It's Not Over Until It's Over

​You don’t have to be a basketball fan to appreciate what happened in Madison Square Garden last night.

In Game 4 of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and the New York Knicks, the Spurs were well on their way to tying up the series at two games apiece.

In fact, when I heard on the radio that the Spurs had a 17-point lead going into the fourth quarter, I figured it was a done deal.

Little did I know that the Spurs would grow their lead to 29 points and still be ahead by 20 with only nine minutes remaining in the game.

Then something remarkable happened. The Knicks refused to go away.

Possession by possession, they chipped away at the lead until they eventually won 107-106 on a shot with 1.2 seconds left on the clock. The largest comeback in NBA Finals history.

After the game, Knicks coach Mike Brown said something that caught my attention:

"You gotta have a little luck. You can also go make your own luck, too."
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I often draw parallels between sports and business development.

Businesses go into slumps. Professionals do too.

Sometimes it feels like nothing is working. The calls aren't being returned. Prospects go quiet. Referrals slow down. You attend an event, have a few good conversations, and a few months later, you find yourself wondering whether it was worth the effort.

I've certainly been there.

What struck me about the Knicks' comeback wasn't the final shot. It was the fact that they were still fighting when most people had already decided the outcome.

I wonder how often we do the same thing in business development.

How many opportunities have we given up on too soon?

How many relationships have we stopped investing in because we didn't see immediate results?

How many conferences, networking events, or meetings have we written off because nothing happened right away?

One of the challenges for professionals is that we like feedback, and we want to see instant results from our efforts. 

Business development rarely works that way.

Some of the best opportunities I've had in my career came months, and sometimes years, after the initial conversation. At the time, there was no indication that anything meaningful was happening. Looking back, something was happening. I just couldn't see it yet.

The funny thing about business development is that there isn't always a scoreboard.

We like scoreboards because they tell us whether we're winning or losing. Business development rarely works that way. Relationships develop quietly. Trust builds slowly. Opportunities often appear long after we've stopped expecting them.

That's why the Knicks game resonated with me.

Not because they came back but because most of us would have assumed the game was over.