business

When you make a penalty kick in soccer, you become a hero or a disappointment. You miss the goal, and people won’t be happy. When you make the goal, you’re the hero. All of the fans start cheering for you.

When talking about penalty kicks, everyone thinks about the person kicking the ball. What about the goalie? There are more possible things that can happen to a goalie.

If the shooter has a bad kick that goes well above the goal, no one is going to say how good the goalie was.

If the shooter makes it in and the goalie miss plays it, the goalie is in fault. Everyone cheers for the person who took the shot, but they know that shooter didn’t deserve the goal. They cheer anyway.

If the shooter takes the perfect shot, the goalie admires it, and so does the crowd.

If the goalie makes a good save, the goalie is the one who gets the praise.

We all look at the superstar. The shooter is the one who controls the action. The goalie simply responds to the shooter’s action by diving and trying to save a goal. When the goalie makes a remarkable save, he becomes the superstar.

As you move up in the ranks from average player to the person taking the shot, you become the superstar. Everyone is looking at you. If you succeed, people will cheer for you and more people will know about you.

There are trends that will reappear. Many historical events have occurred multiple times in different forms. Civilizations collapsing and experiencing golden ages are two of the countless ways history repeats itself.

Business is the same. History repeats itself. Steve Jobs was compared to Thomas Edison. One day, there will be another person who changes the world and is compared to Steve Jobs and Thomas Edison.

Businesses go out of business while other businesses are successful beyond belief. Those are the businesses to look at carefully. Look at all of the successful companies and social networks. All of them involve reaching a lot of people with little work on their end.

There aren’t people who manually check and publish everyone’s tweets and posts on other social networks. It’s automatic. You write what you want to say, and it’s said. When you buy something on Amazon, it gets shipped to you from the USPS, FedEx, UPS, or another source. There isn’t a big truck that says “Amazon.”

These successful businesses involve other people doing the grunt work and a system that works. Want a successful business? Look at the experts.

The first Kung Fu Panda movie was all about Po learning kung fu, becoming the dragon warrior, and beating Tai Lung. The battle was intense involving Po making sure Tai Lung couldn’t read the dragon scroll. Tai Lung ended up reading the dragon scroll which in the end, showed nothing.

So how was Po able to pull it off. Tai Lung was the fiercest warrior that none of the Furious 5 or even the master could beat. How could a panda possibly beat a snow leopard? These were some of the advantages Po had.

1. The element of surprise: Out of all of the creatures, a panda knowing kung fu sounds ridiculous. In Po’s case, he wasn’t that fast, and he struggled a lot in the beginning. It was pitiful. Tai Lung thought he would easily beat Po and read the dragon scroll. Po proved to put up a good fight, but he didn’t just do that. He won.

 

1. Po cares for others: Po was told by his master to leave the fight and run away with the dragon scroll. When Tai Lung attacks Po’s master, Po goes back to fight Tai Lung. Po worried that his master wouldn’t be able to beat Tai Lung, so he decided to fight against Tai Lung.

 

1. Good mentors: When Po was chosen to be the dragon warrior, his master trained him well. Although Po was the weakest, and he tried to run away, he was eventually able to become really good at kung fu.

 

1. Tai Lung was overconfident: Who would expect a panda to beat a snow leopard? However, before Tai Lung realized that Po was a panda, Tai Lung thought he would easily take the dragon scroll.

 

1. Po was patient: Tai Lung knew one of the strongest moves of kung fu that literally froze the Furious 5. This move did not affect Po. While Tai Lung kept on hitting Po to find out why his move wasn’t working on a panda, Po took the hits. Then, Po got up and did the pinky trick on Tai Lung.

 

1. Po knew there was no secret ingredient: Although he did not know this at the beginning, he realizes there is no secret ingredient before Tai Lung does. There is no secret ingredient in his father’s soup, and the dragon scroll doesn’t give someone mystical powers. Tai Lung was after the dragon scroll just for power. He didn’t get the message, but Po did.

 

1. Po was dedicated: Before Po got selected as the dragon warrior, he had the figurines for every member of the Furious 5. He enjoyed kung fu, and when he eventually become the dragon warrior, he was ready to take the job.

 

1. Po Knows What Makes Him Do Better: Food! The first time Po beats his master at something involves food and chopsticks. When he has to do something that looks difficult, he imagines food. It makes him work harder.

 

1. He never gave up: The Furious 5 did not appreciate Po at first. Everyone thought Tigress would become the dragon warrior. Po was just an “accident.” Although the kung fu warriors Po admired did not like him at first, Po never gave up on his dream of becoming a kung fu warrior.

 

1. He practiced: Po learned how to fight in different situations. Although he lost many times, he was eventually able to get better. His battle with Tai Lung proved that Po was the true dragon warrior.

 

Any small business can beat its top competitor. It’s unlikely, but it is possible. Just be a kung fu panda.