Chapter 2. The Playbook
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.
The bible of any professional athlete, coach, CEO, or manager, and their teams is the playbook—a collection of policies, goals, and key plays. It's a compendium of the team's strategy, a plan for success, and a road map for winning. No professional coach, athlete, or business leader can function without a comprehensive playbook; and neither should you. In most cases, men have been given playbooks since the first team they joined. It's also an essential tool for women in sports or business, if they're going to compete to win.
Playbooks today are not just for athletes; political campaigns, businesses, and even entire communities use them. They function as a kind of global positioning system to help groups and individuals reach their goals. As Bill Parcells, former Dallas Cowboys coach and current Miami Dolphins executive vice president, has said: "He who doesn't have a map gets lost."
If you've been running your career ad hoc, with no clear path or playbook of your own, then you've been missing out on one of the most important components for success. Now and then, you might find intermittent success, or something you might consider to equate to success at the time. But to create truly consistent, positive results, you need your own Playbook for Success. It will make all the difference in sustaining improvement and obtaining your goals.
In this chapter, I explain ...
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