There are very few athletes that generate more controversy and hatred than LeBron James. However, many of the decisions and actions that LeBron has taken over his career align directly with what it takes to become a successful entrepreneur. Here are three principles that LeBron can teach us all about entrepreneurship.
The creation of a super team is not a bad thing
If you ever read any of the ESPN message boards about LeBron James you will notice the recurring comment that states, “LeBron only went to Miami because he knew that he wasn’t good enough to win the title by himself.” If this is the case, then it would seem that LeBron made an even better decision than any of us realize. In business, it is important to build the best team possible. Few people have an issue with Google when they pull the smartest graduates from top universities or got mad when Microsoft teamed up with Facebook. It’s all about leveraging win-win situations for the betterment of your business eco-system.
There is a common myth that an individual’s achievements trump what is done with the help of others. We tend glorify situations in isolated people overcome major obstacles alone. Should we value a hypothetical championship more in which LeBron is a lone hero in Cleveland over a championship that saw him as a piece of a team with exceptional talent? When making decisions ask yourself if the degree of difficulty of a situation for an individual — or the end result — is more important to your success.
Look at the total value of your decisions instead of just the monetary value
Another often-made comment is, “I don’t understand why LeBron turned down all of that extra money from Cleveland to go to Miami.” There is a concept in business called local optima. This is when a company maximizes one small part of a system at the detriment of total system productivity. What the company usually optimizes is the part of the system that investors observe to determine its total viability. This has long term negative effects and can cause a company to implode over time, because they are tricking themselves into believing in a false sense of success from considering one part out of many.
We often look at salary as the only determining factor when making decisions about careers and use phrases like “money talks and everything else walks.” This is a very non-economical way at looking at things. Many studies have shown that the law of diminishing returns is in full effect when it comes to income. LeBron could have made more salary in Cleveland, but he would have lost the opportunity to play basketball with his close friends and live in one of the nicest cities in the country. Furthermore, LeBron gained additional access to sponsorship dollars, which offset the money that he lost in salary.
I have a good friend that is generating over $2 million dollars in revenue with a four person staff. Investors have been lining up for him to give them the opportunity to invest in his company. After much deliberation, he decided that the value of his time and having the ability to watch his two daughters grow up was more valuable to him than the additional cash and stress that come with running a venture-backed company. Are you only looking at one metric to determine the path of your entire life?
Just because something has not been done before does not make it a bad idea.
A third critique comes from NBA legends. Michael Jordan said via NBC: “There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry [Bird], called up Magic [Johnson] and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’ but that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”
It is important to realize that things are constantly changing in business. It is important for you to be innovative and look critically for unrealized opportunities. Traditionalism will leave you as a relic of the past while new and innovative companies take your market share. Many of the older speakers’ bureaus could not understand why I moved away from the traditional commission model to a recurring subscription model for Great Black Speakers. My rationale is that you do not see many billion dollar agencies, but you do see billion dollar platforms like Facebook, Apple, Google, Amazon, and countless others. Divergent thinking will lead to higher rewards.
The way that LeBron James announced his departure from Cleveland may not have been the best move for his brand. However, there is much to be learned by the way that he has handled his career to this point. Hopefully, we can take these lessons from James and apply them to our lives to win our own championships in business and life. Now that he has won his NBA championship ring, a lot of his crazy ideas are suddenly wise.
Lawrence Watkins is the founder of Great Black Speakers, Great Pro Speakers, and co-founder ofUjamaa Deals, which is a daily deal site that promotes black-owned businesses. He graduated in 2006 from The University of Louisville with a B.S. in electrical engineering and earned his MBA from Cornell University in 2010. Lawrence currently resides in Atlanta. You can follow him on Twitter@lawrencewatkins.