I am reading Seth Godin’s new book Linchpin (Really thought provoking so far), he got me thinking of how hard people work at being average. It caused me to reflect on people and situations I have seen throughout my career. He is absolutely correct; people that are average, into job preservation really do work at it. They avoid risk and conflict for fear that someone will notice them. They talk more about being excellent than any of the champions I have been around and do more to avoid being the best. People told me you could not win at Cal and we did, we set out with a plan and executed it. Meanwhile the other coaches were sitting around talking about how hard it was going to be to win and we were doing it. It was not easy and it made a lot of people uncomfortable. The same with baseball, I was told in 1987 that I could not do the things that I was proposing to do. We did it and got the players healthy and better. There are still people in baseball trying to figure it out, spending countless hours and millions of dollars to no avail. They accept the status and work hard to maintain it. I am not interested in being average and I assume you are not or you probably would not be reading this blog. Avoid trying to fit in and be a cog in the wheel, be exceptional, outspoken if necessary. Take some risks and try new things. It is much easier, more fun and challenging. Lead don’t follow. Above all you will be true to yourself.
