Mindset
Greatness Starts with Character
Great players still pick up the pucks ”
– Unknown
I recently watched a segment on a sports channel about the current Four Nations ice hockey tournament between Canada, the USA, Sweden, and Finland.
The commentators discussed the end of Team Canada’s practice and how the powerplay group, which included some of Canada’s and the world’s greatest players at the time, Crosby, McKinnon, McDavid, Makar, and Toews, had stayed out to work on their strategy.
The players remained on the ice to work on the power play together. This was somewhat unusual to begin with, but when the session was complete, the players took the time to pick up the pucks.
That’s not something you would usually see at a full NHL practice, at least not from the best players on the ice. Maybe the rookies who stayed out for extra skating, etc., might do it, but most of the time, it’s someone on the staff who gets this job.
This subtle overture by these players made it so much clearer why they are Great.
Even so, in all the injury return skates I did over the years, or off-season workouts, these smaller practices always ended with the players on the ice, no matter the caliber, picking up the pucks.
Greatness starts with character. You can’t teach character.
You can support it, model it, and provide space for it, but the people in life who become truly great at what they do either have it, or they don’t.
In life, like in hockey, some have success by all the statistical expressions. The data says they are great. They have the wealth, the positions, the status, the rank, the authority, or the All-Star jersey, but the way they treat people is inconsistent.
It reeks of agenda…….what’s in it for me? They only treat others with respect when it suits them, when someone is watching, or when they just happen to be in the right frame of mind.
Truly great players as great humans treat people with respect and dignity no matter what the circumstances. You can always tell a person’s true character by the way they treat the wait staff at a restaurant, or anyone in the service industry at large.
Great people do the little things that no one sees or even recognizes, simply because it’s the right thing to do.
Some people think those greats are weak, or soft. Sadly, this is so far from the truth. One of the greatest athletes of all time, Mohammad Ali, treated those around him with respect and dignity. He was the consummate strategist, pushing his opponents through eloquent poetic jousts, but when it came to the regular Joe, he was kind.
In a time when this simple kindness and respect is bleeding from the character of many who we look toward for leadership, these simple overtures can reconnect us with what it takes to truly be GREAT!
Why does that matter? Why does it matter to be great?
Good question, lots of people don’t care to be great, but I think everyone sees greatness, and recognizes it as a beacon of authority for how we deport ourselves.
Do we do whatever it takes, no matter what might be the outcome for others to be better than everyone else? To have more than everyone else? Is that ok?
If it’s just about having more and being at the top, to me, that’s not greatness, that’s greed and excess.
Let’s celebrate those we believe have character in greatness, and place them in our highest regard.
The greats reach back toward us and help us rise with them.
