Racing to the Finish Line…

Last night, I saw the shell of a broken man. As I looked into the eyes of Lance Armstrong as he spoke with Oprah, the words liar or cheat, never came to mind. All I saw was regret. To have accomplished so much and fallen so far has left its mark, not only on Lance, but all of us. His admission of using performance-enhancing drugs throughout his career was a shock to many, but not to all. To those around him, he was, in his own words, a bully at times, his way or the highway, as the saying goes. To those who suspected, it was always, ‘Lance won, but…’

In business, we’re all racing toward the finish line. In full sprint, we’re pushing to be the next one awarded that big contract or to represent that next major client. We scrape our social networking sites for the right connections and frequent networking cocktails where surprisingly, no one is drinking. We get close to all the right people, the movers and shakers, and are starting to round the bend to the finish line. So what if, along the way, we bump our competitor just a little and send him spiraling down the ravine or block their attempts to advance ahead. So what if we hoard what we know and never share it with others in fear of losing the race, of giving up the prize.

Don’t let but define who you are as a business owner, for a business built on regret can’t stand.