My Crowning Claim to Shame? You be The Judge…

Ripped from the headlines in Nevada:

In girls high school basketball action last week, The Del Sol High School Dragons squeaked by the Cheyenne High School Desert Pigs (yes, the “Desert Pigs”).

The final score 104-1.

Reminds me of the time I coached the 8th-grade boys basketball team at the secondary school where I taught in St. Louis.

We lost a game 78-0 — making me the only coach I know to ever lead a team to a shutout loss in basketball.

Was it my crowning claim to shame?

Nuh-uh!

I look back on it with pride.

About halfway through the game with our team down 42-0, I approached the other coach and said, “Maybe it’s time to back off the full-court press.”

His response: “We’re in it to win it,” and his boys pressed on.

I wasn’t impressed.

But I was impressed with the boys on my team who pressed on.

One of them — a boy named Nate — overheard the referee ask me whether I wanted to call the game. “There’s no mercy rule in basketball,” the ref said. “But we could end this.”

Nate said, “No way! We’ll keep playing. We’re going to score.”

So we kept playing. And the boys almost scored.

And, even though we “lost” 78-0, Nate and his teammates were the winners that day.

I’ve thought of those boys a lot during my entrepreneurial journey.

Being an entrepreneur is not easy.

You win some. You lose lots — especially when you’re getting started.

And more times than you can count, you want to throw in the towel.

But if you press on, you eventually score, and you eventually win.

Two games after that shut-out loss, the boys won their first game of the season — 28-26.

Nate was the leading scorer.

What’s your game plan for 2026?

Next year is almost here? Are you ready to press on? Do you have a plan to score? A plan to win?

Between now and January 1, I have some open slots on my calendar for Plan-to-Prosper Strategy Sessions. We can meet 1:1 on Zoom and discuss what’s working in your business, what’s not, and how to design a winning game plan for 2026 so you can land more clients without working your tail off.

If you want to book one of those sessions, reply to this email with “press on,” and I’ll send you a link to my calendar.