Do Your Homework

I don’t know about you, but I always want to guard against a minimal effort. I want to give my best. And part of that commitment means doing my homework. Preparation for success is not just essential; it’s empowering. As the legendary John Wooden, the person voted the greatest coach of the twentieth century, put it, “Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.”

This reminds me of an old story about a strapping, strong man who walked into a bar and said, “The sign in your window says you’re looking for a bouncer. Is the job still available?”

“Yes,” replied the bartender, “but how much experience have you had?”

The big guy answered, “Some, but let me show you what I can do. Watch this.” He walked down to the end of the bar, where a loudmouth was talking. The want-to-be bouncer lifted the man off his barstool, carried him to the door, and threw him out onto the street.

When he returned to the bartender, the strong man asked, “How’s that?”

“Just fine,” said the bartender. “But you’ll have to ask the boss about the job. I only work here.”

“OK,” said the big guy. “Where is he?”

“Just coming back in the front door.”

Oops!

“Mr. Universe” did not prepare well — he should have known who his potential boss was. Let’s make preparation a priority.

Here are four tips on how to prepare:

1. Prepare before your opportunity appears. If it’s already here, it’s too late to get ready.

2. Invest time in planning. For instance, I once audited an immensely complicated graduate school class a semester early. I did this to serve as a dress rehearsal for the real thing. I wanted everything to feel comfortable and familiar when I took it for credit. It worked. My actual class felt like a review, and I could easily recall the answers at exam time. The high scores did not come from high intelligence; they came from high diligence.

3. Focus on small details. I once saw a friend, a national speaker, give a presentation that was sabotaged by his own computer. He forgot to check for planned updates. His laptop was Windows-based,’ and the computer shut down his PowerPoint at the beginning of his speech.

4. When opportunity arrives, be ready. Ronald Reagan may have won the 1980 presidential election because of his appearance at the 1976 Republican Party convention, where he lost the nomination to President Gerald Ford. As a show of unity, Ford invited Reagan on stage after Ford’s acceptance speech to say a few words. Reagan did, and as his biographer Edmund Morris wrote, it was so effective that thousands of delegates had the same thought, “We nominated the wrong man!” Four years later, Reagan won the presidency in a landslide. However, few people knew that Reagan was not speaking spontaneously that night in ’76. He had mentally prepared a brief speech “just in case.”

Life is not an accident.

Be ready—do your homework.

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