Game, Set, Match! (eBook)

W. Mike Presz (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
368 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
9798317814311 (ISBN)

Infos

Learn the behind-the-scenes story of how Match.com rose from a small, unknown internet startup to having a value of over $30 billion, earning recognition in households across the globe. Match.com took a different approach to creating bonds and has changed the way relationships are discovered. However, in its early days, the path to success wasn't clear-it was filled with questions, challenges, and obstacles that almost completely derailed the entire company. With 'Game, Set, Match!,' go back in time and experience the early days of Match.com, learning what helped take a small startup to ultimate success.

W. Mike Presz has spent over two decades working with Match.com, where he has helped change the way people find relationships. During his tenure, Match.com rose from $100 million in valuation to a value of over $30 billion. He held numerous roles at this time, including chief technology officer, general manager of international business, and senior vice president. Throughout his 35+ year career, Mike became heavily involved with enterprise systems and internet businesses, working closely with product and technology teams within the IAC and Match Group family-such as Tinder, Hinge, HomeAdvisor, Expedia, Ticketmaster, and more-and was a key resource in IAC/Match Group's acquisitions, partnerships, and due diligence teams. Outside of his professional career, Mike's journey began at a young age when his involvement in sports led him to Harvard University, where he pitched for the Harvard Crimson Baseball team. Competition, teamwork, preparation, dedication, and determination were all keys to his success and helped him be ready for life in business. In the early 2000s, Mike began his work at Match.com, which allowed him to develop a wide range of experiences across different areas-including product and technology, reporting, legal, human resources, customer care, deal-making, partnerships, and international business-as he helped take a small internet startup and developed it into a household name.

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Learn the behind-the-scenes story of how Match.com rose from a small, unknown internet startup to having a value of over $30 billion, earning recognition in households across the globe. Match.com took a different approach to creating bonds and has changed the way relationships are discovered. However, in its early days, the path to success wasn't clear-it was filled with questions, challenges, and obstacles that almost completely derailed the entire company. With "e;Game, Set, Match!,"e; go back in time and experience the early days of Match.com, learning what helped take a small startup to ultimate success. Inside, discover lessons that can help build skills in teamwork, transparency, practicality, decision-making, whiteboard fallacies, chemistry, analytics, testing, initiative, restraint, marketing, deal-making, internationalization, customer service, communication, preparation, measurement, pricing, hiring, leadership, and more! This book will describe real-life events and results that occurred during Mike Presz's 35+-year-long career with Match.com. The knowledge provided is certain to produce major company results, which is the ultimate goal of all winning companies and everyone wants to play for the winner.

Textauszug

CHAPTER 1

BACKGROUND:
THE SPORT OF IT ALL . . .

“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”
—Vince Lombardi, Legendary Green Bay Packers Football Coach

Of all the great Vince Lombardi quotes, this one is my favorite. It had adorned my email signature during most of my tenure at Match. The quote’s direct message is clear. But, let me challenge you with a couple of thoughts and questions to delve a bit deeper into its meaning.

1. A person has to be in the fight before they can get knocked down and decide whether to get back up. I use the term fight metaphorically to represent any life challenge. My point is, an active participation is required; thus, standing on the sidelines and watching others struggle doesn’t qualify.
2. A person who is in the fight will get knocked down. There is no doubt about it; it is a matter of time. And those who are the best in their field will likely experience the most falls.
3. It’s easy to stay down, but it’s hard to get back up.

If these questions ring true to you, here’s some more food for thought:

1. After a knockdown, will there be self-reflection? Will a different path be chosen? Unfortunately, many won’t analyze the reasons for the fall and won’t learn the valuable lessons to prevent future falls.
2. For those that get back up, will they remember what and who helped them get back up? Will they recognize and appreciate them? Will they help others to overcome the struggle of recovering from their own falls?

As a coach, your role is to identify those who are ready to embrace the challenge and inspire them to take it on. You must prepare them for the fight ahead, teaching them how to minimize setbacks, even if avoiding them entirely isn’t possible. When they stumble, it’s your job to help them rise again. Without this, the team cannot succeed, and if the team fails, so do you. It’s that straightforward. These same principles apply to business leadership.

If you want to avoid ever being knocked down, simply do nothing. Stay out of the fight. You’ll never fail. But you’ll never succeed either. Most people avoid challenges in direct proportion to how difficult they seem. The harder the challenge, the greater the avoidance. And for those who do face the fight and get knocked down, many choose the easier path—staying down. I’ve done it. And I warn you: you’ll regret the times you hunkered down, while your life goes on. You’ll ask yourself what you could have done differently and ponder possible outcomes. Trust me, I have. Luckily, I had some incredible people around me—mentors who taught, guided, and pushed me, both through their words and actions, to embrace my challenges. Because of them, I am better. Many things can only be understood and appreciated after experiencing them. So, inspired by my experiences, I wrote this book to help others embrace their challenges.

