Today's Leadership Insight - How Wrestling Taught Me to Accentuate the Positives

August 13th, 2009

For today's Leadership Insight, I'd like to share a story about how I learned to place complete emphasis on the positive aspects of my business and leadership practices.

I'm a big wrestling fan and have been my entire life. Many people look down on this form of entertainment because they believe it's "fake." My answer to that comment is always the same: SO IS EVERYTHING ELSE YOU WATCH ON TV! The truth is, these men and women put their bodies on the line for the sake of our entertainment, and the real risk involved in their craft is far removed from "fake."

We're all entertained in our own way, and the best thing about "personal choice" is that it's personal.

But I digress. On with the story...

While I like the entertainment value wrestling provides, I am a bigger fan of the backstage work that goes into producing the weekly shows that draw massive ratings and bring thousands of fans to the arenas. To that end, I've watched many documentaries highlighting this very aspect of sports entertainment.

One documentary in particular, "The Rise and Fall of ECW," taught me a lesson I apply to my practices every single day.

For those who don't know, ECW, or Extreme Championship Wrestling, was a small wrestling company based in Philadelphia that developed a huge following in the late 90's and early 2000's. They were more graphic and violent, and that struck a chord with a very large demographic of wrestling fans.

They folded in 2001 and were bought out by World Wrestling Entertainment, but the impact they made on the business forever changed its landscape.

The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary features interviews with several of the key players that made ECW so popular. Most importantly, ECW founder Paul Heyman.

Heyman holds back no punches about his vision to build a competitive wrestling program, despite the fact that his funds were signicantly lower than that of WWE and WCW (World Championship Wrestling - a wrestling company owned by Ted Turner that sold to WWE in 2001 as well).

He discussed several factors that made his program intriguing, but one line in particular hit home with me and the business I'm building. Heyman and ECW had one credo they stuck very close to: Accentuate the positives.

Heyman was no dummy. He knew he didn't have the sort of budget to compete with the likes of WCW and WWE. They had the ability to sell out huge arenas, put on elaborate pyrotechnics, and pay their talent higher salaries.

So instead of wishing he could have all those things, he took action and accentuated every positive he could find, and he put it on center stage with the volume turned way up: better matches, more intriguing storylines, the violence the crowd wanted, and unique wrestling characters that garnered massive response from the audience.

The end result? A wrestling program the people wanted. While they were never able to fully compete with WWE and WCW in budget, they were able to attract an enormous portion of the wrestling audience and had fans chanting "E-C-W" in every arena for all three brands!

When the final curtain closed, Heyman and his ECW talent and producers left their mark on professional wrestling. Today, the innovative product Heyman brought to the masses is still desired by the most avid of wrestling fans, as chants of "E-C-W" still echo through wrestling venues.

WWE has recreated a watered-down version of ECW as part of their weekly programming, but nothing can come close to the original product.

When I thought about Heyman's accomplishments, I realized how closely his credo relates to network marketing. Each individual that starts a home-based business starts at a different point.

Some people bring a large amount of start-up capital to the table, others do not. Some people have years of experience, others do not.

But it doesn't matter.

The biggest lesson that can be taken from this story is we all bring a unique skill set to our business and the industry as a whole. We're all good at something. So, why not accentuate it?

Paul Heyman was a leader. He realized his limitations, as well as where he could shine. Once he envisioned what he wanted to create, he took massive action and poured 110% of his efforts into making his vision a reality. By accentuating the positives, he created a program that, despite all the glitz and glamour of the highly-budgeted programs he competed against, wrestling fans wanted to see.

When building your business and expanding your leadership skill set, applying the same principles will allow you to accomplish great things. Instead of making excuses as to why you can't accomplish something, accentuate the positives, take massive action, and discover what can happen!

Today, think of one skill you possess and accentuate it! Share it with the world. Pour all your efforts into developing that skill and making it work to your advantage. Put the days of "I COULD DO THAT IF..." behind you and start focusing on what you have and how it can get you to the levels of success you desire.