Scoring The First Point

70% of World Cup soccer games are won by the team that scores the first point(said by ESPN announcer during a World Cup match).  This may seem intuitive, but there is a message to take away from this statistic.  A lot of the important parts of our life are about getting the head start in whatever field you are in and carrying that lead forward to surpass others in their respective fields.  This is tried by many, but only mastered by a few.

The Biggest Battle Is At The Start

The tough part of this process regards getting the point first.  There is always the greatest struggle to get ahead right at the start.  A team uses all its energy to score the first point, just as a business uses all its energy to release the first product of a certain type, and a fighter uses all his energy to get the first few kicks or punches in.

Why is scoring the first point so powerful?  It says a lot, and it provides a lead.  What does it say?  It says that you are the dominating team/person/business, and that others can now only put out effort to catch up to you.  It says that you had the driving force ready to go when the right time came, meaning you had prepared better than others.  In every sport or contest or business battle, the most energy is put forth to get out that initial victory, because it is remembered by all, has repetitive beneficial value, and serves as a symbol of being more intelligent from the get-go.

Sometimes Loads Of Effort Is Not Enough To Catch Up

The lead is another aspect that is quite powerful.  Many business attempts fail solely because another business gets a head start, which gets the brand in people’s minds first, and then the other businesses are viewed as copycats.  It is not necessarily that the first business is of the highest quality, and rarely is it, but our minds quickly create categories and place companies in them in rankings often based on which ones we heard of first.

Political Example

If there is a political race going on in your town, and one person who is running gets signs up earlier, people will think that the other people who are running are not as active or concerned or so on.  You remember the first name you see, and any follow-up names are of people who you can disregard based on their hesitation to take center-stage.  This may sound like a small detail, but it is important enough to discuss a bit more.

Brand And Reputation

Brand integrity is huge.  When one brand establishes itself as the brand to know and trust, other brands almost always have to play catch-up.  Not getting labeled as a copycat when you are not first is very difficult.  People view you as “another X provider”, based on the initial company being the first provider of X.  Since Kleenex got a stronghold on the tissue market, people now refer to many tissues as Kleenex.  Aspirin is labeled as Tylenol by default, and so on.  Although the first person or company to emerge is not always best, that doesn’t matter so match.  We are easily manipulated by branding and marketing methods in some ways.

After You Get Ahead, It Is All Ricecakes

It is very well worth it to get that early lead in whatever you are doing, because that short bit of powered effort will propel you into a smooth territory where you don’t even have to do so much to maintain your lead and status.  I have seen many folks do this in one way or another, and the early lead pays for itself many times over.  The one thing that you want to think about to propel yourself to go for the early lead is that, if you don’t get that early lead, you will always know that you had the chance to do so, and could now be putting out much less effort for greater results.  To motivate yourself, you can use the avoidance of that potential result, or you can use the thought of being in a dominant position.

Tagged as: ahead, brand, early, first, scoring