staff. Geno Auriemma also. Does the same thing. Geno Auriemma is an 11 time national championship basketball coach, women’s basketball coach at Yukone of the greatest college sports dynasties of all time.
[02:01] Bruce Arena is another one. Five time national championship coach soccer at UVA, university of Virginia, my alma mater. he also won five MLS championships. Bruce Arena also has a coach who has worked with him and his staffs and his teams. This same person has worked with all three of these coaches, also works with leaders and CEOs all over the country.
[02:25] That man’s name is Dr. Tom Peron. I interviewed him in episode 398. He is my business partner. He’s the guy who I work with together. When we work with executive teams, if you’re part of a leadership team, if you’re leading an organization, whether it’s a company or a school or otherwise, And you need leadership development.
[02:46] You wanna work with people who have worked with the best, reach out to me. You can go to harshawperrin.com. That’s Harshaw, my last name, and Perrin, P-E-R-R-I-N.com. And you can see who we’ve worked with and kind of work that we do. And you can also reach out to me directly, us directly on that website, on the contact form.
[03:05] Or again, on any social media platform, you can find me. Just look for Jim Harshaw or Jim Harshaw, Jr. On Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, you name it, and you can reach out to me and find out how we can work with you and develop leaders in your organization. All right. Enough about that. Let’s get into today’s topic.
[03:23] I got into a sort of a friendly social media debate with a guy who posted this on social media. He said, results are the only thing that matter. Results are the only thing that matter. And this is a, he’s a fairly big podcaster and and brand out there, and I hate when people say these kinds of things because it’s wrong.
[03:46] Results do matter, but how you get them matters even more. Why do I say that? There’s a guy named Tony Bennett. Tony Bennett is the head basketball coach again at Mile La Mater, university of Virginia. He won the national championship in 2019. In 2018, they lost as a number one seed to the number 16 seed.
[04:11] They were the first team in the history of March Madness to lose the first number one seed to lose to a 16 devastating, absolutely devastating. Now, Tony Bennett is also one of very few coaches who have been named the National Coach of the year. Not once, but twice. He was the Naysmith National Coach of the Year, twice the AP National Coach of the Year, twice.
[04:36] He’s also one of only three coaches in history, along with Dean Smith Hall of Famer, Mike Shashefski. We all know that name. One of only three coaches to lead his program to 10 or more consecutive winning a ACCC records a ACCC basketball is legendary. Tony Bennett is also one of only three coaches.
[04:54] Again, Dean Smith in Mike Shashefski being the other, the others to be named the a ACC Coach of the Year, four or more times. This guy. Is a legend in his own time. He’s widely considered one of the greatest basketball coaches coaching today, if not the best, and he engineered one of the greatest success through failure stories in the history of sports going from in 2018, the worst loss ever historically.
[05:21] You could consider it maybe the worst or certainly one of the worst losses ever in college basketball to the greatest success story over the next 12 months. Getting to the championship and winning the NCAA championship in phenomenal fashion. It was such an exciting last three games in the Elite eight and the final four in the championship.
[05:40] I happened to be there, which was really cool to be be there and be part of it. It was when I was working at the University of Virginia, still as a major gift fundraiser, and I got to participate and be, be part of all of that. It was so much fun, but why am I talking about him? He said this, he said this recently in a press conference.
[05:55] He said, Don’t accept in victory what you wouldn’t accept in defeat. Quick interruption. If you like what you’re hearing here and you want to learn how you can implement this into your life, just go to jimharshawjr.com/apply to see how you can get a free one-on-one coaching session with me. That’s jimharshawjr.com/apply.
[06:17] Now back to the show. Don’t accept in victory what you would not accept in defeat. Now, you heard me talk about this in episode 399 with Sherri Coale. Right? I shared that with Sherri and Sherri’s a hall of fame basketball coach, in her own right at Oklahoma University, and she was, the guest in episode 399.
[06:37] I love to bring on coaches because they just have put this leadership stuff into practice so much more and so much a more understandable environment, right? You, you think about different companies, different organizations, they can be a black box and you don’t know what it looks like inside of there. We all.
