Episode 4: Entrepreneurial Lessons From Tiger Woods

Watching Tiger Woods this weekend was impressive. As a “Sports Guy”, this type of accomplishment really impacted me. So, I took some time this week to look at Tiger’s career, his mistakes, and his accomplishments on and off the course. I believe as entrepreneurs we can learn a lot from high level performers like Tiger. In this episode, we look at the three areas Tiger claims help him achieve greatness.

Career Highlights:

• Won first Masters at the age of 21
• Was ranked #1 golfer in the world from age 23 – age 28 (August 1999 to September 2004 – 264 weeks)
• After nine months was again ranked #1 golfer in the world from age 29 – age 34 June 2005 to October 2010 (281 weeks)
• Self-imposed hiatus at Age 34 (December 2009 to early April 2010) to work on his personal life
• Back Surgery at 38, 39, and 40
• Age 42 Tour Championship in September 2018
• Age 43 2019 Masters.

According to Tiger, being a world-class athlete and a visionary entrepreneur requires the same fundamental building blocks: a focused mindset, a precise method, and an endless pursuit of mastery.

Tiger has now taken his winning philosophy from the links into the boardroom with his TGR Ventures. “TGR is my chapter two—my way of building a legacy that’s about more than birdies and bogies” – Tiger Woods

Key Quotes from Tiger:

“As I reflected on the past few years, I realized that this was the time to push myself and those I trust to give even more, in new and different ways.”

Tiger Woods

“Tiger’s vision has always been focused beyond — beyond expectations, beyond comparisons, and beyond limits.”

TGR Website

“No matter how good you get, you can always get better. And that’s the exciting part.”

tiger woods

This episode is rather short, but I found it interesting and wanted to share with you all. We can learn a lot from the successes and failures of professional athletes that will help in our businesses.

One important lesson from Tiger is when our businesses are not producing what we want, we can fall back on our method. Just like Tiger had to deconstruct his swing, we should analyze our business. If you listen to last week’s episode about getting back in the saddle, that’s kind of the process I’ve been going through recently.

The overall message I got from researching Tiger is that he has concluded that you should become a better version of yourself every day, in all areas.

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Show Transcript

[00:00] You’re listening to the business and barbecue podcast hosted by Tim Herriage. Tim Herriage is an active entrepreneur who built and sold six companies but the age of 40 and enjoy. This is sharing the ups and downs of business and entrepreneur life as for the barbecue, that’s just something he has a passion for and likes to share as well. Here’s your host, Tim Herriage.

[00:21] What’s cooking? Everybody. Tim Herriage here. Welcome back to the show. Today we’re going to talk about entrepreneurial lessons from Tiger woods. Tiger Woods is not my guest today, but most likely you’re just like millions of other Americans and yesterday you either heard about or watch Tiger when the masters. It has been a long time since Tiger has won a major championship. It has been a long time since his first win at the masters. As a matter of fact, I just want to just take you through Tiger’s career. At the age of 21 he won the masters for the first time. He was the number one golfer in the world from age 23 to age 28 that’s 264 weeks. Then there was a period from September 2004 through June 2005 where he was not the number one golfer in the world, but then in Juno five he became the number one golfer in the world again at the age of 29 and remained the number one golfer until the age of 34 that’s 281 weeks.

[01:21] It was only after the age 34 when he took a break from golf to try to fix his marriage. He really started experiencing some challenges and to me this record setting run from the age of 21 to 34 it’s marvelous in itself, but when you look at what happened to Tiger from the age 34 to the age 42 to me that is the magic behind the man back surgery at the age 38 back surgery again at 39 back surgery again at 40 he didn’t want another tournament to the tour championship at age 42 and then here we are, age 43 another master’s champion. I think there’s a lot that we can look at for Tiger . If you look at his website, it says that he has a focused mindset, a precise method, and a relentless pursuit of mastery. And so what I thought is today we’ll take focused mindset, precise method and relentless pursuit of mastery and talk about how that not only applied to Tiger in his golf profession, but also how he’s translating that into business and how you can too.

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[03:21] All right, welcome back. So I want to first talk about a focused mindset. It was interesting on Tiger’s webpage I read because for Tiger , being a World Class Athlete and visionary entrepreneur requires the same fundamental building blocks, a focused mindset, a precise method, and an endless pursuit of mastery. So let’s just dive into focus mindset. Because all too often as entrepreneurs we actually lose our focus. What I mean is our focus becomes on the business. Our focus becomes on growing. Our focus becomes on success. I think that that focus many times with people that I know, entrepreneurs, it started out as a focus of family. It started out as a focus of time off or traveling. It started out as a focus of financial security and it ends up becoming a focus of success. And I just, I mean at the end of the day, if you look at it, that’s really what happened to Tiger in his mid-thirties he had achieved everything.

