To Achieve Success, Master the Fundamentals
There are a few who achieve excellence without much hard work
The Rocker: Studied the fundamentals until he owned the guitar
“Don’t think you’re going to be Townshend or Hendrix just because you can go wee wee wah wah, and all the electronic tricks of the trade,” advises legendary guitarist Keith Richards. Writing in his new tell-all book about his life and music career with the Rolling Stones, Richards relates his efforts to learn and master the guitar. He devoted years of surprisingly—for the drug reprobate he admits to being—diligent effort to figuring out how the great blues masters played the key chords they did, then years to finding his own sound.
Once Richards “owned” the guitar technically, he felt free to give himself over to instinct. In the end, he wrote, "There is no 'properly.' There's just how you feel about it. Feel your way around it." The key to developing some of his most famous, later-career riffs, in songs like "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Gimme Shelter," was realizing that "there is often one note doing something that makes the whole thing work."
The Rider: Rode into each competition with a purpose and a plan
“My weakness, or strength in competition, came from the decision to sacrifice one-time stunning runs for consistent performance,” admits Sharon Camarillo, rodeo champion barrel racer. “Call me a control freak, but I always opted for the solid average run every time, rather than pushing for the fastest run one time—to me getting the fundamentals right meant that over time I would win more often than not.
The opportunity for Camarillo to make the fastest run or set an arena record was a rare event. “I never called myself a brave competitor,” she says, “I opted for a consistent win—that is what bought the gas, paid the entry fees and allowed me to follow my dreams one competition weekend at a time. As a competitor, I lived by the philosophy that every run—not just one for glory—had to count. Therefore, I felt learning to plan the run and run the plan, gave me the courage to ride into each competitive situation with a purpose, and most importantly, a plan. Being a winner is not just making a winning run; sometimes, it's having the ability to make a qualifying run every time.”
Each run in a rodeo contest is a learning opportunity, a chance to evaluate strengths and weaknesses, and a chance to learn a lesson that will make the next run better than the last. “Winning runs don’t come by luck or fate,” comments Sharon. “Winning runs are created through preparation, practice and experience and are manifested when the opportunity to excel presents itself. Top barrel racing competitors understand the methodology of producing consistent performance regardless of the size of arena or ground conditions. In barrel racing, I believe that achieving the mastery of fundamentals comes with a lifetime of commitment and dedication, practice, preparation and experience, and then you add speed and the learning process begins all over again!
LaserShip
Like the rocker, LaserShip did not just recently discover success in the distribution business. We have been strumming the same instrument for 25 years, learning and practicing the fundamentals, discovering “our own sound.” It is often, as Richards discovered, the same “one note,” maybe with a little twist to it that makes the whole thing work after years of practice.
And like the rider, LaserShip is not in this to impress a client with one wild, outlying run—but performing consistently, time after time, time over time; every run has to count. This level of consistent play takes, as with rodeo, “preparation, practice and experience.” Achieving the mastery of the fundamentals of distribution comes with commitment and dedication, “and then you add speed and the learning process begins all over again!” 
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