The Olympics just finished up and what a show it was! You saw amazing athletes strive to be the best they could be and some like Usain Bolt establish new levels of excellence.

Being a hyper-competitive person, I loved watching the athletic beauty and quiet controlled effort that was put in by the top performers. Was it just me or did most of the elite performers always look calm and controlled and everyone behind them looked frantic and their faces were turning red? When you’re that good, you can calmly look around for your mom in the stands when approaching the finish line.

After viewing the results coming in event after event I became even more interested in finding out more about each person’s dedication, how they approached their craft and how they got to such high levels of success. One quote that I picked out that stuck with me was Usain Bolt who stated the following after his Gold winning and record shattering accomplishments: “I came out here prepared,” he said. “I worked hard, that’s all I can say. … I worked hard to get here. It wasn’t easy at all. It may look easy, but it was hard.”

To someone that loves the online industry and is dedicated to making it the best it can be, those are beautiful worlds to hear – I came out here prepared, I worked hard, it wasn’t easy at all. It may look was but it was hard. Great things can be accomplished by embracing these words. To start, we can throw out the status quo, the “that’s the way we’ve always done things.” Sebastian Coe’s father wasn’t a track coach, but he turned his son into a track star by ignoring the status quo. Roger Bannister (broke the 4 minute mile barrier) didn’t measure his success against the impossible 4 minute mile barrier, he prepared himself so that he could run as fast as humanly possible.

Speaking about making ourselves the best that we can be, what are we doing in the online industry to not only embrace these words, but more importantly embrace the attitude that generates them?

We should start our own Olympics of sorts. Instead of being a society that hands out participant ribbons to people that show up, we should reward the individuals that clearly come prepared, act with integrity and out-perform the rest of the competition – the top 3. In my experience in the online space, I’m seeing advertisers slowly move away from the participant award winners (cookie cutter run-of-site/section CPM publishers) to the podium finishers (interaction tracking Rich Media providers like Eyeblaster and EyeWonder to performance based marketing networks like Advaliant). These types of companies are clearly trying to help advertisers combat the economic crunch and the screams for a better marketing ROI. Starting and finishing the race with Usain Bolt is no longer an accomplishment. Coming to the final stretch and being Usain Bolt is all that counts. If you’re an advertiser, start doing your homework. Find out who is coming out prepared, who is working hard on the right solution for your needs and who is ready to claim that Gold Medal. Participant ribbons are eating your budget, don’t let them.