[04:27] The guy was and still is in my opinion, just one of the greatest athletes of all time. But he allowed himself I think to lose a little focus and he was really focused on his career. He was really focused on winning. He was focused on being the number one golfer in the world. He was focused on making money. I think he lost focus of his wife and his children and that really is the entrepreneur trap. The trap is we get into business or a business or businesses to achieve one thing and then we typically, in a lot of times we’ll sacrifice the things that matter most to achieve the things that our ambitions point us towards. And then you look back and you don’t have what matter most. And that’s probably the thing that I liked the most and talked about how important it was to have his family there.

[05:22] And my whole thing is we all make mistakes. And the whole point of this show is to let you know that these traps are out there. There are these traps that will let you get sideways, that will let you lose perspective, that will let you prioritize the wrong things over the right thing. So all I’m saying with this is Tiger says you have to have an intense focus, a focused mindset. Obviously that’s true. My challenge to you is to make sure that the focused mindset is on what is important and remains on what is important because everything’s better if you have what you really want. Now let’s look at, we’re Tiger talks about having a precise method. So after watching Tiger when the masters yesterday, I went online today to just read a little bit more about him, learn about what he has going on, what he’s been up to, and really just study someone that I find to be a very impressive person that has accomplished an awful lot by the age of 43 and when you get on his website, you find TGR, which is Tiger Woods ventures.

[06:32] And it was some interesting quotes there. He says, TGR is my chapter to my way of building a legacy that’s about more than birdies and bogeys. He says, as I reflected on the past few years, I realized that this was the time to push myself and those I trust to give even more in new and different ways. Tiger’s vision has always been focused beyond, beyond expectations, beyond comparisons and beyond limits. When I think about that, and I’ll look at what he’s accomplished now on the golf course and then I read about his businesses and you see his family there to support him, and you look at the physical, mental, and probably emotional struggles that this man has put them through in a very public, eye right? Many of us, when we’re having a problem, no one’s like watching us every time we make a mistake, it doesn’t hit the headline news or TMZ.

[07:26] We don’t have people camping out at the end of our driveway. So he’s obviously went through a lot. And when you think about it, to me that just makes it even more impressive what he’s been able to accomplish. So you really break it down and you look at the method that he goes about with everything from his golf swing to how he approaches tournament to apparently how he approaches his business. And I think the lesson is when our businesses are not producing what it is we would like them to produce, one of the things we can do is fall back on the method. We can lean back in, in, in kind of uh, like they say Tiger had to deconstruct as swinging, right. I mean you have to do that in your business as well. If you listen to last week’s episode about getting back in the saddle, that’s kind of the process I’ve been going through recently.

[08:09] So I think the lesson here is look at the processes, look at the methods that go on in your business and just, just dial it back, focus, create a precise method by which you can have success. And his Tiger said as his body, his aged as medical conditions, surgeries have made it where he can’t do things that he used to do. He’s changed his methods but he hasn’t given up. He hasn’t said, well, I can’t do that anymore. He went back to the drawing board and found the way he could do it and I think that’s the power in the lesson. The lesson is for me in real estate, the same methods don’t always work, so sometimes you either have to give up, which I never advocate or you have to look within, deconstruct your methods and your business. I don’t care if you sell subway sandwiches or caffeinated beverages or real estate or if you’re a wholesaler, if you’re an eBay salesperson, if you’re an ecommerce person, it really doesn’t matter.

[09:12] You have a method and when that method is not working anymore, you need to break it down into steps, hone it, get it down to a precise method like Tiger says, and then you can obtain the success that you may have had and lost, right? You may have had some success, you may have had some forward momentum. You may have been the company to beat or the guy to hire and now you may not be, but it’s not because people are against you. It’s because you’ve probably gotten out of touch with the direction that things are going. So just dial in, deconstruct the process and create a precise method. And you too can win the masters at age 43 but probably not. But you get the point. So now we’re going to talk about relentless pursuit of mastery. Okay. This is one of those things. Obviously he did just win the masters, right?

