Lessons Learned from the Super Bowl

Unless you're living under a rock, you know that the Green Bay Packers won the Super Bowl. But do you know the obstacles they had to overcome to win it?

A season of injuries by the dozen, so many losses they nearly didn't make the play offs, and then more injuries of key players during the game itself.

As Kevin Seifert of Bleacher Report wrote...

"Only a team fully convinced of its destiny and place in history could have persevered in such circumstances. By all rights, the healthier and more-experienced Steelers should have plowed to victory in this game. Simply put, the Packers willed themselves to their perch atop the NFL.

"It was enough to make a grown man cry, which is exactly what Charles Woodson (one of the injured players) seemed ready to do again as he spoken to reporters after the game.

"Just an unbelievable journey for this team," Woodson said. "Driver goes down, I go down, and just like all season, somebody stepped in and somebody stepped it up."

This is a team that had starters sidelined with injuries for the season. A team that saw its young quarterback go down with a concussion and return. A team who lost so many games, they barely made it to 6th seed in the playoffs. Only once before has a 6th seed team EVER made it to the SuperBowl.

And while Green Bay's fans may have lost their playoff hopes by mid-season, they are some of the most fiercely loyal fans in the world. And so they kept cheering and kept the faith that while this team might not make the playoffs, much less win the superbowl, they were not going down without a fight.

And fight they did - and the rest is history.

Lessons learned:

Have a support team: Packer after Packer has been outspoken about how much it means to them that the fans are always there, always rooting for them no matter what. They could lose every game for five years straight, and Lambeau Field would still be sold out for very game. Never underestimate the importance of having people who BELIEVE in YOU and continue to root for you NO MATTER WHAT.

Be a team player: Sure, everyone says they are a team player - but are you thinking about you, or are you thinking about your customers? Because you and your customers are a team, mutual support is crucial. Don't hog the ball, don't take the money and run. BE THERE for them.

Act like you are already successful: A week before the Super Bowl, Green Bay Coach Mike McCarthy secretly had his team fitted for Super Bowl rings. Why? Because he wanted them to think like Champions and believe that victory was already theirs.

Be patient: Quarterback Aaron Rodgers was supposed to be the top pick in the NFL draft. He wasn't. He waited for hours until Green Bay finally chose him as the 24th pick.

Don't get down: Rodgers' next 3 years were spent warming a bench, waiting for his turn to finally come. And come it did. So if your first product doesn't sell like gangbusters, so what? Your time is coming.

Model the success of others: Those 3 years weren't wasted because he spent them watching Brett Favre. You can learn a lot watching successful people at work because you can take everything you already know and couple it with everything they know. Which might explain why Rodgers got the SuperBowl MVP, while Favre (who also won a SuperBowl) did not.

Visualize your success: Rodgers spends time every day visualizing each play and his ultimate success.

Work: His first night in Dallas, Rodgers went out to dinner and then came back and watched game footage. His counterpart on the other team made headlines for carousing.

Be ready: When Green Bay lost not one but THREE crucial players to injuries during the big game, three more players were ready to fill the void. You never know when your time is coming, so be prepared.

Green Bay rocks: Okay, I'm biased on this one. Green Bay is the ONLY NFL team that is publicly owned. It's (I believe) the oldest team (1919) and it has the most championships (13). It's the home of legends - and the SuperBowl trophy is named for Green Bay's Vince Lombardi, perhaps the best NFL coach ever.

And I happen to be a life long Cheese Head through and through, with no apologies.

Hopefully whatever team you root for, you've found something useful in this. And thanks for reading - I just had to share my observations.

I welcome your thoughts!