Quote of the Day:

"Sometimes the biggest gain in productive energy will come from cleaning the cobwebs, dealing with old business, and clearing the desks - cutting loose debris that's impeding forward motion."

— David Allen

Picking Your Team: You Don't Need the Best

Confession: I love candy. Who doesn't, right? My wife and I received a $20 gift certificate to a local candy shop and we finally cashed it in. You know the expression "like a kid in a candy store"? Yeah, that was me- the poster child. I went crazy. There were so many options- new candy, vintage candy, home made chocolates, on and on and on..

So what did I do? I grabbed my favorites- Runts, Sour Patch Kids, Smarty's, Reese's and a few others.

After dinner on Saturday I ripped through my bag of candy and started with the Runts. (for those that don't know, they are basically pure sugar in a hard candy coating). Then, in deciding where to go next, I was thoroughly disappointed. I had picked mostly hard-shell, sweet candy.

What's the point? How does this relate to picking a team?

My wife Christine thought I was crazy when I made this connection...but she was kind and patient enough to listen to me rant for a few minutes:

Picking your team is like picking candy.

I made the mistake of picking all of my FAVORITE candy, without considering how the candy "fit" together. Christine, on the other hand, had all sorts of different textures and levels of sweet/sour/salty. She gladly moved from tasting one thing to the next. I sat there, disappointed in my choices.

But I had my favorites! Why was I so unhappy?

Why do coaches evaluate talent and sometimes think "I CAN'T believe THAT kid is going to THAT school...what do they see in her? She's not that good?!".

It's all a matter of making the right pieces come together in a complimentary way. You don't need to have 15 superstar athletes on your team to be a good team. What you need is a few solid pieces (Runts) to build around and to make sure your support structure (other candy) compliments your base.

A silly connection but an important lesson.

Quote of the Day:

"Great minds discuss ideas;
average minds discuss events;
small minds discuss people."

— Eleanor Roosevelt:

12 Things Successful People Do Differently