This post originally appeared in our Startup Growth Newsletter.
Football season is back. This brings great joy to my life. One thing I am incredibly proud of is that my 6-year-old daughter knows the names of all 32 NFL teams simply by looking at their helmets.
She knows this because we play the NFL Matching Game (also known as Memory), where you have to place two pairs face down, scatter them around, flip them over and, remembering where they are, match them. As you can imagine, with 64 cards flipped over, it looks like an impossible task to match all of the pairs.
And, when you start, it feels that way. You flip over a Cleveland Browns helmet and then a Jacksonville Jaguars. You think you remember where you saw that other Jaguars helmet only to flip over the New York Giants.
It takes time, and there can seem like there is no method to the madness. But then you get to a point in the game where suddenly everything starts clicking: the tipping point. Someone — in my house it is usually my daughter — starts going on a run and finds one, two, three, four pairs in a row. Before you know it, the game that felt like it would go on forever is a mad race to the finish line.
Of course, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes my kids and I are in a bad mood or are tired when we start playing. When this happens, we usually take a few turns and, because that exciting tipping point seems impossible or too far away, give up. We rob ourselves of that joy because we don’t have the mindset to work through the difficult times.
But when we’re having fun, staying positive and helping each other remember things, we always keep going.
Attitude and the people you play the game with are so important. Surround yourself with the right people and they can bring out the best in you to push you forward when you feel like giving up.
If you don’t give up, there is a good chance that there will be a moment when everything clicks and suddenly your momentum becomes unstoppable.
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