If you follow this blog even a little bit, you’re well aware I’m a total NBA NUT!
Like seriously FAN-AT-I-CAL about all things pro basketball.
And now is perhaps the best time in human history to an NBA nut…
Thanks to a solid combo of NBA TV, ESPN, Fox Sports Networks, and TNT, I can pretty much catch a game every night during the regular season.
And then there are the podcasts. Boy, let me tell you, when it comes to the NBA, podcasts abound!
And of course, I consume more than a few of these shows with gleeful obsession.
One such podcast (I can’t recall which, among the many in my rotation, or I’d totes credit the show!) featured an interview with former NBA great, Hall of Famer, and current TNT color commentator, the illustrious Charles Barkley.
In the interview, Barkley detailed the trials and tribulations of climbing his personal Mount Everest: Toppling Michael Jordan and his seemingly unstoppable ’90s era Chicago Bulls, on the path to winning an NBA Championship.
Now, for those who don’t, long before LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh teamed up to create a “super team” with the Miami Heat, Sir Charles threw in his lot with fellow future NBA Hall of Famers, Tom Chambers and Kevin Johnson (who is now the mayor of Sacramento) to create a super team of their own with the Phenoix Suns.
Sadly, despite Barkley’s best efforts, he never reached his personal Everest summit.
In the 1993 NBA finals, Barkley’s only finals appearance (the same year he claimed the NBA league MVP title), the Sun were down 2-games-to-1 (in a best of 7 series) against Jordan and the Bulls. The Suns proceed to lose Game 4 (on their home court), putting the Bulls up 3-games-to-1. In other words, the Bull only needed one more victory (in one of the next three games) to end the series and claim the 1993 NBA Championship.
Following the Sun’s Game 4 loss, Barkley, the undisputed KING of IRRATIONAL CONFIDENCE, had a crisis of, well, confidence…

“After Game 4, when Michael played so great, I remember telling my daughter: ‘I don’t think I can beat him. I think he’s better than me.’ And I have never felt that way (as a player) before. I never thought another player was better than me.”

Barkley and his Suns cohorts would go on to lose the 1993 NBA Finals in 6 games. Sir Charles managed to nab one more victory from the jaws of the Jordan Bulls in game 5. But Michael came back in game 6 and scooped up all the marbles.

So, where am I going with this recap of 25+-year-old NBA related event?

Well, in all probability, there’s a Michael Jordan in your industry….
And while you might be good. Even great. Even Charles Barkley great. Your Michael Jordan is still out there, somewhere, putting up insane numbers you’ll likely never match.
But here’s the thing…
That doesn’t matter. Because business is not a “Zero Sum Game” (and I don’t care what anyone says to the contrary).
Think about it in the context of Charles Barkley… Sure, Sir Charles never quite bested his “ultimate foe.” And he never managed to win an NBA Championship.
But he was perennial All-Star, with more than a dozen All-Star Game appearances. An MVP of the league. Played in 130+ playoff games. Appeared in the NBA finals, battling toe-to-toe with the great Michael Jordan. And has been inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame.
An NBA Championship is the only tangible accolade he’s missing. And that would likely be on his mantel too, if he hadn’t run smack dab into the career peak of a transcendent player that only comes along once in a generation. (Sometimes, timing just effs you…)
In other words, being good at what you do is more than enough to carve out a meaningful space in your industry. And in that space, you can build a successful business that yields a fulfilling professional and personal life.
But how  — in the face of your “Michael Jordan” and the seeming “Zero Sum Game” atmosphere of your industry — do you claim and occupy this space?
It boils down to one thing…
Positioning
Allow me to elaborate.
There is no shortage of “real estate attorneys.”
So, be the “retail shopping center landlord’s real estate attorney.”
There is no shortage of CPAs.
So, be the “Firemans’ CPA.”
Do you get where I’m going here?
Maybe you’re not Michael Jordan. Or Charles Barkley.
But claim your niche, position yourself as the “king” of that space, and you can be every bit as successful (in your realm) as those cats. Maybe even more so, who knows?

So, What’s Your “Position?”

Hop over to my Google+ page and “sell me!”