Some Secrets to Success
The Big Moo, a book by The Group of 33 and edited by Seth Godin, is one of these books. The Group of 33 includes many interesting and successful people writing short stories about their ideas, philosophies and success; among these authors are Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Cuban, Tom Peters and Kevin Carroll. The subtitle of the book says it all: Stop trying to be perfect and start being remarkable.
The best story in the book is titled Tuesdays with Shecky: A Play in Three Jokes. Basically, uncle Shecky is sick and teaches his nephew Ben some lessons of wisdom. The wisdom Uncle Shecky shares is insightful, simple and pertinent to all:
“Stop doing things that hurt; do what you love. Ignore what authority figures tell you. And most of allâÂ?¦Practice, Practice, Practice.”
Simple stuff. Yet, it’s amazing how many people go through life ignoring this advice. People fee trapped in their jobs, unable to break free and pursue their interests. When I first graduated from college, my first job was, in some ways, a dream. I went to work for Special Olympics as a Sports Manager. I had near complete autonomy, worked out of my apartment, lived in a great area and worked with good people. I very easily could have stayed for ten years and been very content with time to pursue hobbies and other interests while working for an organization I loved while in college.
However, I quickly discovered a middle management job is basically the same whether you work for a giant corporation or an adored non-profit. And, I knew middle management was not what I wanted. So, I did what few would do; I quit a $40,000 a year job to move to Los Angeles, rent a room in a two-bedroom apartment in a condemned building and coached an u-9 basketball team and did some personal training. I spent hours laying on a mattress in an apartment that id not have water during the day reading books and then leaving in the afternoon to go to practice. It was great and the decision led to bigger and better things, even if I have yet to find another $40,000 a year job.
Coaching nine year olds is a let down for a former college basketball coach (I coached at a DIII while working for Special Olympics). However, it’s still coaching and the best way to become a better coach is to coach. I know many coaches who view summer camps as beneath them; a local women’s college coach this year said the last thing she would want to do is to coach during the summer. Not surprisingly, she is not a very good coach. The more you practice, the better you get. If you want to run a business, there are two routes: 1) Go to work for a business and work your way up the ladder until you run the business; 2) Start a business or go to work for a small business that needs some help running the business. Sure, the first way is more secure and traditional, but you learn by doing, not by watching. Practice. My best college experience was directing a campus non-profit organization and student program; in comparison, my first job with Special Olympics was easy, as I had already done everything with an almost non-existent budget. Doing it the hard way as an undergraduate made my first job easy.
Another brilliant book is Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. Again, the subtitle explains everything: A corporate fool’s guide to surviving with grace. In it, MacKenzie describes his ability to simultaneously say within the corporate system and utilize its benefits, while also maintaining his sanity and creative juices.
MacKenzie writes: “It is a common history of enterprises to begin in a state of naÃ?¯ve groping, stumble onto success, milk the success with a vengeance and, in the process, generate systems that arrogantly turn away from the source of their original success: groping.”
After returning from a year coaching in Europe, I fumbled into a new burgeoning industry, that of individual basketball trainer. As an undergraduate, I had worked with a couple girls I coached, but I never thought of an individual trainer as a career. But, as I waited for another chance to coach somewhere, I started training players to pay the rent. And, now it appears to be a career.
However, as my training becomes a career, the fear is what I call the Black Eyed Peas Effect. BEP was a great hip-hop group when it started; then, it decided to add Fergie and make some pop hits and now they sell more and more, but the music, to a hip hop fan, sucks. The difference between will.i.am singing with the Pussycat Dolls and actual BEP music is slim.
The BEP Effect basically describes what MacKenzie writes. A band struggles while making great, original music. Then, the band finds a legion of supporters and tastes a small amount of fame and fortune. Then, with its fans firmly behind it, it makes a record that goes further towards the middle, trying to draw more and more fans outside its true base; BEP fans bought its third album because of its first two, but it went more towards pop, drawing a much greater audience; every album is more and more hop, alienating its small, original core audience, while drawing a great amount of new fans. Unfortunately, moving towards the middle, that is less creative and less original, typically means an inferior product, though one that appeals to a much wider audience.
In my business world, I’m not a mass market product. I conduct individual workouts and do not have a set program; most who make money in the business train dozens of players, use assistants and basically create a system their associates can follow. And, as with the BEP Effect, as trainers move to attract more and more players, the product’s effectiveness decreases.
Staying original and maintaining ingenuity is difficult, especially when moving towards the center and becoming more systematic creates a more efficient model which becomes more profitable. However, the product is a representation of yourself; if you truly care about your work and your craft, you find a way to sustain the business and the creative energy that comes with the groping and the struggling. If you always maintain the desperation of a young business/businessperson, ingenuity blossoms and the product remains special and distinct, appealing to its core customers and creating a more devote customer base.
If you follow these lessons throughout your career, success is assured. Success, of course, is more than just a paycheck; it’s passion towards one’s work, a positive outlook towards each and every day and an opportunity to make a difference.
