Remember that feeling when you missed the game-winning shot? Or fumbled in the fourth quarter?

As an athlete, you learned to internalize failure. You made it personal. You replayed it a thousand times. You let it fuel you for the next game.

That worked in sports. It's killing you in business.

When a client says no, you treat it like a playoff loss. When a product launch flops, you feel like you just got cut from the team. When a competitor wins, you spiral into the same place you went after losing the championship.

The problem? In business, there's no off-season to recover. No coach to bench you until you're ready. No clear scoreboard to tell you if you're winning or losing.

You're applying a high-pressure, win-or-lose, zero-sum athletic mindset to a game with completely different rules. And it's exhausting you.

Here's what cognitive reframing actually is: It's changing the meaning you assign to an event without changing the event itself.

As an athlete, you already did this. You just called it something else: "next play mentality," "learning from film," or "using it as fuel."

Now you need to upgrade that skill for business. Here are five reframes that changed everything for me:

Every pitch meeting that doesn't convert is a research session. You just learned what messaging doesn't resonate. You discovered an objection you need to address. You practiced your delivery.

Action step: After every "loss," write down three things you learned. That's not failure—that's reconnaissance.

Athletes train for specific dates. The championship is on X date, period. Business doesn't work that way. That "delay" you're stressing about? It might be saving you from launching something half-baked.

Action step: When you miss a timeline, ask yourself: "What did I gain by taking longer?" Better product? More customer feedback? Stronger foundation?

When a competitor in your space raises funding or gets press, your athlete brain screams: "They're beating you!" But here's the reframe: they're proving there's demand for what you're building.

Action step: When a competitor wins, send them a congratulations message. Watch how this shifts your energy from scarcity to abundance.

Individual sports made you self-reliant. Team sports made you depend on others' performance. Business? It's about building systems that work without you.

Action step: Identify one task you're doing that someone else could do at 80% of your quality. Delegate it this week.

Transitioning from sports feels like starting from scratch. You're not. Your discipline, work ethic, ability to take coaching, resilience—these are assets most entrepreneurs spend years developing.

Action step: List ten skills from your athletic career. Now write how each applies to your business. You're further ahead than you think.

Here's the contrarian truth that took me three years to accept: Your athletic career wasn't your peak. It was your training ground.

Every entrepreneur I know wishes they had your ability to:

You already have what they're trying to learn. You just need to reframe what those years meant.

Your sports career didn't end. It evolved. The competition didn't stop. You just changed arenas.

The question isn't whether you can succeed in business. It's whether you're willing to apply the same mental rigor you brought to sports to the way you think about business.

Last month, I worked with a former college basketball player who was three months from shutting down her consulting business. She was treating every client conversation like a championship game—all-or-nothing pressure.

We spent one session reframing her approach. Instead of "closing deals," she started "building relationships." Instead of "winning clients," she began "solving problems."

Her revenue doubled in six weeks. Not because her skills improved, but because she stopped playing the wrong mental game.

Here's your challenge for this week: Pick one business "failure" from the last month. Write down the athletic mindset you applied to it. Then write a reframe using one of the five frameworks above.

If you want to go deeper on this, I'm opening up five spots for my "Athlete to Empire" coaching intensive where we'll map your sports experience directly to business breakthroughs. Reply with "REFRAME" and I'll send you the details.

And if this resonated with you, forward it to another former athlete who's building something. They need to hear this.

What's one business situation you're dealing with right now that needs a reframe? Hit reply and tell me. I read and respond to every single one.

Michael Jordan got cut from his high school basketball team. He reframed it as fuel. Steve Jobs got fired from Apple. He reframed it as freedom to start Pixar. Your biggest business setback right now? It's not the end of your story. It's the setup for your comeback.