Sometimes quitting seems like the best course of action, but there are golfers who found a way to make a big comeback on the green and businesses that turned a red bottom line into green. These are stories about people and companies that never say, "Quit."
— By Vincent Pane

It can be difficult to admit defeat, especially when it means admitting a business should cease operations or should go into bankruptcy for an opportunity at reorganizing. It is just as difficult for a professional golfer, who has won championships in the past or is still chasing the first championship win, to decide it is time to call it quits.

Business leaders and professional golfers are true competitors with a strong desire to win and a deep reluctance to admit defeat. Yet, history has taught us that there are golfers and businesses that have struggled, experienced unexpected adversity, and repeatedly seen failure in one form or another, and still managed to make a remarkable comeback. Their success strategies have varied, but the end results are the same – victory.

Mastering the Green
Golfers throughout history have struggled with many issues that interfered with their golfing prowess. They include physical injuries, depression, disease, personal traumas like divorce, and all the other problems that plague the human race. The personal physical and emotional challenges make it difficult to play golf at top form, and the easiest thing to do is give up.

That decision may seem easier for a golfer that has won some championships in the past, but it does not seem to work that way. Champions do not give up and usually want to make the decision to end their careers due to age. Just like business leaders must eventually turn over the reins of management to members of a younger generation, professional golfers eventually retire.

One of the most recent comebacks on the green was pulled off by the famous Tiger Woods. In April 2019, he won the Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club for the first time since 2005. During the 14 years between wins, he suffered numerous physical injuries leading to multiple surgeries. Woods was involved in a personal scandal when it was discovered he was having an affair, leading to divorce and loss of large endorsement deals. He took drugs to deal with the pain from his injuries and surgeries that eventually led to his arrest for driving under the influence.

As year after year went by with no golf wins, and even a few years when he could not play at all, it would have been understandable if he quit. Instead, Woods kept playing golf while he got his life back on track. The 2019 Masters' win was a sweet victory on many levels for the 43-year-old man. There are many golfers like him who have overcome personal challenges to become champions when others would have quit.

Ben Hogan survived a head-on car crash, suffering multiple broken bones, facial injuries, and blood clots that developed in the hospital, leaving him easily fatigued the rest of his life. Sixteen months after his release from the hospital, Hogan won the 1950 U.S. Open at Merion and went on to win five more majors.

Babe Zaharias had won two championships when she was diagnosed with colon cancer. She had surgery to remove her colon, returned to the green, and won five times that year. She passed away two years later.

These are just a few examples of the many professional golfers who became champions when others would have quit.

Businesses Turn Red to Green
Golfers who persist despite challenges use a strategy that is a combination of determination, accommodation for physical limitations, equipment changes, and practice. In the business world, great business comebacks have some of the same qualities.

Determined corporate leaders put new people into positions who are able to develop strategies for turning a failing company around.

For Best Buy, it meant replacing the person at the very top – the CEO. A company in a downward spiral was saved by new strategies that blended online and in-store experiences, and the development of a new Geek Squad offering in-home technology services.

Marvel is a company known for comic books and heroes, but more than 20 years ago it was bankrupt. In the late 90s, the company took a new approach to reviving interest in its superheroes and other characters. It sold licensing deals for some of the characters like Spider-Man to theaters. When that did not make enough money, Marvel started its own studio, and that was the trigger point for success. Disney acquired Marvel eventually, and today the Marvel superheroes are super at making the company money. One of the important changes the company made was creating diverse superheroes, reflecting the demographic changes in moviegoers.

Big name companies like IBM, Apple, Starbucks, and even Amazon have struggled in the past. If they had not managed to find a way to overcome the challenges, the companies would likely be gone. At one point, IBM was losing tens of billions of dollars, and today it is a leader in developing advanced technologies like artificial intelligence. The strategies employed to turn the companies around included new products, upgrading and adding customer services, modernizing the brand, replacing business leaders with forward-thinking innovators, and integrating online activities with brick-and-mortar operations.

Back in the Game
Golfers and businesses striving to maintain championship status have a lot in common.

Golfers eventually retire because age and younger competitors make it the best decision at some point.

Businesses must find ways to meet the challenge of easy market entry for young entrepreneurs that regularly bring tech-based products and services to customers. The response is often to "retire" senior leaders who are unable to manage continuous change, and replace them with younger, creative people.

It is a tough world when trying to stay on the golf course green and staying in the green in terms of profits. However, it is the companies that recognize they need to change their strategies to match market dynamics that succeed.

The marketplace and competition is in a state of continuous change today. It is challenging to stay ahead, but think of the golfers who have overcome incredible difficulties. Most had to change their whole game to get back in the game – from swing stance to the clubs used. Success is just another word for adaptation.