Every March the requisite articles come out about how productivity goes down due to March Madness distractions: filling out office pools, watching games online, taking long lunches at the nearest sports bar, and gloating over friends who picked a #16 team to go to the Final Four. Since college basketball has been on my mind this week, I decided to think about the life and business lessons I could potentially glean from March Madness. Is this just an excuse to read SI.com and legitimize my NCAA research? Maybe. But I did come up with five lessons:
1) Hard work pays off. If you work hard for the whole season and you come out on top, you will be rewarded with a No. 1 seeding like North Carolina. In the business world, you can work hard and still not be Bill Gates, but it does reap rewards.
2) Prepare for the unexpected (aka, don’t underestimate your opponent). Just when you think your bracket looks perfect, a George Mason will come out of nowhere and spoil your party. This can happen at the office, too, so be prepared.
3) Overall performance is key. Don’t judge a team by its scoring or its famous coach. Look what happened to Texas Tech―one and done. You need to consider the whole package and make informed decisions.
4) Perfection is impossible. I stumbled on a site today that is offering one million dollars to anyone with a perfect bracket. That’s because it doesn’t happen. Mistakes happen, you just need to fix them. Or in the case of March Madness, accept them and hope you’re not eliminated.
5) Office pools have better odds than Vegas. OK, this is more of a gambling lesson, but it might come in handy.
―Julie Jares, managing editor
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Texas Tech sucks. Enough said.
Comment by Bob 06.22.07 @ 2:39 pm