Study sport and the world to choose among possible futures.
"Leaders are readers." The Boys in the Boat weaves a tapestry of sport, society, and politics blending rowing, the Depression, and the rise of fascism in the early 1930s.
Today, the basketball community feels uncertainty amidst a banking crisis and political polarization. It's not just partisan in Washington, but basketball recycles coaches of questionable character while denying deserving candidates who toil in the shadows.
Dan Brown shares history amidst lyrical prose:
“It’s not a question of whether you will hurt, or of how much you will hurt; it’s a question of what you will do, and how well you will do it, while pain has her wanton way with you.”
(Comment: How much pain and effort can we take?)
“You had to give yourself up to it spiritually; you had to surrender yourself absolutely to it. When you were done and walked away from the boat, you had to feel that you had left a piece of yourself behind in it forever, a bit of your heart... And a lot of life is like that too, the parts that really matter anyway.”
(Comment: Great teams have shared vision, shared sacrifice, and shared success.)
“Every man in the boat had absolute confidence in every one of his mates... Why they won cannot be attributed to individuals, not even to stroke Dun Hume. Heartfelt cooperation all spring was responsible for the victory.”
(Comment: Basketball teaches indelible lessons about teamwork for those willing to learn.)
Keep our eyes open to world events. Remember the saying, "history doesn't repeat but it rhymes." That matters with both economics and politics.
(Comment: ignoring injustice doesn't stop it.)
“It takes energy to get angry. It eats you up inside. I can’t waste my energy like that and expect to get ahead.”
(Comment: Choose full engagement not distraction. Be all in on the signal and ignore the noise.")
“The ability to yield, to bend, to give way, to accommodate, he said, was sometimes a source of strength in men as well as in wood, so long as it was helmed by inner resolve and by principle.”
(Comment: This reminds us of Bruce Lee's admonition to "be like water." Be adaptable to circumstances.)
“But there was a Germany the boys could not see, a Germany that was hidden from them, either by design or by time. It wasn’t just that the signs - ‘Für Juden verboten,’ ‘Juden sind hier unerwünscht’ - had been removed, or that the Gypsies had been rounded up and taken away, or that the vicious Stürmer newspaper had been withdrawn from the racks in the tobacco shops in Kopenick. There were larger, darker, more enveloping secrets all around them.”
(Comment: Literature echoes history. See not only what's in the light but what lurks in the shadows. Averting our eyes allows others to be blinded.)
I believe "Boys in the Boat" is one of the important books of our time and one worth reading and study as a team.
Lagniappe. Take better notes. Players win on the court and in the classroom. Coaches win when we help build great students, great leaders, and great people. Excellence is a full-time business.
- Handwritten notes are better.
- Revise notes
- Attend to details
- Decipher what's important (the speaker will share)
- Stay focused until the end
- Replay the lecture if you have a choice