There was an article in the Wall Street Journal last week about the Cornell University Wrestling team. The title was “What Makes Cornell So Good?

There are a lot of things that coaches spend their time on. Most of them will not make you good. It is the same when you are an athlete, a business owner or a parent. There is a difference between working hard, and working smart. Working smart does not often payoff today. Bummer. We like to build now and see results today. Sometimes we have to zoom out and look at the big picture. Sometimes we have to focus on different things. In the case of Cornell Wrestling, it took years of building to reach the elite. Their focus has been different from that of the average team. To squeeze the most possible potential out of their situation, Head Coach Rob Koll could not go about things the exact same way as the average coach. He could not do the status quo. He could not reach the elite by doing the same thing as his competitors. The same thing as the guy next to him.

So…. what makes Cornell Wrestling so good? I will bring you some juicy insight into this in the coming weeks. In the meantime, consider this. Their athletic director Andy Noel credits generous donations from key alumni. Further, consider that they bring in significant revenue from ticket sales (for an Olympic sport) and have over 9,000 Facebook fans.