Posts by Fran Tarkenton
The Power of Bootstrapping
I’ve learned a lot from failure. One of the biggest lessons came from one of my earliest businesses. After a couple years in professional football, with a motley assortment of jobs in the offseason, I wanted to go out and start my own business. I worked with a close friend of mine to think through…
Read This Article
Scrambling and the Refusal to Accept Defeat
When I was preparing to enter the NFL in 1961, I was 6’0”, 185 pounds, and a third-round draft choice. The reason I was taken in the third round was because they didn’t think I was good enough to play. If you play quarterback at a big school like the University of Georgia and you’re…
Read This Article
Building a Team Through Shared Goals
For any business to succeed, you have to build a team that works together. That team includes you as the business owner, any employees you have, your vendors, your partners—everyone who is part of running your business. When it comes to building that team, although talent is important, a cohesive group that sticks together is…
Read This Article
Finding Your Confidence
We might like to believe otherwise, but the reality is that things don’t always go smoothly. Whether you’re just starting out, or have been in business for decades, no matter how successful you are or what you do, there are surprises waiting around the corner, obstacles for you to overcome, and problems to solve. So…
Read This Article
Encourage Dissent!
Diverse thinking is one of the things I value the most. I want to hear all kinds of different ideas from all different sources. I don’t want other people to just echo back what I said, I want people to challenge me. And I don’t want everybody around me to think the exact same way.…
Read This Article
You Don’t Need Super-Salesmanship
For years, ever since I played football, people have come to me to say, “I’ve got this great idea, if only you would be willing to sell it for me.” But the honest truth is, I’m not a great salesman. That doesn’t stop people from coming to me and telling me we could make millions…
Read This Article
Don’t Make the Wrong Partnership: Assume Nothing
How do you know whether someone is going to be a good partner or not? It’s not enough to go by someone’s prestige—there are plenty of examples of prominent figures who turned out to be bad partners. It’s not enough to be a nice guy. So what do you look for? I believe in the…
Read This Article
Are You Multiplying Your Team’s Success or Diminishing It?
Adapted from One More Customer by Fran Tarkenton and Scott Miller As you add to your team, whether with permanent or temporary members, hopefully you’ll add complementary talent to your own: individuals who share your values and work ethic, but add dimension to your company’s abilities. You don’t need eleven quarterbacks to make a winning team; diversity…
Read This Article
Failure is Not Final
To learn from failure, you must own your failures. When you make a decision, you need to acknowledge that things can go wrong and take responsibility when they do. Owning failure means you examine it, rethink it, and figure out how to improve. Our parents tell us things like “Learn from your mistakes.” Most of…
Read This Article
Start Your Business with Value
When you start a business, the first thing you have to have is a product or service that solves problems for people. You have to have something that people actually want, that they can use. Once you have that, you have to provide people with great value. Many businesses that find themselves leading the way…
Read This Article