Yesterday, I took one of my friends sailing. Dan is another agency owner I’ve known for a long time. We’ve climbed mountains together, drank scotch together, and broke bread together. I really like the guy, enjoy his company, and want to see him do well.

In the 15 years we’ve known each other, I can’t remember ever referring Dan’s company. On his side, I know that he’s referred business to me just once.

Another local peer is Jim, who I really like, but rarely hang out with. I haven’t seen him in person in five or six years. I used to refer him all our overflow leads or leads that I didn’t think were a great fit. He made quite a bit of money off this arrangement.

In sum, no referrals for a good friend and many referrals for an acquaintance.

What gives?

When I was in high school I played soccer and wrestled a bit. Despite being diligent and applying myself, I wasn’t particularly good at either. In retrospect, I wasn’t well suited to those sports and how I played them.

One of my friends, Andre, could have started wrestling his junior year and still ended up on varsity and winning a fair number of his matches. I worked out often, year round, and I never saw Andre lift a weight or go for a run. However, he looked like a fit adult in his mid twenties, not his teens. In his weight class, he would have wrestled overweight juniors and beat most of them.

You might have noticed in observing a sport that it’s not uncommon for there to be an athlete that is a top performer, but that has deep flaws that affect them- lack of discipline or a mental game that is weak. Yet they still win.

Yesterday, I drove by a coffee shop I used to frequent and noted that it wasn’t open. It used to be a busy place, but a couple of years ago it changed owners and all that business dried up.

What changed?

Previously, it had a unique business design. They primarily focused on serving three different options of dark roast coffees that would rotate daily. When you entered the cafe, there was a little rack with tasting glasses and you would try each before deciding what you wanted to drink. There were several other touches that made the place different, but everything flowed from that little tasting station.

Even though it was a tiny space, in a lousy location, and only open a few days of the week, it was packed every minute it was open.

In the book, “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals,” author and social psychologist Dr. Heidi Grant explains several research backed strategies for getting things done.

In one chapter, she shares a study on college students who were asked to complete an essay over Christmas break. Half of the students were sent on their merry way and half were also asked when and where they would work on the essay?

The results were that 32% of the students who had made no plan completed the essay and 71% of the group who had decided when and where to work completed it. This effect of more than doubling successful completion has been replicated in other studies on students, dieters, smoker, women self-administering breast exams, and more (Gollwitzer and Sheeran.)

Grant describes the tactic as “If Then” plans. As in, “If I’m in this situation, then I’ll act this way.”