 J. Billis is kind of the face of college basketball in the United States and J. Billis works for ESPN and he has been a personal friend and mentor of mine for over a decade. J. was kind enough to write the forward to my book and on ESPN game day part of J's responsibility is before he calls the game he has to watch both teams practice the day before the game so that during the next day he has plenty of stuff to talk about on air because when you're on air in front of the the bright lights and the cameras they can't afford any dead time you have to have something to say at all times so he needs to know everything about their team about their personnel about their strategy well back in 2010 in early December there was a very highly anticipated NCAA college basketball game that was going to pit Duke versus Butler and the reason this game was so highly anticipated were those were the two teams that met eight months previously in the national championship game where Duke narrowly escaped with a very close win and it's very rare in college basketball in the US that the two teams that meet on the biggest stage meet eight months later in an early season game so there was a lot of hype around this game well J is actually a Duke alum so he went to watch Duke practice first and he goes over to watch Duke and Duke is led by the winningest coach in the history of college basketball coach K one of the best to ever do it and he hears coach K talking to his team and he says guys we're gonna win tomorrow because we have a distinct advantage we are bigger stronger and more powerful than they are we are going to beat Butler tomorrow because we clearly have the advantage we are bigger we are stronger and we're more powerful we're gonna pound the ball down low and get easy shots around the basket we're gonna out rebound them and we're gonna challenge all of their shots guys we're gonna win tomorrow because we have the advantage we are bigger stronger and more powerful and Jay left that practice and was thinking this could be a bloodbath tomorrow one of the best coaches to ever blow a whistle just clearly told his team why they have the advantage but he needs to do his due diligence so he goes over to watch the Butler practice who at the time was led by Brad Stevens Brad Stevens is now the head coach of the Boston Celtics and he is an absolute basketball savant one of the best young coaches that I've ever met and coach Stevens is talking to the Butler team and said guys we're gonna win tomorrow because we have the distinct advantage we are smaller quicker and faster than they are we are going to win tomorrow because we have a clear advantage we are smaller quicker and faster their big guys won't be able to keep up with us we'll get easy points in transition we'll be able to put on a smothering full court press and there's no way those big guys can get out and challenge our corner threes don't worry guys we're gonna win tomorrow because we have the clear advantage and Jay left that practice and was thinking I got no idea who's gonna win this game both of these brilliant coaches have the self-awareness the team awareness to know what it is that gives them a distinct advantage to know what it is that makes them unique and gives them a competitive edge and to know what they need to do in order to be successful and here's the cool part they both were 100% right and I tell you that for a couple of reasons one I certainly want to make sure that you're internally looking at your businesses and you're constantly recalibrating and having the awareness to know what gives you the competitive advantage what it what is it that separates you because one thing I can promise you excuse me there's a lot of things in business that people can copy they can copy floor plans they can copy layouts they can copy logos and color schemes they can copy pricing they can copy your org chart there's one thing I promise you they cannot copy that you all they can't copy you they can't copy the relationships that you create and they definitely cannot copy your culture those things cannot be replicated so any investment you make into improving those relationships those three that I talked about is a very wise investment because it's something that will extend your lead and be a competitive advantage because people cannot copy you the relationships you forge and the culture that you create it's one of the best investments that you can take with pulling it down getting around zoom back at midcourt launches the shot is the king of the dance