SportsArt Blog

Get Scared, Then Go ALL IN

Posted by Scott Sechrest on 3/31/15 3:10 AM

“Do one thing everyday that scares you.”

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

In 1951, Solomon Asch devised a classic social psychology experiment that investigated whether social pressure from a majority could affect a person to conform. Amazingly, 32% of the participants conformed to the clearly incorrect majority. How could that be? Asch concluded that people conform for two main reasons:

 

  1. They want to fit in with the group.
  2. They believe the group has better information.SportsArt Dealer Red Carpet

Fast-forward 64 years and the herd mentality is alive and well. People still have a great desire to fit in or go along with the crowd even to the detriment of our health, relationships or businesses. It takes strong will to break free from that groupthink mentality because it can be a scary thing to do. But even though the majority says or does one thing, there is sometimes the nagging question: “What would happen if I went against the crowd and went ‘All In’ on what my gut is telling me?”

SportsArt recently faced this dilemma in deciding whether or not to participate in IHRSA 2015. Should we go along with conventional thinking and exhibit at the event even if the spend and ROI are illogical? Do we dare rock the boat? Do our competitors know something we don’t? Or, do we trust our instincts and go “All In” on our own private event?

Despite our immense fear of going against the norm and changing what we’ve always done, we decided to host our own private product showing and business workshop event on our terms. Were we scared? Absolutely. Were we certain the event would be a success? No way.

As a result, being scared and listening to our instincts paid off. We had the most successful Global Gathering we’ve had in company history. The attendance of this year’s private event grew more than 200% over our event last year at IHRSA 2014. We were able to connect with our key customers and show them what we are doing and where we are going as a business, recognize them for their hard work, and also introduce the SportsArt Institute. The SportsArt Institute is the new educational arm of SportsArt, designed specifically to provide tools to support our customers with growing their businesses. The boundless success of this event is not something we could have achieved without obeying our guts and going “All In”.

Going “All In” has proven successful for SportsArt and the SportsArt Institute would like to support you with your efforts in doing the same. What fears are keeping you from going “All In”? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

SportsArt hosted the greatest event in our company’s history at the iconic Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on March 11. Many thanks to all of you for attending. Check out the video and cool images from the Global Gathering.

 

 

Topics: Leadership