The best athletes in the world do not happen by accident. They have access to and make use of the best nutritionists, the best position coaches, and the best strength coaches available in the world. But all people, including the best athletes in the world, are inherently lazy—they have to be driven. They have to push through boundaries, just like everyone else.

To be the best at anything, even to be a world class athlete, you must learn the fundamental techniques: how to tackle, how to block, how to catch, how to read a defense. Business is no different. There is a technique to running a successful business, just as there is a technique to running a successful team. Motivation doesn’t work. Gimmicky sales techniques don’t work. We must always be looking for ways to get smarter and reinvent ourselves. We must work, learn, and push ourselves every day, and we need good coaches who can help us. Silver bullets don’t work.

Most of us have learned the hard way that fad diets don’t work. We know what we have to do. We have to put in the real work. We have to walk 5 miles a day. We have to eat right and exercise. It is the same in business. We know what the techniques are and what the best strategies are, and we know we need to execute them. But it won’t come to us. We have got to go and get it. We have to push, push, push, and break down the walls!

We’re seeing it in the sports world right now. Jeremy Lin has a terrific work ethic. He wasn’t just a natural success. His three-point shot was bad. His pick and roll was awful. His game wasn’t good enough. He hired a shooting coach, a strength coach, a pick and roll coach, and he got better. His answer to all of that was to work, work, and work some more. That was the only way to improve.

But it doesn’t always work out like that, because, as I believe, everyone is innately lazy. Everybody wants to give up at some time. It is the people who resist quitting, the ones who run that one more lap, the ones who make that one more phone call, who talk to one more customer—those are the ones who win. The ones who win are the people who create a sense of desperation every single day of their lives.

I am not here to give you a pep talk. Bud Grant, who was one of the greatest coaches and one of the greatest influencers in my life, once said to me, “If I have to give you a pep talk, we lose.” I am here to push you, to challenge you, and to bring to you the best information and the best coaches for:

• Marketing
• Social network
• Google Places
• Customer retention
• Produce development, and more.

Weyman Sellers was my high school coach, and the toughest coach I have ever had in my life. He also got more out of his players than you could ever imagine. We won more state championships under Weyman, and believe me when I tell you we did not have the biggest or the fastest or the best players in the state. We were definitely elite athletes, but we were lazy! We needed to be driven, every single day. When we begin our training camp in August we would start every practice by running four laps around the field, including each end zone, making that 120 yards long. And to make sure we ran that entire distance, Coach Sellers would place a coach at each corner so we weren’t able to cut any corners. By the second week, the coaches started getting lazy and they stopped manning their corner posts, so of course, we started cutting those corners! By the third week our laps consisted of running straight down the middle of the field and back!

The point is, no matter how experienced you are, no matter how old you are, if you are not getting pushed, if you are not getting coached, if you are not being challenged every single day, you won’t get better. I am constantly reinventing myself, constantly re-energizing myself, even at the age of 72. That is what I want to do for you. We will make you smarter, and not through motivation, but through knowledge. Average is not good enough anymore. It’s not good enough in the NFL. It’s not good enough in the NBA. And it’s not good enough for Small Business Owners.