March Madness is the term for the NCAA Basketball tournament that is dominating the sports world right now.

We started with 68 teams, followed by a quick elimination of 4 to get to the traditional field of 64, followed by 32 and then the Sweet 16.

There will be an Elite 8, and Final 4 with the season wrapping up in April with a championship game.

Only one team will be remembered as the champion.  Everyone else will be runner ups.  67 losers, 1 winner.

Too often we look at life and business with this mindset.

You can’t change the rules, but you can change the game.

I recall a few years ago, working with a real estate agent who was not the top seller in town.

Was she a loser?

Depends on what “game” she was playing.

We did some digging and discovered she was one of the top 10 salespersons in her office for the past 10 years.

Dug a little deeper and deeper still and found a legitimate title she could claim.

She was the top female Real Estate Broker in her office based on the average dollar amount of transactions she was involved with (representing either the buyer or seller) in the past 12 years who was still active.

You can’t put that on a trophy.

But what we did next was craft a niche that she could claim and promote that set her apart from the hundreds of other real estate agents in the area.

The lesson to learn is instead of competing in a field that you can’t win, carve out your niche within that field that you can win.  Then be sure it is presented and marketed in a manner that resonates with your target market.

Don’t settle for 2nd when you can be #1.