Regular readers know that I am doing 50 healthy things this year in honor of my 50th birthday. Here’s number 21 – play a team sport.
As mentioned in previous posts, I recently returned from a two-week road trip. This post is the sixth and final in a series about lessons learned from the road.
The final destination and main event on our road trip was a weeklong baseball tournament – the Perfect Game 17 and Under World Wood Bat Association (WWBA) Championship. Perfect Game is one of the largest scouting organizations in amateur baseball and the host of events throughout the country. This particular tournament was huge, with about 300 teams competing.
The KCBarnstormers. All photos by Christi Patterson.
My son, Griffin, and his teammates will be seniors in high school this fall. They all love baseball, and they all hope to play in college. This summer has been filled with a number of showcase tournaments that were well attended by college coaches looking for talent. The WWBA Championship was a great opportunity for the boys to strut their stuff. They played their hearts out – going 5-2 against some of the stiffest competition in the U.S. All of their parents and coaches were extremely proud of their efforts.
Even more than the wins, though, I am proud of the young men they are becoming and the life lessons they are learning. Baseball is the ultimate metaphor for life. As the lyrics to an old Dire Straits song say, “some days you’re the bat; some days you’re the ball.”
Griffin’s coach, Karl Carswell, founder of the KCBarnstomers organization often tells the players that the “game will never love you back.”
However, he encourages them to give it their all anyway. In his words, Karl and his team have “formed a baseball environment where players, parents, and coaches have found common ground. We are all interested in the development and training of our players and coaches individually and collectively. When done properly, teams are built around players and coaches who push each other to be better everyday.”
This philosophy certainly benefits a baseball team, but I think it benefits brand teams as well. The best brands are built in an environment that stresses both individual and group achievement as well as continuous improvement. They’re also built by encouraging respectful debate on the way to finding common ground.
Karl also stresses the concept of being “a finisher” – the player who runs hard down the baseline every time, the player who makes the opposing pitcher uncomfortable by taking a good swing at every hittable pitch, the player who slides hard into every base every time, and the player who backs up the same base with maximum intensity every time for just one opportunity to make a great play.
“No one knew they were making a great play before it was made and when you decide not to try, you are deciding not to make a great play,” Karl says.
Indeed. Are you the person on your team who is performing like a finisher? Or are you the person who is stuck in your comfort zone, afraid to try a new idea because someone on your management team might think it’s too risky?
Like baseball players, many of the most successful brands didn’t know they were “making the great play” before it happened. They were just working with intensity at every viable opportunity.
It’s harder than ever for brands to stand out from their competition. But it’s certainly achievable if, as Karl says, you “flipping play your heart out, and separate yourself from the guys who won’t understand. ”
