My Professional Blog

I was amused recently when I read two of Guy Kawasaki’s recent book reviews.  The two books reviewed are The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t and Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win.

What amused me was that I recognized myself as being an asshole (not a flattering quality).  But then I also recognized myself as being a maverick (much more admirable).  So I’m justifying the former with the theory that to be a maverick, you must also be an asshole.

The trouble with my theory is that if you are going to claim to be a maverick, you need to have the occasional win on your scorecard; mine resembles a golf scorecard (this is to say that low scores don’t win in this case).  Unfortunately, my asshole qualities to some might be considered undebatable.

And so now I subscribe to still another theory: people are a product of their environment.  So see, its not my fault after all…

No, this isn’t a sports-related post on my professional blog.  Well, okay, maybe it is sort of.  Its just that sports analogies come easy to me since sports is one of my passions.

While the above post title refers to the long-languishing baseball team from my neck of the woods, this post is actually inspired by a retirement in the hockey world.  Joe Nieuwendyk retired today.  He’s one of my heroes from the 1999 Stanley Cup Championship run and beyond that an all-around great guy.

Besides being a part of a championship team, he always seemed to be the guy who scored the great goal…or the memorable goal.  I’ll never forget his game-winning goal in triple overtime in the first round in the 1999 series against a physical Edmonton team.  He had a joyous celebration jump afterwards which I can still conjure up almost exactly in mind.

But to the point.  Joe is a guy who can look back on his career and savor the memories.  He has played for winning teams and has won a championship.  Any of the Texas Rangers?  Not so much.  When you hang ‘em up, you want to be able to look back and have felt like you achieved or made a difference.

So as I heard of this retirement today, my thoughts soon focused on my own career.  Right now, I feel like I’m playing for the Rangers.  Underachieving.  Losing.  Not growing.  Retirement is still 20+ years away (if I’m lucky).  Given that, I still have time to play for a winning team and to stand out enough to maybe be remembered.  But that won’t happen defending the status quo.  I need to make something happen.

Maybe you feel the same way.  Here’s hoping we find a way to knock one (or more) outta the park…