Think Differently

Why is Thinking Differently So Important?

If you haven’t seen the movie Moneyball, drop everything and see it.

If it’s been a while, see it again. Moneyball is in my top 5 movies of all time. Not only is it FABULOUSLY entertaining (and a true story), its lessons for businesspeople are counterintuitively brilliant.

After watching the movie (multiple times) and reading the book by Michael Lewis, the lessons actually motivated me to start a software business.

Either way – movie or book – the lessons are irreverent, timeless, and spot-on for businesspeople who understand the value of looking at the world differently to gain an edge.

The folks at Hubspot took the time to pull some of the key lessons from the movie

PLEASE read this – it’s a wonderfully synopsized article that knits the movie’s key lessons together.

One of my favorite lessons from the movie and article:

“You’re not solving the problem. You’re not even looking at the problem.”

This line came from Brad Pitt who played the role of Billy Beane, GM of the under-resourced Oakland Athletics baseball team. He was talking to his scouts, veterans of a former baseball era, trying to help them see the real problem: we can’t do things the same way as teams that have infinitely more resources.

His point – we need to think differently in order to do things differently because different is our only chance to win.

If you’re a small business competing against larger organizations, you get this lesson immediately.

Billy Beane’s point was simple – getting to different starts by understanding the real problem you’re trying to solve, and focusing on that relentlessly.

Missing the “real customer problem” is a reality for many product-myopic salespeople. We see it time and again – conversations that miss the mark around the real, strategic quandaries faced by customers. Too often, veteran salespeople are like those older baseball scouts – really good at something that has less value in today’s world. For instance, salespeople who’ve missed the solution shift from analog (products) to digital (outcomes).

Moneyball – invaluable lessons for business and salespeople (should be one-in-the-same, but often not).

Enjoy for your own profit.