The Loyola Ramblers were the \u201cCinderella\u201d team of this year\u2019s NCAA basketball tournament.\u00a0 True, they didn\u2019t win the championship, but for a team that many thought couldn\u2019t win their Missouri Valley Conference, making it all the way to the Final Four was an incredible feat.\u00a0 On the surface, it may seem that there aren\u2019t any business lessons we can learn from the Ramblers\u2019 star turn.\u00a0 After all, the Ramblers are just a bunch of (very talented) college guys playing a kids\u2019 game.\u00a0 They haven\u2019t been out in the \u201creal world\u201d yet, working at real jobs, so what could they possibly teach us about business?\u00a0 As it turns out, if we look a little closer, we can learn quite a bit from them.\u00a0 For some of the lessons they have taught us, please continue reading below.<\/p>\n
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.”\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0~ Steve Jobs<\/p>\n <\/strong><\/em>First of all, college basketball today is big business with broadcast rights, ticket sales, stadium advertising, and all the rest.\u00a0 But here, we\u2019re not talking about lessons to be learned from all that stuff.\u00a0 Instead, we want to talk about the team . . . the young men who played the game and their coaches . . . and the lessons they taught us from the basketball court.\u00a0 There are three lessons we can learn from the Ramblers\u2019 odyssey:<\/p>\n Lesson #1.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Play for the greater good, not for individual recognition.<\/strong>\u00a0 In short, the Ramblers left their egos on the bench.\u00a0 President Harry Truman once said, \u201cYou can accomplish anything in life, provided you don\u2019t mind who gets the credit.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if the Ramblers were familiar with that quotation, but they played like they were. Sports commentators consistently remarked about how unselfishly they played.\u00a0 In interviews after a game, players seemed embarrassed to talk about their own performances, preferring instead to talk about how well the team did.<\/p>\n What about your \u201cteam?\u201d\u00a0 Do they man the barricades and jealously guard their respective areas of responsibility?\u00a0 Or are they willing to make sacrifices in the name of the greater good?<\/p>\n Lesson #2.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Stick with your game plan.<\/strong>\u00a0 The Ramblers were very disciplined about adhering to their game plan.\u00a0 They may have made adjustments to it as a game unfolded, but they didn\u2019t abandon it.\u00a0 Even if they fell behind, they didn\u2019t panic and they continued to play their game.\u00a0 Compare that to other teams who, under duress, will break discipline and revert to \u201crun and gun\u201d alley-style basketball.<\/p>\n What about your \u201cteam?\u201d\u00a0 Are they easily distracted by the first sign of trouble or by daily operating concerns?\u00a0 Or are they disciplined enough to manage their time and resources in a way that will keep the plan on track?<\/p>\n Lesson #3.<\/u><\/strong>\u00a0 Don\u2019t let success go to your head.<\/strong>\u00a0 Entrenched success can be a dangerous thing.\u00a0 It can lead you to believe that all you have to do is show up and success will be yours.\u00a0 Even though the Ramblers had an impressive string of wins, they knew nobody was going to lay down and hand them a game.\u00a0 They were confident in their ability to win, but not cocky about it.\u00a0 They realized that if they wanted a win, they were going to have to earn it, and that\u2019s how they played.\u00a0 Ultimately, they couldn\u2019t get passed Michigan, but no one could say that loss was due to lack of effort.<\/p>\n What about your \u201cteam?\u201d\u00a0 When you are undertaking something new or ambitious or challenging, do they treat it as business as usual, assuming that past success will guarantee future success?\u00a0 Or do they put on their game faces and show up ready to play?<\/p>\n It\u2019s too bad this \u201cCinderella\u201d team didn\u2019t make it all the way to the Big Dance, but that does not diminish what they did accomplish, nor does it invalidate the lessons they demonstrated for us along the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Loyola Ramblers were the \u201cCinderella\u201d team of this year\u2019s NCAA basketball tournament.\u00a0 True, they didn\u2019t win the championship, but for a team that many thought couldn\u2019t win their Missouri Valley Conference, making it all the way to the Final Four was an incredible feat.\u00a0 On the surface, it may seem that there aren\u2019t any<\/p>\n