[06:52] By and large understand what it looks like inside of a basketball program or football program. There’s a lot of nuances there, of course, but we really see this played out so, so much in front of her eyes in sports. But even when I shared that with Sherry, she made a comment about it after the episode about how that was such a profound quote, and she actually wrote that down.
[07:07] But Tony Bennett says this, he says, shared this quote after a win. Don’t accept in victory what you wouldn’t accept in defeat, because you can’t boil what matters down to one thing. It’s not just results. If you could, maybe you could say effort is the only thing that matters, or preparation is the only thing that matters, or attitude because all of those lead to one thing.
[07:31] All of those lead to performance. So really, if you could say, boil it down to one thing, it might be. Performance is the only thing that matters because you want to perform well, and if you perform poorly and you win, don’t accept in victory what you wouldn’t accept in defeat. What do I mean by that? Like think of an example.
[07:54] Let’s go to my world of wrestling, right? That’s my background. What if you perform well, but you know you’re a high school wrestler and you perform well, but you gotta wrestle the world champion and you lose. Results are the only thing that matter, right? Bull results are not the only thing that matter.
[08:08] Performance is what matters. What if you perform poorly but you beat the world champion? Maybe. Maybe he rolls his ankle or she rolls her ankle, right? Is are results the only thing that matter? Like, are you proud of our poor performance? Don’t accept in victory what you would not accept in defeat. Would you accept poor performance if you lose, you know, in a lot of these post-game press conferences, you hear coaches talk about how their team performed well because you know they won the game.
[08:36] But you look back at the game, it’s like, well, they know the opponent missed the free throw at the end of the game, right? But if the tables are turned and the guy made the free throw, you would be hearing the coach talking about. How you know the guys didn’t do their job, don’t accept in victory, which you would not accept in defeat.
[08:53] What matters is performance. Your performance at work, at home, in your health and wellness, in your relationships, in your business, in your career. What matters is performance. It’s not winning, it’s not losing. And what matters is the effort and the attitude and the preparation that goes into that performance.
[09:16] Because you can replicate a good performance, but you can’t always replicate the result. I’m gonna say that again because that’s important. You can replicate a good performance, but you can’t always replicate the result. There are too many variables. There are too many things there are outside of your control.
[09:33] You can more consistently replicate a performance though through your effort, through your attitude, through your preparation, but you can’t always replicate the results. Some other examples, like let’s say you do everything you can to prepare for a competition year round. You’re preparing, but you get the stomach flu.
[09:51] Matter of fact, that’s exactly what happened to Sherry Cole. If you go back and listen to that episode I just talked about, episode 3 99, she talked about how her team was in position. Have an amazing run in the national tournament, but they got the stomach flu. They were on IVs before the game. You can’t control the outcome.
[10:09] You control your preparation, your effort, your attitude, but you can’t control the results. You get a bad call by the referee that’s outta your control. I have a, a close friend who applied for her dream job, and she basically got it. I mean, they, they had her come and spend the day with the organization.
[10:27] They said, Hey, you know, we like you. This is really more about you seeing if this is gonna be a good fit for you. Spent the day and then expected to hear from them either later that day or the next day. But crickets, two days go by. 3, 4, 5 days. Crickets. A week, two weeks, three weeks go by. No answer. No response.
[10:47] What happened? They canceled. The hiring for that. Results are the only thing that matter. Bull. They matter. Results matter, but how you get the result also matters. It matters. More focus on the process in sports. It’s eating the right foods, nutrition, getting a proper amount of sleep, watching film, showing up early, staying late, living your life, right?
[11:12] It’s the same in the real world, in your business, in your career, in your job, in your relationships, in your, in your health and fitness. I hope this is freeing for you. This releases you, this releases your full potential. It releases your fear of failure. Because it’s not about winning. It’s not about the result.
[11:31] You can’t control that. When I finally learned that as a wrestler, I was able to put the baggage down. As a matter of fact, how I learned that as a wrestler. I worked with a performance coach. I worked with a mindset coach. His name happens to be Tom Peron, who I interviewed, an episode 398 and I talked about earlier.
[11:48] He helped me get over that mindset. And that fear of failure, and you can too. I interviewed World Champion Wrestler, Jayden Cox, on the podcast, and he talked about how when he finally realized that failure is an option, that’s when he blossomed. That’s when he realized he can go out and go for it and perform his best because failure actually is an option.
