Steve Mescanti

[MLIH @myloveishoney]

I can’t get enough of this song💪🇺🇸💪🇺🇸

[Love Music @khnh80044]

Freddie is looking down and giving y'all a standing ovation. That's spectacular!😍💗
The most INSANE Bohemian Rhapsody Flashmob you will ever see!!
With 30 musicians and singers in the STREET of Paris 😍
Cre : Julien Cohen Pianist

[Based Bandita @BasedBandita]

I wasn’t even alive in 1985 and this video made me cry 😭

Was it really this great?

[Ball is Psych @BallisPsych]

Be the kind of teammate who adds energy. #DailyWisdom

[The Winning Difference @thewinningdiff1]

"At the end of the day, one of the most powerful choices that you have is the choice of attitude.
A good attitude leads to positive thinking.
And positive thinking leads to positive results."
Attitude sets the tone.
Effort brings the results.

[Austin Hough @AustinRHough]

MUST WATCH: Brandywine coach Josh Hood gets animated talking about the private vs. public school debate, specifically in @MHSAA

[The Winning Difference @thewinningdiff1]

Excuses are the enemy of excellence.
Success belongs to those who push past limits, not to those who hide behind them.
Don't tell me why you can't.
Show me how you will.

[🇺🇸 Pismo 🇺🇸 @Pismo_B]

Good Morning America 🇺🇸

[Coach Johnny Croyle @CoachCroyle]

…🤔…

[Billy Oppenheimer @bpoppenheimer]

After his second year at Michigan, Tom Brady wanted to transfer.

He wasn’t playing in games, and he was so low on the depth chart that he only got 2 reps in practice.

Brady met with his coach to express his frustration, “The other quarterbacks get all the reps.”

Coach replied,

“Brady, I want you to stop worrying about what all the other players on our team are doing. All you do is worry about what the starter is doing, what the second guy is doing, what everyone else is doing. You don’t worry about what you’re doing.”

Coach reminded him, “You came here to be the best. If you’re going to be the best, you have to beat out the best.”

And then he recommended that Brady meet Greg Harden, a counselor who worked in the athletic department.

Brady went to Harden’s office and whined, “I’m never going to get my chance. They’re only giving me 2 reps.”

Harden replied, “Just go out there and focus on doing the best you can with those 2 reps. Make them as perfect as you possibly can.”

“So that’s what I did,” Brady said. “They’d put me in for those 2 reps, man, I’d sprint out there like it was Super Bowl 39. ‘Let’s go boys! Here we go! What play we got?’”

“And I started to do really well with those 2 reps. Because I brought enthusiasm, I brought energy.”

Soon, he was getting 4 reps. Then 10, “and before you knew it,” Brady said, “with this new mindset that Greg had instilled in me—to focus on what you can control, to focus on what you’re getting, not what anyone else is getting, to treat every rep like it’s the Super Bowl—eventually, I became the starter.”

Takeaway 1:

Greg Harden telling Brady to focus on being great during his 2 reps reminded me of a piece of advice from the entrepreneur Mark Cuban.

“People come to me all the time and tell me they’re stuck,” Cuban explained. “They’re stuck in a job they don't like. They’re stuck working for a boss they don’t like. They're stuck on a team they don't like.”

“I just tell them, ‘Be great.’”

“The reality of life is that you can’t just always quit your job. You can’t just always go to your boss and say, ‘Give me the promotion, or I’m out of here.’” You can’t just always go to your coach and say, ‘Give me more reps, or I'm transferring.’

“So when you’re stuck, you’ve gotta find it within yourself to say, ‘Ok, this is where I am. And if I’m going to be here, I’m going to be great.’

Because if you’re great at your job, typically other people and companies find out, so it creates opportunities.”

Takeaway 2:

In the field of strategic management, there is a distinction made between “lead measures” and “lag measures.”

Lag measures are the results you’re trying to achieve: getting a promotion, winning a championship, being the starting quarterback. Lead measures are the actions that predictably drive those results. 

The core characteristic of a lead measure, the authors of “The 4 Disciplines of Execution” write, is that “a lead measure can be directly influenced by you.” To achieve your goals, they write (echoing what the Michigan Coach told Brady), “apply a disproportionate energy” to the things that are in your control.

Starting at Michigan and for the rest of his career, that’s what Brady did.

After he was selected by the New England Patriots with the 199th pick in the 2000 draft, Brady was asked: “Are you aware that [along with starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe] there’s another quarterback here that they drafted last year?” 

Brady said he was aware of that, “and I know he’s a heck of a player. But I’ve always concerned myself just with the things I can control. I don’t put a lot of thinking into the other guys because I know I’m not at my best when I’m not just thinking about playing as well as I possibly can.”

- - -

“I never once in my life ever said I wanted to be the best of all time. Ever. I wanted to be the best I could be, period. I learned that in college. It didn’t matter what the other guys were doing. It didn’t. It mattered what I was doing.” — Tom Brady

[Greg Berge @GregBerge]

Three Coaching Truths:

- You can’t make them buy-in.
- You can’t force people to care.
- You can’t control their actions.

And if you try? You’ll exhaust yourself in the process.

Tomorrow’s newsletter is all about the "Let Them Theory.”👇

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

Higher career batting average than Barry Bonds and did it naturally on cholesterol.

[The Winning Difference @thewinningdiff1]

"Are you going to let the little things slide or are you going to go do that extra little work to be great? Do you want to be great? Every day - be great. It’s not comparing yourself to anyone else, but maximizing what you are." -Andy Reid

[Library Path @LibraryPath]

15 Deep Lines That Will Make You Think:

1.

[Brian Kight @BrianKight]

Pressure may be an invisible force, but its impact is on display for all to see.

[The Hockey Path @thehockeypath]

Weak side defensemen have multiple roles in their own defensive zone. They should defend the net front and pick up their man...but they can also be a key part of the break out.

Lucas Vanroboys (San Jose Barracuda, AHL) gives an excellent breakdown of this situation. #hockey