Ron Wolf was the general manger of the Green Bay Packers and brought back the winning tradition in the late 90's. He later wrote a book, "The Packer Way." Here are some of his thoughts on the mentality of a champion:"Winning must be your obsession."
"Winning must be the obsession that determines every decision you make, that guides your thought process, that pushes you to be aggressive when everyone else is hanging back."
"Winning is the attitude that gives you and your enterprise an "edge," that air of superiority and confidence that separates you from your competition and keeps pushing you to stay on top."
Wolf asked former Vince Lombardi assistant Red Cochran the following question: "When Lombardi got here, how did he go about trying to build the Green Bay Packers?"
Cochran replied: "He had only one thought, and it carried him through every day. He wanted to win, and he wanted to do it now. To Vince, anything else but winning today was unacceptable."
More from Wolf:
"If you don't demand immediate results, you're creating an atmosphere where less than the best is acceptable, where winning is some abstract goal that serves more as a public relations ploy than an actual quest. If you talk about four- and five-year plans, you've established an unproductive mentality. It gives everyone an excuse -- well, we didn't meet our quota this month, but it's our first time under the new system, and you know, these things don't change overnight."
"By emphasizing not only winning but winning today, you move every one's thought process away from a general concept and direct it toward something substantial. It makes progress easy to measure. It makes every one's performance easier to measure. It establishes a tempo for the organization, and it blows away any excuse about not understanding what our goal is and what I expect should be done to achieve it."
"It also eliminates any thought that going backward first before you show progress is okay. Under no circumstances would I ever want to turn a bad situation into an even worse predicament by thinking that anything less than improvement is acceptable. That why I would never dismantle a business under the guise of 'starting from scratch.'"
"You should be in a hurry to be the best, and you should make sure this kind of tempo permeates every aspect of your business -- and your personal financial life."
