5 Life & Business Lessons from A Half-Court Shot. Reflecting after 25 years

February 22, 1998. My friend Wayne Szeto and I sat in our car in Oakland, excited about attending that night’s Golden State Warriors basketball game. We were two young professionals early in our careers. I was working at UCSF as an Employee Programs Manager and attending night school at USF for my Master’s in Sports Management—back then I thought I would become a sports agent—and Wayne was starting out in the biosciences.?

That season, well before the arrival of Stephen Curry, the Warriors would go 19-63 and that night they were playing the Miami Heat. Before ascending to our upper bowl $22 seats, I ran into Brett Yamaguchi, a staff member from the Warriors Game Operations crew that I knew.??To my surprise, he asked me if I wanted to shoot a half-court shot for a fan promotion they were running. Without hesitation I said, “hell yes.”??Back then, pick-up basketball was a daily thing for me and after many of those pickup games ended, I would shoot half court shots for fun.?

While I waited in my seat for my moment, I closed my eyes and visualized myself on the court making the shot.??When I finally stepped onto center court near the logo, I soaked in the sold-out 19,000 person Warriors crowd (yes, even 25 years ago, in a down year, games were sold out). And as the Warriors announcer called my name, thankfully pronouncing it correctly, he also noted that I had a chance to win a new Chevy Malibu.?

The game staff handed me the ball, and I looked around and started pumping up the crowd, waving my arms, like “let’s go!” I stepped back beyond the half court line to get a running start in my big Sketcher boots and jeans and let it fly. Almost as soon as I let the ball go, I raised both my arms up knowing the ball had a chance – and it went straight in!??Like a crazy man, I transformed into a running back, running all the way around the court. On my way, I hugged a referee, high fived fans, and ran past the Heat team huddled in their timeout. I even caught star center Alonzo Mourning glancing back smiling. It eventually took three Warriors staff to tackle me and slow me down before the game would start again.

As great as that night was, the experience didn’t really end there. I’m sharing the story now, 25 years later to the month, because that night has carried me in both my personal and business life. Here are 5 life lessons, I have learned:

·??????Lesson #1:?Opportunity & Relationships Matter.?I never would’ve had the chance to shoot the half-court shot if I wasn’t given the opportunity by someone I knew.?It was because of my relationship with the Warriors staffer, whom I met through an internship. Spend time cultivating relationships, build your network and give others around us the opportunities to shine!?

·??????Lesson #2: Practice What You Love.?The great football coach Vince Lombardi said that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”??Perhaps we are always preparing for something even when we don’t think we are. I never thought I would shoot a halfcourt shot at an NBA game, but the shots I practiced prepared me for this unexpected moment.??

·??????Lesson #3: Visualize Success and then Make it Happen.?There is power in visualizing what we want to accomplish. If we imagine ourselves being successful, we can turn fear into power.??In fact, before big pitch meetings or important business presentations, I often envision the way I want things to go, because it makes me feel happy, confident and successful.

·??????Lesson #4: Life is about Experiences.??I love to win as much as anyone and winning a new car was, of course, amazing!??But this entire experience was surreal.??Sometimes we stumble into experiences like this and other times we curate them. After that night, I actually never took possession of the car. I instead sold it back to the dealership because I wanted the cash to attend a friend’s international wedding—which created an entirely new stream of experiences!?

·??????Lesson #5: Share Joy with Others.?This experience has enabled me to connect with so many different people in my life. During the game I connected with the crowd in the arena, and afterwards with my friends, co-workers, classmates and long after, with strangers. It is part of the reason I re-tell the story again now because it creates a collective joy that is in some ways as rewarding as that big night 25 years ago.