Winning Ugly

When I played small town sports in high school the menu of sporting options was more or less limited to basketball, football and track. Our coach also taught biology, math and PE and had a part time business on the side. This is nothing like high school sporting programs today.

In my day many games were won by improvising. This is what our coach called “winning ugly”.

Metaphorically, winning ugly in business is much like my high school sports days – winning by improvising. In Sacramento, Las Vegas and Oceanside, new salesmen are hired without knowing exactly how this is going to work out. In Rancho/Fontana, pet DNA testing is added not knowing if there is going to be any real interest in this type of service. In Martinez, multi-location billing accounts are signed up without knowing the precise procedures. In Lancaster, supervisor drug testing training is held even though Doug has never actually done this type of training before. Yet, the result in each of these situations was a win – even if in some cases the initial win might have been a bit rough around the edges. An “ugly win” is still a win.

Our region is full of franchisees that are winners who are not afraid to take calculated risks to move the ball down the court and to build their business against substantial head winds in today’s economy.

Next Blog Posting: When Ugly Wins Become Ugly Losses.