Life Lessons from the Indy 500

I had the chance to go to the Indy 500 over the weekend. Exciting race, perfect weather and the true highlight of the Memorial Day weekend. Since the race, I've been reflecting on some of the parallels that I see between this years race and life in general. I'm listing some of these below:

• It's tougher than ever to get in the race. There used to be a considerable difference in the qualifying speeds between the fastest car and the slowest. This year there was only 3 mph separating them... That sounds a lot like the people and companies that I work with on a regular basis. What used to provide you with a strong competitive edge merely gets you "in the game" these days. What are you doing to stand out from the crowd? Being the "best" at a traditional measure may not produce the results it once did.
  
• Performance across the field is at an all-time high. 19 cars finished the race on the lead lap, a new track record. It wasn't that long ago that 1/3 of the field would drop out due to mechanical "failure" of some sort in the first half of the race. It seems to be a given that a car can now race for 500 miles unless an accident takes it out of the field... Are your customer expectations any different? We used to think that a car with 100k miles was on it's last leg. New cars today don't even require service until then. What used to be an acceptable level of failure, will now turn a consumer to a whole new brand.
  

• A few big names (Helio & Danica) provided most of the exposure and the profitability... How "real-world" is that? You may provide a dozen high-value products or services, but the odds are your consumers associate only one or two with your brand. Are you taking proper care of those to ensure their longevity?
• Mario Moraes crashed on the first lap, and yet earned more prize money than Paul Tracy who finished the race on the lead lap... It's not always the traditional measures in life that drive our rewards. Being faster or working harder may not guarantee that we "win" more than others. Sometimes it's about being in the right place at the right time, or making the right networking connection. It could be about being the better negotiator early on. At a minimum, it's about being aware of the bonuses that life offers us along the journey.