Is business success built mainly on personal savvy, taking risks, and seizing opportunities? Does achievement run like an Olympic sprinter who beats competitors?

Or is business success dependent on doing one's best with personal abilities, but admitting that If it's meant to be, it's up to me is a faulty slogan. A family loan, good education, counsel from a relative help achieve marketplace success.

Don't we also win the Gold in business running like a relay runner? Each is dependent on team members to pass the baton and sprint toward the finish line.

At the London Olympics, each starting block has a speaker installed in it. No longer will the runner in the lane closest to the starter have a millisecond advantage of hearing the gun go off. Now each runner gets help from speakers in starting blocks.

Isn't this upgrade for sprinters symbolic of what happens when businesses succeed? Success hinges on both personal striving and communal support.

Comedian Jon Stewart asks, Why are some suspicious of businesses which get government help and apply for tax incentives, labeling this 'grade school Marxism'? Our elementary school teachers taught us to share. Isn't this the key to success?

At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Mitt Romney gave a pep talk to athletes, reminding them to be grateful and humble. They don't earn gold medals strictly by their own skill, Romney stressed. Winners don't have exclusive claim on records they establish. Each receives lots of help along the way.

Success is a combination of running like a sprinter and participating in a relay race.

You Olympians, however, know you didn't get here solely on your own, declared Romney prior to the opening ceremonies of the Salt Lake City Olympics. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We've already cheered the Olympians. Let's also cheer the parents, coaches and communities.

If the relay race teaches us how to achieve in sports, why don't the same dynamics apply to business, as President Obama has said?

Go here to read the rest:
Vail Daily columnist Jack Van Ens: Is business success a sprint or a relay?