[10:02] So, so when you move on to mastery, right? Tiger says in entrepreneurism and in athletics, he has a relentless pursuit of mastery. One of the quotes, again from his website today, I was just reading about it, it was just so impressive yesterday and I saw so many people posting things about him and I thought, I want to do some research. And one of the things he said on there that I, I wrote down was no matter how good you get, you can always get better. And that’s the exciting part. And I was like, wow, okay, this guy is excited about trying to be better. And you know, often in our businesses, we’re not excited about trying to be better. Often in our businesses. We’re just trying to get by. Often in our businesses, we want to blame other people or other things. We want to blame the Republicans or the Democrats.

[10:48] We want to blame the market. We want to blame the Fed. We want to blame Amazon and we want to blame all of these people when really and truly in life and in business, they say you’re either growing or you’re dying. I choose to look at it different. I don’t think you have to be growing per se, but I do think you have to be getting better every day. You should become a better version of yourself every day. You should try to have a better business every day. You should try to have better advertising. You should try to have better lead conversion. You should have better follow-up processes. You should shorten timelines. I think, don’t take my message wrong. I’m not saying that you have to be trying to get bigger. Right? I think I’ll be driving that point home for a long time because I allowed my companies to get too big because I was trying to be better.

[11:35] And to me it’s, you don’t want to be bigger necessarily. I mean if it happens, it happens. Just get better every day. You can wake up and create a process, you can refine a process, you can work at mastering your craft and you know, if you’re one of the people listening that has a day job as well as a side hustle, right? Yeah. You may work full time on a W-2 job and then on nights and weekends you’re trying to create a business. You know, my thing is you should try to master both, you know, become the best W-2 person there is. And then also at the same time work every day to master your, your other craft, your side hustle, so to speak. Because to me, I think that’s why this sentence impacted me so much. Again, I’m going to read it because for Tiger , being a World Class Athlete and visionary entrepreneur requires the same fundamental building blocks, a focused mindset, a precise method, and an endless pursuit of mastery

[12:36] I think for me, the reason that struck me so hard is it doesn’t say you have to be the best. To me it says you have to be the best you can be and you have to be focused on what matters and you have to do things the right way every time and you have to understand that there is always a way to get better and it’s arrogance to think that you’re perfect. So every day as an entrepreneur what we need to do is challenge ourselves the way Tiger Woods challenges himself. Wake up with that mindset that is going to be precise and relentless. I think if we do that, we’ll have more of what we want. And again, when I say have more of what we want, I’m not talking about a Lamborghini. When I say have more of what we want, you could want more time to go fishing.

[13:22] Buddy of mine Stuart, he fishes all the time and I just love that about him. Right. You should, you could want more time to eat barbecue like me. You can want more time to coach your kid’s football games. You know, yesterday I coached my son’s football game four, I think I was there four hours, five hours. And then we went to eat Barbecue at Sideways barbecue in Rockwall, but we got there the whole day was about football was about my kid and I was so proud of him and he did so well and the whole team did well. So I, I got there at one, got our team ready, coached from two to three and we’re in this new league and there were some new kids on another team and it was one of those things, we allowed too many people to sign up.

[14:02] So we broke them into two teams so that everyone would get some playing time. And from three to four I was coaching the other team and my son just hung out and ran around with his friends. But I devoted my time because I love doing it. I love being out there volunteering and I wasn’t checking my phone. I what worried about emails or if I was getting calls, it was just, it was really good time. And then from four to five, I coached another game cause the other team that we’re coaching had a double header. So it was, it was just a really good day. But the point is, that’s more of what I want. I want to coach my son’s practice on Wednesdays. I want to coach his games on Saturdays and Sundays. I want to take him and his buddies to eat barbecue and not be stressed out, not be on the road, not be staring at my phone because that’s what’s important to me.

[14:46] So I guess my entire message here is be real to yourself and keep it right. Have a focused mindset. Create a precise method, can be relentless in your pursuit of mastery. Because if you are, you’ll never be disappointed in the results your business, uh, creates. So, we’re going to take a short break here from another one of our sponsors and then come back and wrap up with some barbecue. Start collecting more leads in minutes. Not only do I use HubSpot’s free CRM, but I also use their free marketing tools. Start turning visitors into leads today. Sign up for free at hubspot.com/th with HubSpot marketing free. You’ll have everything you need to convert more visitors into leads. Sign up for free today and it’s free forever. Sets up in seconds and works with any website. With HubSpot marketing, you can capture every qualified lead, see who leads are and what they’re doing and analyze and improve your conversions.

