Grandma Moses began painting in earnest at age 78. We have a big head start on her!
Believe in yourself. Steven King had published nothing substantial by age twenty-six when he asked a middle school custodian about privacy in the girls locker room. He had an idea about bullying and came up with the novel Carrie. A few months later, he got a check for $200,000. He knew, "I'm going to make it in this business."
You have an idea. What if? What if we tried this? Give it a go.
How can we "be so good?" Begin with a few core values.
Control what you can control.
Grow meaningful relationships.
Make others feel valued.
Radiate positive energy.
Teach the game from both the big picture and the fine details.
The first informs our attitude. Take care of business. The others test how we serve others.
What's this? Name five traits on the front. What's different about Lincoln than images of Jefferson, Roosevelt, Washington, and Kennedy? That's attention to precision and detail...the qualities that create and deny separation, see the wide focus and the narrow 'target'.
Model excellence. What works? What fails?
Be different. Be better than we were yesterday.
Be a Learning Machine.
Write. Take a picture. Refine our method. Make it indelibly ours.
Sell it. Chuck Daly reminds us, "I'm a salesman." We're performers as we sell our brand.
Find questions. What goes in our Jar of Awesome today?
Persist. James Patterson had his first novel rejected by thirty-one publishers. The rest is history. Define your legacy.
Lagniappe:
Beat the zone with overload. (From John Kresse)