Earlier this year we announced a partnership with former NFLer Dale Moss, to provide entrepreneurial resources to athletes, minorities, women, and the less fortunate.

Michael Lore captured the true meaning behind Dale’s mission to empower disadvantaged entrepreneurs in this Forbes column. Dale is not the first athlete to make this transition, however.

He is preceded by giants such as Michael Jordan, Shaq, and Kobe. One thing these athletes have in common is their understanding of the process.

From The NFL to Entrepreneurship

Dale has the vision to empower others, especially women, who have played a huge role in his life. As someone whose life has been shaped by many powerful and influential women, Moss said:

“I’ve always had strong, powerful women in my life and they’ve helped me in every aspect. They’re part of my team, my core and that’s definitely what keeps me grounded.”

The former wide receiver had stints with the Green Bay Packers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers and Chicago Bears from 2012-14. He hoped to have the illustrious, hall of fame career that all athletes dream and work hard towards.

His life didn’t pan out that way. Nevertheless, he is a successful host, fitness model and influencer with hundreds of thousands of social media followers and fans. Other entrepreneurial athletes include Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal, famously known as Shaq, who recently joined the board of Papa John’s. For Dale Moss, he always thought about himself, his career and life as a business.

This is a unique way to view the world and one that we assert in our learning community. You have to understand the process you have to go through to be successful in business and in life.

Process Is Not a Dirty Word

While each day can be different, the fundamental elements of any business are the same—sales, marketing, operations, finance, people, etc. Establishing processes to deal with the common issues of business seems like a waste of time for most entrepreneurs.

Process is the fuel that energizes progress. Yet many entrepreneurs view process as a dirty word reserved for General Electric and Six Sigma classes. When a fledgling business has no structure in place to manage common business issues and conflicts, the entrepreneur is left to plug the holes with whatever is on hand.

Your “go to” strategy is to plug your fingers and toes into as many holes as you can, as fast as you can. If the day’s crises are particularly bad, you might need your tongue or an elbow. After all, we entrepreneurs are pretty resourceful. You may slow the tide for a day, but it’s very likely that more holes will show up tomorrow—more than you can manage with your extremities.

Appreciate The Importance of Process

First and foremost, you must recognize and understand that process is an enabler that accelerates not decelerates your activity and is not a dirty word.

You are going slow—but you are going slow so you can go fast. Think about it. What if you had a sales presentation that could be used in a variety of customer meetings by changing just one slide? Or a clear structure for determining pricing that all your managers share? Or even if you’re running a solo business, having a process set up for shipping— labeling software, postage meter, scale, FedEx materials and scheduled pickups—is much more efficient than digging for supplies and running to the post office every time you need to ship your product. Process also allows you to be productive, efficient and to focus on the substance of your business.

It’s not a dirty word—it’s a secret password that gets you into the club of successful businesses.