I am becoming more of a documentary fan. Recently, I watched Seth Gordon’s King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. It is about people that try to set records of old style video games that I grew up on. Once upon a time, these games only appeared in bars, restaurants and arcades as stand alone machines. This 80 minute film focuses on the record set by Billy Mitchell for the highest score in Donkey Kong that has stood for over 20 years. The challenger, Bill Wiebe, who sees himself as a loser, sets out to set a new record, first on his machine in his garage and then later at public tournament. What is most interesting about the film

1. It shows that people will compete to be the best at anything. We will do almost anything to get fame and how important fame is in our culture. We can get our respect and self esteem by being successful at anything. It can give us that bounce! that can carry us to success in other things or enable us to let go of our failures.

2. Most competitive processes there is politics and room for corruption. Billy, the current champion is the favorite of the ruling body who judges these things. In fact, one of the original taglines to the movie was to be: ” The highest form of corruption at the lowest levels.”

3. Some people like Steve see themselves as losers when they come in second place. Don’t get me wrong, I think we should try to win and that we usually don’t remember who came in second…but being second, does not mean we are branded a loser.

Watch the movie. You will enjoy it!

On another rant…

I get tired of competing with the person’s personal cell phone when I either am waiting to order at a fast food counter or in a small convenience store. Tonight, I went to Cosi to get a sandwich. The person taking my order, graciously put down his cell phone to take my order (I was the only one in the place). When I was done ordering,  he passed the order to the person who was to fill it. He then went back to his conversation. As I waited, he finished his call and then came to the register again and asked if he could take my order. I told him he already had….

and you can guess the end, I finally got my order and took it how, It had the wrong sandwich in it. Figures. If only we could strive for minimal acheivement by focusing on one thing at a time we would get better service.

Tiger always says that you need to have a short memory in sports. Forget what just happened. You need to always focus on the next shot.

This is what it is to “Bounce!” in business. Make a short celebration of your victory OR feel sorry for your failure. But then focus your energy on what is coming next. It really does get you ready for your next great success. Focus on this long term cycle. It will give you the true business confidence that ultimately, in the long run, determines who succeeds.