Want to get better at winning? Be your own biggest cheerleader

By Jason Safford

As the sun slowly began its decent over the Mohawk Valley, the sounds of Bob Marley’s “One Love” could be heard through the stage speakers on our Big Lawn. More than a quarter mile away on the other side of the hill, which lead down to our huge camping field, thousands of “Dead-heads” we tailgating, waiting for the gates to open for our first big concert at “The Castle”.

We had been operating the property for 3 years with every attempt at creating a successful event going wrong. Bad weather, bad timing, bad promotion, bad planning it did not matter how good our intentions were to make something positive happen for the community, we just were not getting good results from all our hard work. That did not stop us from keeping our attitude positive and moving in the right direction.

Here we were, on the eve of 4th of July, and finally, more than 10,000 people, probably closer to 15,000 were gathered at our venue to experience a little piece of history. The remaining members of the rock group, “The Grateful Dead” were getting ready to perform one of their last shows together as “FURTHER”. And the weather could not be better.

When the first person came through the gate and walked up the hill to the top of the crossroads, where the Castle stood slowly crumbling from the cruel winters and relentless winds, he looked out into the horizon, took in the magnificent bucolic landscape of the Mohawk Valley below, the sun kissing the undulating terrain of farms and forests and vast open spaces, breathed in deeply as he gazed at the hillside of our natural amphitheatre inside the glorious 330-acre forested estate and exhaled, “This is absolutely Fucking Awesome.” It was an incredible win.

One of the fun things about being the host of the FURTHER FESTIVAL in 2010, I got to post on my personal Facebook page that I hosted the Grateful Dead on my front lawn. It was a really cool thing to be able to say in my humble opinion. However, not everybody reacted with positive support. In fact, one of the people who worked at the event felt that I was taking all the credit for the promotional teams work. Well I was. It was my property that my business partner and I owned. And we allowed the event to be produced and were hands — on with the production team in making the event happen.

No one likes a braggart, but you should share your wins and success every chance you get, because no one is going to share it for you.

Everyday is an opportunity to share positive words and thoughts with your family, co-workers, boss, friends and strangers. But you can also share positive things that have happened to you or that you achieved. People want to hear about wins. And they want to associate with winners!

How will people know you are a winner unless you share it with them? Go out there and spread the word! Let people know you are winning and that will drive you to win more. Becoming exceptional is about celebrating every positive to keep yourself and everyone focused on going in that direction. Keep Cheering!