At the Beijing Olympics on Sunday it all it came down to eight one-hundredths of a second for the gold medal in the men’s swimming 400 free relay event.

Before the event, the French were bragging about how they were going to beat the Americans.  How stunned, defeated and demoralized they were when the Americans didn’t cooperate and refused to lose.  The commentators were even talking about how the French were going to win because they were considered the superior team.  Someone forget to tell the Americans they weren’t going to win.  All the trash talk from the French just inspired the Americans even more. 

It’s true Michael Phelps, Cullen Jones and Garett Weber-Gale, are world class swimmers, but it was in last leg of the race that Jason Lezak, the oldest team member, came from behind to beat the French.  During the team interview after the race, Lezak was asked why he had such a great swim. Lezak’s answer was simple (and I paraphrase):   We lost the last two relays and I was just tired of losing and wasn’t going to lose. 

If we listen to the newscasts all day long or read the newspapers, they’ll tell us how bad things are with the American economy.  If we take the news seriously, we won’t expect to make our businesses as profitable in this economic downturn. 

The question is a simple one:  Are you tired of losing? 

Are you going to stand up, motivate your people, manage them well, not accept excuses and sell everyone on the idea that we have to improve our game if we want to win?  Or are you going to watch the business checkbook balance get smaller by the day?  You can win this game of business or you can lose this game of business.  Which do you prefer?