It's Just Like Golf

Mistakes! Mistakes are going to happen, and it hurts when they do. As business owners it costs us money, as managers it slows down production, as employees it makes us feel incompetent. But we need to learn to treat mistakes in business just like we treat them on the Golf course.

Mistakes in business are just like mistakes in Golf.  I make bad shots and I don’t like making bad shots. When golfing, all it takes is one bad shot to ruin a hole, one bad hole to ruin a round and a bad round to ruin the day, etc.... How do you stop that, treat a bad shot for what it is, one bad shot. After a bad shot that puts me in a bad position, I get frustrated and always want to make the hero shot to make up for it. Normally it puts me in a worse position, which causes me to get more frustrated, which leads to another bad shot.

My grandfather on the other hand, will take out his pitching wedge and chip the ball out of the hazard and back into the center of fairway, continuing on like nothing happened. He is 83 years old and still beats me most days on the course.

When we make a mistake in business, don’t try to take the hero shot. Take out your pitching wedge, chip the ball back into the center of fairway and continue the game. Don’t let one bad shot, turn into a bad hole and ruin a great game.

-Chris Reinhard