How to Win the First Battle of the Day

The crunching of gravel. The smell of freshly cut grass. The sight of a quiet, deserted ballpark. The hiss of air brakes. The mechanical lurch of the front door of the bus opening. The wave-like rock of the bus as a few dozen people rise from their feet simultaneously. 

“We won the first battle,” someone would predictably say. 

Groans.

Sarcastic chuckles.

It's cliche. It’s ingrained in almost every athlete’s DNA. It happens almost every time a team shows up to the field of competition first. And it’s not for nothing.

"The most important thing in life," says Keanu Reeves' character Conor O'Neil in the film Hardball, "is showing up. I'm blown away by your ability to show up through everything that's gone on."

The first one to arrive is the first one to prepare. The first one to prepare is the one who puts in the most time. The one that puts in the most time will improve the most.

The flip side: those who arrive late will be lapped.

I’m a stat rat. I like things to be measurable. I like trials to show clear winners and losers. So when I hear platitudes like, “We won the first battle,” I want to know how much it really matters.

We've all felt the psychological aspect to the “First to arrive, last to leave” motif. There's an impact to arriving to the field of competition - or the office - with the lights already on and someone hard at work. You're already behind.

But let's ignore psychology for a minute in lieu of hard numbers.

15 minutes before work + 15 minutes after work = 30 minutes per day.

30 min/day * 5 days/wk * 52 wks/yr = 130 hour advantage

Assuming those 30 minutes are productive minutes, you can put in three more traditional 40-hour workweeks/year than those that arrive "on-time" and leave at their scheduled punch-out time.

130 hours x a 30 year career = 3,900 hours = 97.5 traditional 4-hour workweeks

By putting in just 15 minutes before work and 15 minutes after work you'll work an additional two years more than your competition. Imagine if you put in 30, 60, or even more?

With that being said, there are very few (successful) entrepreneurs that I know that measure work in hours. The more efficient way is to measure work in tasks complete or, better yet, wins and losses. 

Do you know how many times you, “Won the first battle?”

Neither do I.

That’s because it’s not a stat, it’s a checkpoint. A checkpoint that gives you a daily opportunity to check your progress toward your goals. 

"Did I win the first battle?"

"Did I allow others to eat before me?"

"Am I the one to lock the door?"

Do you have to do these things to be successful? Of course not. There is a natural in every group. I would argue that there are far fewer true natural talents in entrepreneurship than athletics, but there will always will be a gifted few.

For the other 99.999%?

Win the First Battle every day.

Just show up.

No matter what you're going through.

And - over time - you'll lap the competition.