A champion can only lose their title.

People at the top either know this, or they find out sooner or later. Just consider the following champions, past and present. 

  • Levi’s Jeans
  • Michael Schumacher
  • Napster
  • Nigel Mansell
  • Mahatma Ghandi
  • Tabasco sauce
  • Napolean
  • KISS
  • Count Chocula
  • Oprah
  • Apple
  • Facebook
  • Crystal Champagne
  • Chateau Petrus
  • Michael Jordan
  • MySpace
  • eBay
  • AltaVista
  • Karl Lagerfeld
  • Eminem
  • Google
  • General Motors
  • Toyota
  • Barrack Obama
  • Al Gore
  • Madonna
  • Kurt Cobain
  • Wayne Gretzky
  • Seth Godin

It’s interesting to think about how each got to the top, how long they stayed there, how they acted once they became champions, and where they are now. Did they fight to keep their title? Did they get comfortable? Complacent? Did they change? Did they refuse to compromise? Did they become jerks? Did they fade out? Did they spread their message louder than ever? Did they get paranoid? Do they still matter today? Did they let everyone else “eat their lunch”?

What will you do to get to the top?

…and what will you do once you get there?