From having it all, to throwing it all away - literally - in mere seconds!

Unless you've been off on an island somewhere, you probably ran into Superbowl Sunday last weekend, somewhere, and that was emphasised by the statistic that an estimated >110 million Americans (alone) watched the big game. It broke all records and made television history in the USA, and this time at least, the game actually lived up to all the hype and produced a heart-stopping finish that gave a shocking 28-24 victory to the New England Patriots over the Seattle Seahawks. 

The devastating thing about professional football is that a game can literally go back and forth for four quarters with one team leading close to the end of the game, and with even mere seconds on the clock and knowing use of the sidelines and timeouts, the trailing team can get to the end zone and produce a win. It seems unquestionable that psychology often plays more than a little part in these things, and occasionally, it may even be the deciding factor. 

In the last minute of this game, as shown in the video above, wide receiver Jermaine Kearse makes an out-of-this-world juggling catch that theoretically ended the game right there and then. It might not seem that amazing when watched in slow motion but during that moment, but I am pretty sure no one in that stadium thought it was anything but an incomplete pass, and clearly neither did the commentators. Just as everyone was looking away and waiting for the next play, the guy managed to bump or touch the ball as many as five times before getting hold of it and making it a complete pass. 

You only have to look at the face of New England QB Tom Brady to get an idea of what it feels like to have one of the biggest prizes in professional sports yanked right out of your hands, at the very last second. Brady thought it was all over at that very moment, and frankly, it should have been. The Seahawks went from being within a minute of losing the big game to being only 60 seconds and one run by Marshawn Lynch from winning it - all in a heartbeat. 

The insane and devastating reality was that in the end that exceptional play by Kearse didn't matter, apart from having it on his record. A few seconds later, Russell Wilson (Seahawks QB) threw the victory to New England; but even that throw was less inexplicable than the coach's call that ordered it. The pendulum swings in heartbreaking fashion in life as well as in sports, and it was rookie Malcolm Butler who this time was on the receiving end of not just redemption but actual glory. He was the New England player covering Kearse when he made that catch, and he was the hero who intercepted the throw (seconds later) that ended the game. 

I couldn't help but feel that amongst all the agony and the angst, and the guts and the glory (depending which coast one came from), there were some valuable lessons for all of us inside that high-tension, adrenaline-fueled furore:

• It's an old adage, but it's totally true - it ain't over till it's over. Just prior to that massive play by Kearse, New England probably thought they had it. Only a minute to go, and 40 yards out, the Seahawks were trailing, and it's possible that some of the Patriots could already taste the champagne waiting on ice in the locker room - a few seconds later and Tom Brady's blood-drained face told a very different story. 
• As tempting as it is to take an eye off the ball for a second and bask in the moment, the game isn't over and anything can happen - as it did. It's pretty much the same in business, and until the deal is closed, it's best to keep your mouth shut and your eye on the ball, until the touchdown actually occurs.  
• Sometimes it's pure psychology that works against you, and just as you begin to breathe a sigh of relief late in the game, and turn away for a mere nanosecond, it's in that nanosecond that all hell breaks loose. In life and career it's about staying power, and those with a major focus on the daily details while keeping an eye on the bigger picture and the longer term are usually those who make it in the end.
• Looking at it in the inverse way, if we put ourselves in the position of the Patriots in the last minute of that game, facing what looks like certain defeat coldly in the face - there should be widespread panic, right? Well, yes, maybe, hidden inside. But one thing they got totally right was the belief that even in the face of imminent loss, it's still not lost (yet) if the game is not actually over. Giving up is never the option, and if you worked your backside off to get somewhere in life, then you should fight to the last minute to try to stay there or stave off a defeat. 
• Facing what appeared to be by then a certain win, the Seahawks did take their eye off the ball at a life-changing critical moment, and paid an enormous price. It actually did a great disservice to the acrobatics of Kearse mere seconds before, whose heroics were all for nought in the end. Why they chose to throw, that close to their goal, and with the Sherman tank known as Marshawn Lynch left holding nothing is not just beyond me, but beyond basically everybody.
• You know? When it comes to psychology, sometimes we can overthink things and be our own worst enemy. As a coach, this can be a potentially destructive trait, trying to be too smart and more worried about out-thinking the opposition than using the tried-and-trusted tools and weapons at your disposal. Thus it was for Pete Carroll who inexplicably ignored the most potent weapon in his arsenal, and instead took a huge risk at the wrong time - the victory suddenly falling through his fingers like sand as the ball was stolen out of his receiver's hands. 
• It was a brutal, crushing moment on one of the biggest stages on the planet, and Patriots fan or not, one couldn't help but empathise with Carroll at that exact moment. We have all lost a big game in life, literally or metaphorically, and we have all looked back retrospectively and asked what if, or said I should have done this or could have done that.  We got in the way of ourselves, and lost a big one. 

In the case of Pete Carroll, well, he has been around the block, a few times, and he is a consummate pro, so there were no visible tantrums, tears or trauma, and we all respect him for that. Having said that, one of the biggest lessons we try to learn whether it be sports, business, career and life, is - learn from your mistakes and do not repeat them. Given that he should have been through this before, only time will tell whether he is to be forgiven for getting in his own way and overthinking this one.

Well, I didn't realise that I had that much to say about the Superbowl, but it's surprising how we can be in the midst of some great entertainment and yet still that left brain starts to draw lines and parallels between the war being fought on the field, and the war going on in business and life. It is all about competition, of sorts (even if that competition is with ourselves), and how we react to the good days and bad, and the wins and the losses. 

Coming back from a loss is the flip side of the coin, yet it is the side that is most educational for us and where we (and others) learn the most about who we really are. Ask any successful (even some of the famous ones!) entrepreneur and there's one thing they all seem to more or less agree on - failure is an essential part of the learning process and of the winning process - no one gets to the top of the tree without losing sometimes. The key is what you learn and take away from even a miserable failure, and then what you do with that knowledge and experience.

On that note, I can say that I have learnt from my failure to get my weekly blog written during the big game due to too much noise, commotion and emotion, and subsequently only succeeded in getting it done by retiring to a cosy brick-walled corner by a crackling fire with no distractions. One small victory at a time, people - we can't always be in the Superbowl or Dante's Inferno!