You Must Be Choking
1 December 2005

(316 words)

Readability
Passive sentences:            0%
Flesch Reading Ease          77.8
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level  6.1

It�s been a dismal week for rugby and cricket, hasn�t it? The Protea�s choked in India and lost the game that would have equalled Australia�s 21 unbeaten 1-day match record. And, then lost the crucial last game to let India tie the series.

Remember when the Springboks only had to beat England to pass the All Blacks unbeaten streak (I think it was 17) of games. In 80 minutes, we would have broken the record. We lost that one, which then heralded in the worst period of defeats SA rugby has ever seen.

Let�s not even get into the Protea�s Duckworth-Lewis cricket debacle in a recent world cup.

Of course, the less said about John Smit's dirty play and our loss in France last week, the better.

Here�s the question. Are we a nation of chokers? Is choking a national pastime? Is losing at crucial points only a sports thing or does it go deeper? Is it in our national psyche?

Are we so used to coming second and third, that it has now become an ingrained habit? Is it more about the trying than the doing? The journey and not the destination?

In business it can�t be only about the journey; the destination is vital. No deals closed = no business.

In sales, for example, do we choke at crucial stages in the sales process? For instance, when we have to ask for some kind of commitment. According to sales guru Tom Hopkins, when top executives were asked why they didn�t buy from a sales person, 70% of them said, �We weren�t asked.�

Can we become a nation of winners when it counts? Alternatively, are we always going to suck on the hind teat and live off the crumbs that fall off the winners� tables?

Any thoughts about how we can become winners when it counts? I�m flat out of ideas �

Copyright 2005 by Jacques de Villiers 

This article may be copied or republished with the following credit:

"By Jacques de Villiers, Inspirational Speaker, Johannesburg, South Africa.
+27 (0) 82 906 3693   www.jacquesdevilliers.com "