The first challenge that I want you to embrace is the fight for knowledge. Seek it passionately and pursue it ruthlessly. Understand that you will never achieve a complete victory over it. Even so, keep fighting. Knowledge is a worthy opponent, constantly shifting, expanding, and going in new directions. It won’t sit still, so neither should you. It will require maximum effort to excel in this fight, but is so much worth it. Use the internet, books, your family, your friends, your colleagues, your competitors, your bosses, and leverage whoever and whatever else you can to further your learning. Knowledge is power, and success will never come without it. When you get knocked down—and you will—do not stay down. Don’t take the easy path. Don’t be in a position to wonder what could have been. Make it happen. It won’t be easy, but it is under your control. Nobody else can or will do it for you.

With that in mind, I’m joining in your pursuit of knowledge. I hope this book enhances your business skills, sheds light on what causes setbacks, and offers guidance on how to rise again. After being armed with this knowledge, I also hope that it further inspires you to embrace your other challenges. And, when you are down, I hope to guide and inspire you to rise back up. Business—just like life—is a series of ups and downs. The key to success lies in how you handle them.

In this book, I will challenge conventional thinking, provide real-life experiences, and add a no-nonsense perspective on what I’ve learned. I’ll share this knowledge with the advantage of being in the fight and experiencing the repeating pattern of getting knocked down, getting back up, and re-embracing the fight. I’ve watched successful people around me do the same. They’ve helped me understand what is required to be successful. I won’t claim that everything I share will be right for you or that it will work for you exactly as it did for me, whether for better or worse. What I can say is that I wish I had access to information like this before starting my business journey—it would have helped me learn and grow much sooner.

Foundational ideas and techniques stand the test of time. While the language and specific applications may evolve, the core values and principles remain largely unchanged. The core of what you’ll learn should be just as relevant today as it was when I experienced it. Ultimately, you’ll be the judge of my wisdom, and I sincerely hope it will bring you great value.

Before I introduce my background, I want to make a couple of points clear:

• This book is not about me; it’s about what I’ve learned. I am going to provide you with detailed information about my background, my experiences, and my perspectives in the following chapters. I’m sharing this with you to provide you context for lessons I learned the hard way. I’ve had the privilege to work with, and learn from, an incredibly talented and diverse group of people.
• This book is not a chronological or complete series of events of the companies that I’ve worked for. Instead, I’m going to share the events that had the most significant impact on my way of thinking, organized by topic and the lessons that I’ve learned.

As previously mentioned, the purpose for sharing my background information is to provide you with additional context. Expect a diverse range of stories: from my family life to my experiences in sports, domestic and international business, and everything in between—from the trenches to the boardroom. I’ve been there—everywhere and beyond. However, it’s not about where I’ve been but about what I’ve learned getting there. I’ve faced countless challenges and worked with incredibly talented people, and now, with time for reflection, I can share the key insights. You won’t find this information in an academic textbook.

I’ve been incredibly fortunate in my life—I’ve competed at the highest levels of sports, graduated from one of the finest universities, and had the privilege of working with exceptional people and for outstanding companies. During this time, I have competed against professional athletes, consulted at government agencies, and worked at one of the most recognizable internet companies in the world. I started as a CTO when it was valued at nearly $50 million and helped it grow to a peak valuation of over $30 billion a few years ago. I managed technology, customer care, product, international teams, and partnerships with top companies; traveled all over the globe; and worked with some of the smartest and most successful people in the business world. I’ve also worked as a greenskeeper and a landscaper, coached recreational youth baseball, and spent a few years battling Lyme disease.

Throughout my career, I’ve spent six months of my life soaring above the earth in airplanes. During most of this time, I rarely saw my wife and kids until my oldest daughter was already a teenager. Success and failure go hand in hand. I’ve experienced both throughout my career, and I know you have too. Embrace every experience, the good and the bad, and learn from them. That’s exactly what I did. The truth is that the best lessons often don’t come in easy times. They don’t come when you are comfortable. They don’t come in victory or in success but in challenging times. They come when you are out of your comfort zone, often in defeat and failure. They come when you get knocked down. It is then, when you rise back up from the fall, that success and pride are found within you.

Most of the experiences and lessons shared in this book come from my twenty-two years at Match.com, now Match Group, including Tinder, where I held various executive-level positions, including chief technology officer, general manager of the international business, senior vice president, and, most recently, senior advisor. While I had fourteen years of business experience before starting at Match, there are a few reasons for Match dominating the business stories in this book:

• The people at Match were exceptional. I’m talking about every single one of them that worked with me or for me or those I worked for. If any of you are reading this book, I want to thank you again. Match is our shared story, and none of it would be possible without you.
• I started at Match in late...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.11.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Beruf / Finanzen / Recht / Wirtschaft ► Bewerbung / Karriere
• ISBN-13: 9798317814311 / 9798317814311