[15:34] Get HubSpot marketing free for forms, analytics, popups, and email integration for your site. No contract or credit card required. It’s a risk free way to see what inbound marketing can do for you. Start turning visitors into leads today. Sign up for free at hubspot.com/th late last week. We put out my first top 10 episode. If you haven’t checked it out or you’re interested in the Dallas Fort Worth Barbecue scene, go check it out. You’ll find it on any of our iTunes and tune in and Google Play or my website TimHerriage.com. We’re trying to get them everywhere. Check it out. Give me your feedback. I know several of you were a little upset that certain places weren’t on the list. Thank you for those that have actually sent some good recommendations on where to go. We’re going to check those out in the month of May. We’re thinking about doing a barbecue tour and Dallas Fort Worth.

[16:20] If you’re interested, drop us an email bbq@TimHerriage.com we’re also considering doing some live shows from different barbecue restaurants here in the Dallas area and as time goes on down in Austin, other places of Texas, Memphis, North Carolina, South Carolina. Really tried to do some shows from different places that I’ve heard a lot about and I am excited about getting the chance to go test them out in a really interesting year for me in the barbecue aspect of it, like I said, originally, the barbecue is really just a metaphor. It’s, it’s a, it’s about having more of what you want and I’ve really been blessed to be able to focus on that. We recently sold one of our companies and we closed down our office and I even recently we started working more with some folks here in Dallas, Randy and Shelby, where they are helping me answer phones and run some appointments.

[17:12] That has really allowed me to spend some more time doing what it is I care about, which is obviously eating barbecue, but also spending some time with my wife in the mornings, working on building a new house behind my mother in Law’s house, working on some professional development, spending some time with my older son while he’s getting ready to go to college, looking at the San Antonio real estate market, thinking about buying Airbnb property potentially, or at least expanding my rental portfolio down there, coaching my boy’s football team and going to his Jujitsu practice. You know, my time when I was with corporate America, there were weeks that I was on a plane three, four days a week. One Week I was on I think seven or eight different flights between. Got Up in the morning on Monday, flew to Vegas, meetings in Vegas, flew to Salt Lake City the next day.

[17:59] Had meetings in Salt Lake City, flew to southern California, had meetings there all that day, took the red eye to New York, had meetings there the entire next day, flew down to Charlotte, had meetings there the next day and then flew home on Friday night. And I just, I remember that feeling when I hit the ground thinking I wasn’t even sure what city I was in. And the other day I was listening to a podcast and don’t get me wrong, I heard someone that I really respect talking about their travel schedule and how they’re always on the road and they’re only home two or three nights a week and they’re talking about having kids and they already have kids. And I was like, man Dude, you are missing the point of having children. This person’s a very successful entrepreneur and you just wonder if people are able to focus on their priorities or if they’re only focused on their success and ambition.

[18:44] Because I haven’t heard a whole lot of stories about someone laying on their death bed saying they wish they had done more business. I’ve heard stories of people regretting not spending time with their family. I’ve heard stories of people regretting things they did my fight. I don’t know. I mean, I’m not going to be one of those people that says, I wish I had worked more. That’s not going to be me the next week. I’m excited. We’re going to talk a lot about pipelines and building a pipeline for a business. Again, it’s not real estate specific. It’s not lending specific. It’s more about just the basic philosophies behind building a pipeline. Buddy of mine, former NFL quarterback, Ronnie McAda is going to be on the show later this month. We’re going to get a couple of my friends from the real estate world, Mike Hambright, and let me get Jeff Tennyson on here, so lots of high level folks coming on in the next couple of weeks.

[19:30] These first couple episodes have just been focused on really me getting a good habit and good kind of rhythm down for podcasting and for learning the technology and the processes and the timelines. It’s been a bit of an adjustment. I’m excited about it. It’s been fun and I’m looking forward to mixing it up, providing a little bit more. You have questions. Go to TimHerriage.com/ask and you can fill out the form. You can shoot me an email. Ask@timHerriage.com if you’ve got a barbecue recommendation or question, you can email bbq@timHerriage.com don’t forget this podcast is available across the web on iTunes, Google play tune in radio, iHeart radio, Spotify, Stitcher. Do us a favor, subscribe, follow. It would mean the world to me if you gave us a review. We’re just getting started. We’re trying to grow. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, shoot them our way as well. We’re not afraid of a little bit of feedback. If you think you’d like to see more list, let us know. If you think you’d like to hear more interviews, let us know. If there’s a topic that you’d like to hear, let us know. But we’re here to help. We’re here to have fun. We’re here to grow together. That’s it for today. I’m Tim Herriage. Can’t wait to talk to you next week. Until then, keep cooking.

[20:41] Thanks for listening to the business and barbecue podcast. Make sure you check out our other episodes and stop by TimHerriage.com to say hi. We want to hear from you. Until next time, keep cookin.