I don’t watch tv.  The only “shows” I watch are hockey and Sponge Bob Square Pants.  So while everyone else in the world has already seen the Budweiser hockey commercial, I just saw it for the first time last night, and, like most things in my life, I immediately drew a parallel with startups.

The commercial (as you probably already know), starts out with a regular game of “beer league hockey” – a bunch of old-timers playing rec hockey.  Then ridiculously energetic “fans” are brought in to cheer them on.  The players are all suitably like “WTF” (makes great tv).  But, and here’s the point of the post (not my pop cultural / media ignorance), the players start playing better.  They start playing like it matters.

We should all run our business like there’s a throng of fans that are about to bust through our “arena doors” to cheer us on.  Play like that everyday, and someday they just might (and maybe they’ll bring free beer!).