by: Geoff Ficke
Mark McCormack was one of the 20th century’s greatest entrepreneurs. Unless you were a sports fan, and had interest in the business side of sports you might not know, or remember much about this visionary genius. Initially trained as a lawyer, he became the entrepreneurial force behind the emergence of the sports agent industry and the endorsement fees and product sponsorship relationships between athletes, celebrities and companies that is ubiquitous today.
Mr. McCormack’s earliest triumph arose from his relationship with the great golfer, Arnold Palmer. His representation of Mr. Palmer, at the dawn of the great triangular golf rivalry between Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player popularized golf and lead to numerous business, endorsement and investment opportunities that extend to this day for the ever popular legendary golfer. Nicklaus and Player, seeing the success that Arnold Palmer enjoyed from having his affairs managed by Mark McCormack quickly became clients.
Today, Mark McCormack’s legacy to the sports world is continued through IMG, the hugely successful international sports and personal management agency he founded and built. From Derek Jeter, to super model Kate Moss, to Pope John Paul ll, to Tiger Woods, hundreds of superstar athletes, celebrities and world figures have been represented by IMG. His firm and the concepts Mark McCormack created to promote and market the careers of the most famous stars in the galaxy have been replicated by hundreds of sports agents who reap the bounty first sown by IMG.
If IMG and the creation of sports marketing was all that Mr. McCormack accomplished he would simply be a giant in his profession. Fortunately he was a terrific and prolific writer. His musings on entrepreneurship and business excellence are a wonderful primer for any small business owner, inventor, entrepreneur or product designer to study and absorb.
In his 1985 book, “McCormack on Managing”, he wrote, “I constantly have to remind people to seize the moment”. In another oft-quoted maxim McCormack wrote, “When in doubt, don’t call a meeting”. Both of these quotes go right to the heart of why only a few people ever become successful entrepreneurs. We meet so many wanna-be entrepreneurs that cannot avoid procrastinating. The perfect time to act is always sooner rather than later. And, “when in doubt”, don’t call a meeting, follow your initial gut instinct.
In his most famous book, “What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School (1984) Mr. McCormack presciently noted, “If Thomas Edison had gone to business school we would all be reading by larger candles”. Knowledge is wonderful and crucial to all of life’s endeavors, certainly including business. However, instinct, courage, vision, drive and common sense are traits that are developed separately from books and pursuit of degrees. Edison and many more of the world’s great inventors and entrepreneurs possess these acquired traits in abundance.
“The greater you think you are doing, the greater should be your cause for concern”, is another on point observation made in What They Don’t Teach You at the Harvard Business School. This a crucial commandment for every person involved in any competitive endeavor. If you are an athlete and you relax your preparation, practice or conditioning you should know that somewhere there is another athlete working hard to seize your spot on the team. In business, if you stop pushing, innovating, selling, improving your service or product, you should assume that somewhere there is a competitor that is working all out to beat you to market or surpass your market position. Over confidence is a killer in any enterprise.
Mark McCormack died in 2003. I strongly recommend that his life, his business career and his writings be studied by every entrepreneur seeking guidance in pursuing their goals. Professional sports before Mr. McCormack were fun. Today they are big business all over the world, not just during the games, but because of the profound effect their reach has into all aspects of modern life. This is largely due to the pioneering efforts of this driven, talented, creative genius
