What If You're Not The Best?

Here's another guest entry from my good friend and fraternity brother David Spiegel. He's knows I'm a big Bruce Springsteen fan, so it won't surprise him that his fine email today caught my attention.

Oh yeah, and the message is a winner, too!

" A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be"

- Bruce Springsteen

I was asked "do you regret giving up on music?" The question momentarily caught me off guard. Regrets? Unlike in the song, I really don't know that I have any. I try to never live in the woulda coulda shoulda world that comes when I buy into regrets. When I snapped back to the question my answer was a resounding no, not at all. I shared with my friend my thoughts and feelings and then we moved on.

Since then I have revisited the question. Why didn't I regret it? I was a good musician. No I was a very good musician. I was accomplished,dynamic and one might even say passionate about it. What I wasn't was great.And no matter how much I practiced and how much I wanted it , I knew I had reached the limits of my talent level. Yes with effort I could have become better. How much better? I am not sure. I just knew that no matter how much work I would put in,"great" was not in me. I have been around great musicians. They all had that something that makes them special. I no longer felt that burning inside of me.

The same can be said about athletes. Great High School ball players who just never get past their Glory Days. You find them, the really good ones, kicking around minor league or semi- pro ball fields for years, hoping for a shot. At some point they too realize it's time to move on.

There was no disappointment in it for me. I knew I had done unbelievable things in my musical career. I also knew it was time for me to seek out great. Remaining a good, even a very good musician would have been settling for less. Excellence is what I craved. Phenomenal. Unbelievable. Untouchable. For me it was about the wow factor.It's the difference between oooh and aaahhh!

I know what good is. I feel what great is.

As I write this I must point out that there were times during my "glory days" that there was greatness in my music. There was greatness in my performance. That was in my fish pond. In the big blue sea, it would not be the same. And I just was not willing to settle for being good.

I've felt that way about everything I entertain in my life. The passion is rooted in great, not in good. When the best I can muster is good, and when good is good enough, it's time to move on.

I suppose that is why I am enjoying life so much lately. I have found that fire once again.The challenge to be great is growing inside of me daily. The desire to be great, to be the best, to be outstanding, to be unbelievable, untouchable, unparalleled, phenomenal.

I get giddy just thinking about being the best David I can be.! And all without any regrets.

Off to another awesome start of the day!

David Spiegel

PS from Doug -- While I greatly enjoyed this piece from Dave, I would like to point out that we can still enjoy being musicians without being the best at it. I've been playing music for my whole life and couldn't ever imagine stopping -- even though I'll never be the Boss, I can still play some of his songs and write some pretty good ones myself. There's joy in music unmatched anywhere else. And the joy in doing anything is in the doing and growing -- whether or not I'm the best at it.

Thanks, Dave!

Comments

Get Going!

What goal are you working on? Maybe you don't spend every minute of every day working on your goals. I certainly don't. But when I do work on my goals they propel me forward. They get me going. Find your favorite goal. Work on it. Even if you start with the smallest task. Put one task after the other like little steps leading to a lofty elevation. Goals get us going. Because standing still goes nowhere. -- Doug Smith

Start With Decisions

Do you share leadership? The most powerful teams share leadership responsibilities AND attitude. When you develop a team where people feel empowered to take charge, take responsibility, and take ownership you then no longer need to do all the difficult work. Delegation becomes easier. Collaboration feels more natural. Start with decisions. It's fast and easy as a leader to make all of the big decisions, but when you include your team in the conversations it takes to gain mutually shared understandings and collaborative decisions, you no longer have to "sell" your decisions --- people simply know what you as a team have decided and act accordingly. No passive aggressive resistance, no passengers on your team "bus" -- just fully engaged team members. Start with collaborative decisions. The rest will be much easier. -- Doug Smith

Focused Truth

Focused leaders have zero time for inauthentic messages. They tell the truth unconditionally and insist on the truth consistently. Be a leader who can handle the truth. Be a leader who tells the truth. -- doug smith

Personally

Improving performance does require us to take our work seriously. But it does not require us to take ourselves too seriously. Taking things personally is a waste of self-esteem. -- doug smith

Life Never Stops Teaching

Which learning curve are you climbing? The lessons keep coming. When we keep growing, our energy sparks with new creativity, new courage, new compassion, and new clarity. When we keep growing, life's adventure brings more smiles than troubles. High performance leaders make it a point to keep learning. That means taking on the tough assignments. That means listening to the needs of your team and building on their ideas. That means constantly debriefing, decoding, and deciding. There's a lesson in all of this somewhere. Centered leaders find the lesson and grow. Life never stops teaching. What have you learned today? -- Doug Smith

Expanding Capacity

High performance leaders expand capacity by constantly developing their people. How does your team grow? How can you get more done with less? There are many answers to the question of increasing capacity and responsible leaders explore them all, including improving processes and design. It's also important to constantly develop your people People who feel valued and who are constantly growing develop new ideas. They fix problems. They engage in processes and structures and find better ways to get things done. People who are developing stop tolerating defects and instead work toward optimizing their environment. They raise their capacity and increase the value of the team. What are you doing to develop your people? How much more capacity could your team have with people who were fully engaged, truly energized, and growing? -- Douglas Brent Smith Learn more in the workshop: Building Your Team

Promise and then Deliver

Be careful what you promise to gain a new customer. They are only new for a day. After that, expectations continue even if you forget your promise. Be careful what you promise. Do you have what you need to give your customers what they want? Because probably, what they want, is what you've promised. -- doug smith

Strong Goals

It might seem obvious, but it's worth remembering: strong goals provide you with strength. They provide you with strength of purpose, strength of direction, and strength of endurance. A goal that you truly care about, that's written with clarity provides help when others try to hinder. Lots will try to get in the way. The best goals resist this resistance and persist to achievement. A solid, clear goal can withstand any judging. -- doug smith Leadership Call to Action Check in on your top three goals today. Are they providing you with strength of direction? How could you make them even stronger? What will you do today toward achieving them?

High Performance Leaders Use End-Runs Very Carefully

Have you ever gone over your boss's head? Have you ever by-passed a team member who could have helped you solve a problem and instead gone to her boss? It can feel fast. It can feel satisfying. It can ruin your team. Yes, there ARE times to use an end-run and get to the part of the chain of command that will act fast and solve a pressing problem. But those times are few and tend to look very much like emergencies, or matters of personal privacy. If a team member is breaking the law, you have no viable choice other than to go over their head to authority. To avoid doing so is irresponsible, and in some cases even criminal. But hopefully in your organization, those instances are rare. Much more common are those times when it simply feels more convenient to skip over someone who seems to be obstructing us and talking to a more powerful, more friendly decision maker. What does that do to your relationships, though? Does it build, or damage trust? Does it help ...

More Than Convenience

This is probably get some disagreement. We've come to rely so much on one particular trait of business, probably even more than price. Convenience. We make so many decisions based on how EASY a transaction is. It's so much EASIER than ever before and we've all been spoiled by click-and-ship that anything with any friction whatsoever gets passed over. That's an understandable decision, but not always the best one. Convenience is great, but no substitute for quality. Hamburgers are convenient but wouldn't you rather eat a steak? (please excuse me my vegetarian and vegan friends.) Social media is convenient but how about the depth and richness of a long face to face conversation with a dear friend? I advocate that we consider other measures in our important decisions. Measures other than convenience: Quality Durability Care Beauty Drama What would you add to the list? Convenience is a poor measure of quality. Let's consider everything else that makes business -- a...

High Performance Leadership

Search This Blog