Every four years the Olympics airs we swell with national pride, cheer on the underdogs and are overwhelmed by touching stories. The 2010 Winter Olympic Games have been no exception. We have already witnessed some amazing athletic feats along with heartbreaking losses—sorry, Julia Mancuso. At the end of it all, though, we have learned some interesting lessons from the Winter Games that can be applied to everyday business strategies.

Try to Out-Do Yourself

Snowboarder Shaun White already had a 2006 gold medal when he stood at the top of the snowboarding halfpipe last week. He knew this was his medal to lose as he flew down the course. White completed his first run with a score of 46.8 (out of 50 points)—a full 4 points higher than his closest competition. For the second run, White was positioned to compete last. As he watched his teammate fall during a landing, White began celebrating—he had won the gold medal.  White didn’t even need to complete his second run, but he pulled out his Double McTwist 1260, two board-over-head flips inside of 3½ turns, and nailed the risky move with a score of 48.4.

Sometimes winning isn’t always the end goal—you should always strive to do your best and continually push to out-do yourself. Apple is a great example of a business that achieved this kind of tenacious, outperforming feat because when the company launched the iPod it was experiencing a boom in profitability due to the iMac. This branching into MP3 devices took Apple to another level when it could have easily rested on its laurels of producing computers. After the launch of the iPod, Apple continued to improve on their successful models until eventually releasing the iPhone, which catapulted Smartphones into mainstream America.

Be Classy

In the first day of competition, Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvii died in a horrifying crash at Whistler Olympic Park. In a time where the media tends to confuse modern-day Americans with ancient Romans hungry for blood and gore in the gladiator stadium, NBC did a tasteful thing: they refused to air the footage of Kumaritashvii’s fatal crash. NBC knew that viewers could scour the Internet to find the clip, potentially causing people to turn the channel, but they didn’t want the Olympics to be marked by tragedy.

What we can glean from NBC’s decision is that every business should choose ethics over exploitation. You don’t have to be immoral to be in business, and merely making a profit isn’t the be-all/end-all. Case in point: TOMS Shoes. For every TOMS Shoe sold, founder Blake Mycoskie donates a pair of shoes to someone in need. According to their website, there are more than 1 billion of people at risk at the world that could be helped simply with a pair of shoes. With a large following of young hipsters, the company could just be extremely profitable, but Mycoskie was inspired to help others.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

Instead of being remembered for his skating skills, Evegeni Plushenko will go down in history as this year’s biggest sore loser. Plushenko skated a near flawless short routine in men’s figure skating, beating USA’s Evan Lysacek by half a point. The reigning gold medal winner was heavily favored to repeat gold when the men’s free skate competition began two days later. Lysacek took the ice and completed a spectacular routine—albeit one lacking the quad, the hardest jump a male figure skater can complete. He scored a 167.37. Plushenko, who earlier stated “the quad is necessary,” took the ice and bobbled slightly while landing the difficult jump. He took the silver medal instead.

While we’re not advocating not trying your best, what Plushenko has taught us is that bigger isn’t always better. Sometimes it’s best to focus on doing one thing really well instead of trying to do too much. This is definitely the case when it comes to business. You have to truly focus on what it is that your company excels at. A great example of a company who stretched itself too thin is Cosmopolitan magazine. Did you know that the popular women’s magazine, with 58 international editions, once tried to sell yogurt to its readers? Seriously. Not being content with its domination of women’s magazines, Cosmo launched a line of “sophisticated” low-fat yogurt in the U.K. in 1999. The company had high hopes to sell in other countries, but 18 months later the line had soured.

Give the People What They Want

When NBC decided to air folk ice dancing, instead of the highly anticipated Canada/US hockey game last weekend, grumbles were heard everywhere. Even NBC employees complained via Twitter. The hockey game was shown on cable channel MSNBC, a channel not available to every cable subscriber. And worse yet, the only way to watch the game online was to log in—as a cable subscriber. What a total NBC fail.

A business is nothing without clients, and in order to turn a prospect into a client, you need to offer something they want. Your business will not be successful if you don’t have a product people want to buy. Domino’s Pizza is now one of the largest pizza restaurant chains in the world, but that wasn’t always the case. In order to drum up business in a market heavily saturated by pizza delivery joints, the company gave customers something they really wanted: pizza fast. In 1973, they implemented their policy of “30 minutes or it’s free,” and business boomed.

Persistence Pays

The biggest lesson any business owner can learn about how to become successful is the old adage “if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Look at China’s pairs figure skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo who recently won the gold medal—the first time a non-Russian couple has lost the gold. Bronze medalists in the last two Olympic Games, the couple retired in 2007, got married and lived the easy life. But the duo was missing something: the gold medal. The fact they had even won bronze 4 years earlier was a huge feat considering Zhao ruptured a tendon in 2005. The couple returned to skating as the oldest couple in Olympic contention. The first to skate on February 14, Shen and Zhao scored the highest of the night with a record-breaking 72.40. They took home the gold medal the next night after their free skate.

The Chinese pair wanted to officially retire on a high note and kept trying even though they were, according to some, a little past their prime. Persistence is your biggest friend in business. You will hear ‘no’ more times than you will hear ‘yes,’ but you have to push on. Take Harland David Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders. When he was 60 years old, Sanders had to close his restaurant because a new highway was being constructed. Wishing to retire, Sanders decided to sell his fried chicken recipe. He travelled across the country looking for a buyer. He heard 1009 “no’s” before he heard a single “yes.” Less than 10 years later, Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken corporation for $2 million. It goes to show that persistence truly does pay.

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Darcie Duttweiler
ChooseWhat.com