2. Work so hard you make an impression, but don’t try to impress.
There is a big difference in making an impression and trying to impress others. People will take notice of how hard you work and how efficient you are without you telling them. As you get older you will understand that people spot a phony a mile a way. It may take time, but the person that is not doing the work usually is exposed. You make an impression on your teachers, parent, coaches and bosses by your effort and production, not by sucking up.
If you try to impress people in your career you will find yourself constantly dissatisfied because you will be climbing the up the wrong ladder. As someone that is a both a boss and employee, I realize that it is a waste of time to try to fool people. You make an impression by the work you produce and nothing more. If you do your job and do what you are told on time you will make the impression you want to make. Talking about the job I am going to do is not the answer. Employers want to see results not just talking about what you are going to get done.
I do not need someone to tell me how hard they work or how hard they are going to work. It will show up in their production. In the summer most of our players have some freedom and they do not have strict workout plan. They can go back home or stay around our campus in order to work. They also can work out daily with our strength and conditioning coach. Each player that does not stay in town is sent home with a workout book. Whether they the workout or not every day I do not really have an accurate way to know. What I do know is that once we start conditioning at the beginning of school the ones that worked will beat the other players out for playing time.
Basketball is a skill sport and it takes time to work on your skill if you want to improve. You have to also hone your skills if you want to get better than your opponent. Most basketball players love to work on shooting. They enjoy getting into the gym and working out if it involves shooting the basketball.
Some of our players come from different economic backgrounds. Each guy does not have the same access to a gym as other guys may have. I have learned over time that it is hard to have a strict rule and expect guys to carry out a specific shooting routine in the summer time. As far as giving our guys a shooting program or shooting routine I know that each guy has a completely different set of circumstances. Some of them have easy access to a gym where they can get in there and have the space to work on their shooting on their own. Some are fortunate just to be able to find an open gym to find a place for a couple of hours. Each guy has a different set of circumstances. I decided long ago that I wasn’t going to enforce something that would then force guys to be dishonest. I had to trust we recruited the right kind of players and they were hungry enough and they would be working on their game throughout the summer. It may be in a gym individually going through a specific shooting routine or it may be in competition against some of the local players. If I have to worry about whether or not they are working on their game in the summer then I have recruited the wrong players.
I have kids tell me all the time how much time they have put in or what they have done to get better. What they tell me makes no difference. When we begin practice and conditioning at the beginning of school we will see who is in shape and who improved over the summer.
Bosses are not interested in showing someone else up on the job or gossiping about employees that are not doing their job so well. When you run the company, you can have the kind of people working for you that can fix problems. Usually you start out with a job at the bottom of the totem pole job. You move up by doing your work as well as you possibly can, not by showing up other people or pulling people down the totem pole.
There will always be people trying to impress the person in charge. You can not worry about those people. The ones that you know are phony eventually everyone else will know the same thing you know. If all they are doing is trying to make an impression they will fall down ultimately. Work hard, be on time, be responsible and do not complain then you will make a great impression.
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In the coaching profession, there are many young coaches trying to move up the food chain. Each time a young coach asks for advice I tell them the same thing, “Prepare yourself and do not try to position yourself.” Too many young coaches think they can position themselves for the next big job and then once they get there they realize that they are not ready. It may be that way in a lot of professions, but you need to spend the time getting ready for your next job or next promotion by working as hard as you can at the job you have. Do not be the type of person that is always trying to maneuver to the top without paying your dues at the bottom. By going about your career path that way will leave you unprepared when your chance does present itself.
While I was an NCAA Division I assistant coach each July we had a recruiting period that coaches were on the road for over three and half weeks. For most of us, it was a fun time. You traveled all over the country in a t-shirt and shorts and watched kids play basketball all day long.
For colleges and universities that are recruiting at a high level they already know their recruits and the kids they want to sign. It turned out that July was not really recruiting, but we would call it “babysitting.” Coaches want to make you sure they kept in close proximity with their prized recruits.
It is an opportunity for the recruiters to be seen by the recruits at each game. Coaches position themselves so the young men you are recruiting know that you are at their game to watch them play. All the coaches wear t-shirts that have big school logos on the front. You try to position so that you were near the floor or least close enough to be seen by those who mattered in the recruiting battle. You make sure to visit with the player’s coach following the game so he would also know we were in attendance. With today’s rules you are not longer allowed to talk with the coaches at the games.
It was a game within the game to see as many kids as you could, but also to be seen by as many kids as you could. There were a couple of events every summer held in Memphis simultaneously. One coach in particular from a major program used to give some of us a good laugh. He was smaller guy, but he made sure to get a large car from the rental car company, usually a Cadillac. He would go from gym to gym and made sure to time it just right in order that he could see as many players as possible. He would show up after the game was over, but he would pretend that he was at the game the entire time. He would come up after the game shake the coach’s hand and make sure the recruit was close by. “I wouldn’t miss you guys play for anything,” he would say. ”Michael sure looked good out there today. I am going to be at every game you guys play,” he might add. Other coaches knew what a phony the coach was and it was a shame because he was a hard worker. He didn’t have to try to make himself out to look good. Even when I see or hear of the coach today I can’t get the image out of my mind. The funny thing is he has had some success in coaching. Deep down I wonder what he thinks about himself.
Instead of doing his job and doing the best he could, he had to try and make himself look good even to the point of being dishonest. He may have fooled the kid and the coach, but he did not fool himself. He was too busy trying to make a name for himself that in the process he developed a reputation. Instead of just being himself he tried to put on a persona that taught me a valuable lesson. It is important that you be true to yourself and work hard. That makes enough of an impression that others will definitely see in you.
Remember what Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”
Each day think of the impression you are leaving not who you need to impress. If you are good at what you do and you are valuable the people around you will definitely notice. You can let your work and your actions do all the talking. They will speak loud and clear.
“My dad told me when I went into high school, 'It's not what you do when you walk in the door that matters. It's what you do when you walk out.' That's when you've made a lasting impression.”
Jim Thome
