I request people not to take offense to what I am about to say (Yes I mean you Corey @ Double Play Media), because I have been a lifelong  Cubs fan, but what the mighty New York Yankees did this season, goes beyond sucking – it was a collapse of Titanic proportions. Don’t get me wrong – I used to go to Wrigley Field in Chicago and on Opening Day I used to see sign reading “There is always next year”! Talk about optimism.

With their multi-billion dollar complex, multi-million dollar payroll – with all its super stars and egos – for the Yankees to crumble like this is well, one for the ages. On the bright side however, I did save 10% on my auto insurance with Geico.

All kidding aside, there are many life as well as business lessons to be learned from this collapse s0 all is not lost, here are my Top 3.

It’s the little things that count.

Sure, A-Rod and Jeter bring in the big bucks and get you noticed, but how often do they get the chance to hit the game winning home run? Instead in business as in life, focus on making sure you doing all the little things as best as you can.

Teamwork is paramount.

No one person makes an organization; it is with the collective efforts of everyone that you are where you are. Maybe I am wrong but the Yanks are filled with a bunch of egos and everyone looking out for themselves. Look at what the Cardinals have been able to do year over year with a fraction of the Yanks payroll.

Passion is important.

Have the drive and desire to continue when the odds are stacked against you. Great teams will fight to win until the final out is recorded. Having no heart is akin to giving up. You can’t succeed every time. Even super star hitters fail seven out of ten tries. That being said, give it a try, don’t give up and wait to strike out, go out and try to hit a home run each time (this could have been tough with A-Rod royally croaking and rolling over and Granderson following suit).

The true hallmark of an elite athlete or a successful organization is the mental attitude, the ability to cope with high pressure situation, dealing with fierce competition and above all, ability to come back stronger after a poor performance and no matter what the scenario, maintaining belief in themselves and their ability. All of this unfortunately lacked severely with the Yankees this go-around.

Take time to celebrate the successes of your achievement. Taking this time out to celebrate will remind you the hard work and commitment was worthwhile.

One of my favorite quotes related to succeeding is from Ben Huh of Cheezeburger, “Of course I could have worked harder, I could have made better decisions, I could have marketed myself better – there is a million things you could have done. But that doesn’t fucking matter because you can’t roll back the clock. If you worry about the things that you can’t control it’s going to waste time and if you worry about the things you can – you will make an impact. It’s still entirely possible that this version of myself will not be the successful one……you have to keep at it!

Written by Ricky Ahuja

Ricky Ahuja, a serial entrepreneur, is a ten year veteran of the online marketing industry and currently serving as the CEO and partner in Affiliate Venture Group, a privately funded performance based network located in Northern Virginia. AVG was recently voted a Top 10 CPA Affiliate Network of 2012 by Performance Marketing Insider. You can also follow him at his Affiliate Marketing Blog

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