My son, Connor, just turned 16. Among his other sophomoric activities, he plays baseball and basketball. This summer he played in a national baseball tournament in Florida. Around here, Connor is used to getting respect on the playing field. But in Florida he was just about as average as a six-and-a-half-inch trout caught on opening day from a stocked pond. And his team wasn’t any better. So on the fourth day Connor’s coach had a little talk with the team. Brad Wolgamott is a very successful businessman and youth coach, having taken teams to the little league world series and other national tournaments.
Before I recount coach Wolgamott’s speech, I need to tell you that I was especially struck by the applicability of the principles therein to any business. Brad was addressing a bunch of deflated 16U boys but could have just as easily been talking to a group of dinged up businessmen emerging from the recession. Here is what he said, as nearly as I can recollect.
“Boys, now that we’ve got a few games under our belts you can see that baseball here in Florida is a lot different than in Washington. In Washington, you guys are all studs. You’re used to winning, playing well, dominating. Here, you’re just average, if that.
“There’s not much we can do to change things this year – not enough time. But most of you will be back next year. So you’ve got a choice. Will you be mediocre again? Or will you come back to win? The choice is yours. If you choose to win, you need to do two things.
“First, you need to get a whole lot smarter about the game of baseball. Do you realize that we’re averaging nine errors per game? I’m not talking about dropped balls or wild throws or physical errors, I’m talking mental errors. Dumb base running, missing signs, poor throwing decisions, bad pitch selection – things like that. Most of those errors costs us an extra base here or an out there. No big deal, right? Wrong. Add them all up and we’re giving away a couple or few runs per game. We’ve only lost by two or three runs in three of our four losses. You do the math.
“Baseball is an incredibly complex game. People think you take a ball, bat, and mitt and start playing. It ain’t that way, fellas. Listen to professional ballplayers and every one of them will tell you they’re learning new things nearly every day. Guys who’ve been playing for twenty, thirty years. Complex? Unimaginably so.
“So how do you get smarter? Simple – you study. Bring a notepad to games and write down every error made. When you watch other games, take notes. When you listen to professional announcers, pay attention to the details. Ask questions. Write down answers. Read books and magazine articles. Make yourself not just a student of the game but a master of the game. Look here at my notebook. How many of you have taken even one note? I’ve got six pages. I’m just an assistant coach on this thrown-together team and I’ve already taken six pages of notes. I can tell you every error we’ve made, both physically and mentally. Can you? You want to get better? Learn from yours and other people’s mistakes. If you don’t write them down you will repeat them, I guarantee it.
“The second thing you need to do is keep the following thought in your mind constantly over the next year: ‘If I want to advance to the highest level, I’ve got to stand out.’
“So simple, so elegant, yet so powerful. How many of you feel like you’ve stood out here in Florida? Like you were something really special? None? I agree, none of you. But you saw some players who did stand out, didn’t you? Do you think it’s an accident for them? That they’re just so naturally gifted they can show up here with the best in the nation and be the best of the best? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Actually, it’s fortunate that it doesn’t because that means regular guys like you, if you work hard, have a shot at being a top dog.
“If you want to stand out next year, will you do the same workouts as everyone else? When everyone else is pushing weights for 45 minutes will you do 45 too? Or will you do 75? When everyone else shows up to practice at exactly the appointed time will you scuttle in on the minute? Or will you be 45 minutes early; get in some extra conditioning? During drills, will you go through the motions like a sheep in the herd or will you bust your butt on every rep? Will you stand out even at practice? Will you leave at straight up 5:00 or will you stay late, taking more grounders and cuts? Will you learn things and not write them down – like everyone else? Or will you become a master of this incredibly complex game?
“There are a couple professional athletes that stand out in my mind: Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. I’ve studied them both and can tell you that, yes, they’re gifted. But more important, they work harder than everyone else. No one matches their work ethic, no one. And, no one is smarter about their game. They reached the pinnacle of their sport because they mastered even the smallest nuances and they worked the hardest.
“So, fellas, you have a choice. Will you come back here next year and be another face in the crowd; or will you be one of the few who stands out?”
Isn’t it amazing the similarities that baseball has when compared to every day life. There is so much failure in both, and just like life they both are a matter of endurance where we can get back up and try again.
Tell Connor to keep his chin up and eye on the ball.
‘Standing out’ in a crowd is a quality not everyone possesses. Why else would it be called to ‘stand out’. One of my personal observations has been during my many years in the corporate industry about standing out and boy o boy it was so important!
Either you had to be the one with the best PR skills to get on the top or you let your work speak for yourself. I preferred the latter simply because it was honest and gave me and my people more satisfaction. Now just letting your work speak for you is NOT good enough to stand out! You have to be exceptional! However personally it wasn’t about doing anything extraordinary but just what was supposed to be done was carried out with sincerity and focus! The results inevitably were there to see for everyone!
A simple and easy trick is being no. 1 at what you do. It always makes you stand out. If you are no. 2 or 3. try harder next time is all I can say cos nothing beats being no. 1!
However knowingly or unknowingly too much pressure is sometimes put on kids from home, school or the play field or they themselves expect a lot more from their own self too at time. I believe when you play a sport, play healthy, play fair, play for the spirit of the game, of course play to win, but don’t become a victim, be the player!!