[12:11] It actually is something that can happen to you. And think about you in your own life. You’re looking to lose weight. You’re doing the work, you’re eating, right, you’re working out, and all the markers are going the right weight, your blood markers and cholesterol and everything else, but you plateau and you’re not losing the weight.
[12:26] Results are the only thing that matter. Bullshit. This is performance psychology 1 0 1. I don’t care what line of work you’re in or what you’re talking about in your life. Results are not the only thing that matter. The thing that matters more is performance. Your preparation, your attitude, your effort.
[12:43] Think about it. You make the sale, right? If you’re in sales, you make the sale, but you were hungover, you gave a poor performance, but your best friend is the decision maker in the company. Results matter. Results are the only thing that matters. Yeah, it’s great. You got the result. But do you wanna replicate that?
[12:57] Do you wanna show up hungover and give a poor performance every time? No. You don’t wanna replicate that. You lost the 10 pounds, but you’re not exactly sure how because you ate junk food and slept in, you didn’t work out. It’s probably not gonna happen, right? But, but the result is that all that matters.
[13:13] No, the performance is what matters. The attitude, the effort, the preparation. You win your age division in a 5k, but everyone else in the race got stung by a band of hornets and you’re the only one who didn’t, and they all dropped out. Results are the only thing that matters. Bullshit. Just because you got a, a good health checkup, for example, with your doctor, doesn’t mean you can go on drinking more now than you know you should, or eating processed foods all the time, not getting enough sleep.
[13:44] No, don’t accept in victory what you wouldn’t accept in defeat. Don’t allow yourself to get away with stuff just because you won, just because you’re winning in life that you wouldn’t accept in defeat. If you do, you will not reach your potential. This is about success through failure. Failure is part of the process.
[14:11] Sure, results matter. We know that. But what matters more is how you get those results. Tony Bennett doesn’t want his team to miss free throws and have poor defense because that’s not a performance. You want a replicate. Sure, they may win, but that’s not what you wanna replicate. Now, here’s the deal. Here’s the asterisk to everything I’m talking about right now.
[14:37] You still have to find a way to win. The job, the sale, your marriage, your health. You still have to find a way to win. I don’t care what’s going on out there, it doesn’t matter. You gotta find a way to win the sales presentation, the job interview, even when things go wrong, even when you fail to prepare well enough, even when something bad happens that you didn’t predict and it was totally outta your control.
[15:06] Those are the ugly wins that you see in sports. You still have to find a way to get the result that you want, and that’s usually through effort, attitude, and preparation that will lead you to the performance, the best performance you can possibly have, even if things are going wrong, even if you’re not fully prepared.
[15:26] Attitude, effort that you put in during the competition. During the presentation, during the conversation with your spouse that is going sideways. Are you gonna have the right attitude so you can get the result that you want? That’s gonna determine your performance? Your performance. Then we’ll determine the result in the playoffs.
[15:44] You know, we see this, you know, any sport you win and you advance. Ugly win keeps you alive, but a poor performance isn’t what wins you. Championships don’t accept inv victory. What you wouldn’t accept in defeat. What are you winning at in your life right now? Think about it right now. What are you winning at?
[16:04] What is going well? What are you accepting in that victory that you would not accept if you weren’t winning? Ask yourself that question. Think about it. Think about it out loud. Do some journaling on it. Talk to your coach about it and change it. Don’t accept in victory, which you wouldn’t accept and defeat.
[16:29] Thanks for listening. If you want to apply these principles into your life, let’s talk. You can see the limited spaces that are open on my calendar@newui.jimharshawjr.com slash apply, where you can sign up for a free one-time coaching call directly with me. And don’t forget to grab your action plan. Just go to jim harshaw jr.com/action.
[16:48] And lastly, iTunes tends to suggest podcasts with more ratings and reviews more often. You would totally make my day if you give me a rating and review. Those go a long way in helping me grow the podcast audience. Just open up your podcast app. If you have an iPhone, do a search for success through failure, select it, and then scroll the whole way to the bottom where you can leave the podcast, a rating and a review.
[17:13] Now, I hope this isn’t just another podcast episode for you. I hope you take action on what you learned here today. Good luck and thanks for listening.
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