Rich Clayton

Most CEOs have no idea what’s really going on

"It's called accountability. Holding a player accountable to play up to their individual potential. When you do that...it permeates through the entire team." Your greatest ability is accountability. Because, your accountability determines how far your potential can take you.

“Comparison is the thief of joy. Thats how you get in trouble, you know saying someone’s better than this player, not better than that player,” Kara Lawson Comparison measures people. Standards measure progress. If you focus on others, you lose sight of your identity.

Sixteen years ago, one man stood alone on a grassy hill at a music festival in Washington State, USA, and started dancing by himself. People glanced over and looked away. Some laughed. His roommate leaned in and warned him people were filming him. He did not stop. Then one stranger got up and joined him. Then another. Then the hillside tipped. Within minutes, hundreds of people were sprinting from across the field to be part of something that, thirty seconds earlier, had been one man being laughed at in a field. Someone filming from higher up the hill said quietly: "See what one man can do. One man can change the world." The clip spread across the internet in 2009. Entrepreneur Derek Sivers played it at a TED conference to explain how movements actually begin. Not with the first person brave enough to start, he argued, but with the first person willing to join them. Collin Wynter, the man dancing alone, later said he had no idea he had done anything special. He was just tired of watching everyone sit still.

19 years ago, a high school basketball coach put his team manager into a game for the final four minutes. The kid had never played a single minute of competitive basketball in his life. He scored 20 points. Jason McElwain was diagnosed with severe autism at age two. He didn’t speak until he was five. He couldn’t chew solid food until he was six. He wore a nappy for most of his early childhood. As a baby, he was rigid, wouldn’t make eye contact, and hid in corners away from other children. He tried out for his school basketball team every year and got cut every time. Too small. Too slight. Barely 5’6 and about 54 kilograms. But he loved the game so much that his mum called the school and asked if there was any way he could be involved. The coach created a team manager role for him. For three years, McElwain showed up to every practice and every game. He wore a shirt and tie on match days. He ran drills, handed out water, kept stats, and cheered every basket like he’d scored it himself. On 15 February 2006, the last home game of his final school year, the coach let him suit up in a proper jersey and sit on the bench. With four minutes left and a comfortable lead, the coach sent him in. His first shot missed. His second missed. Then something shifted. He hit a three-pointer. Then another. Then another. His teammates stopped shooting entirely and just kept passing him the ball. He hit six three-pointers and a two-pointer. 20 points in four minutes. The highest scorer in the game. When the final buzzer went, the entire crowd rushed the court and lifted him onto their shoulders. His mum tapped the coach on the shoulder, in tears. “This is the nicest gift you could have ever given my son.” McElwain won the ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports that year, beating out some of the biggest names in professional sport. He’s 36 now. He works at a local supermarket, coaches basketball, has run 17 marathons including five Boston Marathons, and travels the country speaking about never giving up. When asked about that night, his coach still gets emotional. “For him to come in and seize the moment like he did was certainly more than I ever expected. I was an emotional wreck.”

1) Life is unfair sometimes. 2) People get oppotunities because of who they know, where they went to school or because they just look good in a suit. 3) This isn't isolated to the US or the coaching profession. Do the best u can with what u got and keep knocking on doors.

People underestimate how long it takes to win big. You struggle for 10 years. Eventually, in one day, you achieve more than you did your entire life. Be patiently aggressive.

Steve Nash shares the truth about the journey to greatness. "You don't have to be the chosen one." "The secret is to build the resolve and spirit to enjoy the plateaus - the times when it doesn't feel like you're improving and you question why you're doing this." Most people quit during the plateau. Learn to embrace it. "If you're patient, the plateaus will become springboards." Progress isn't linear. The flat moments aren't wasted - they're building. "Never stop striving, reaching for your goals until you get there." "But the truth is, even when you get there - even when you get here, standing on this stage - it's the striving, fighting, pushing yourself to the limit every day that you'll miss and you'll long for." "You'll never be more alive than when you give something everything you have." The destination isn't the reward - the journey is. Enjoy the process and fall in love with the climb because that's where life happens.