your advantage

Your biggest advantage is doing what is outside of your normal comfort zone at just the right time.

Seth Godin talked about a term Kanri Yakyu where baseball is played exactly to the numbers.  Seth said this was a great way of winning more games then you lose, but the teams that usually win it all in the end break the rules and push past the numbers to win the big games.

There is something here for you. Whether you are a risk taker or a rule maker there is something here specifically for you.

1) If taking risk is easy for you then following the rules is what is going to get you into the big games, give you a chance to win it all.  On an average Tuesday in the middle of summer when a baseball team has played over fifty games already and has over a hundred to go they need to follow the rules to win that game more times then they lose it.

If you do that you are giving your natural ability a chance to win later on.

I love taking risk, but usually I don't have the time/money to take those risks because I didn't let the rules dictate how I was acting on a normal Tuesday.  For me, taking risk in little ways when there is really not much return is just damaging my future ability to play in the big games.

Mark Cuban talked about great baseball players who have to hit three out of every ten times at bat year upon year upon year.  Mark then said in business you only have to hit one big home run, one giant hit and you are set up for a career.

I think Mark is only half right.

The problem is, if you are swinging at every pitch that comes at you in business and life then you will strike out and not have as many chances to swing later.  Or, you will be so tired from all that swinging that when you finally connect what should have been a home run is only a single now.

2) If you are a rule maker then you will be in great positions every now and again to break the rules and win big, but that is going to be very hard for you.  Following the rules is what got you there and you are going against your natural instinct.  What is wild is, there are literally more good opportunities for rule followers then everybody else, but more often then not they are not going to take them.

In basketball here in Denver we fired the coach of the year the year he won coach of the year.  We also fired our starting quarterback after he took a bad team to the playoffs and won a surprise game in overtime.  They seem similar but are a world apart.

George Karl was playing by the numbers because he knew he didn't have a good enough team to break the rules, and he was right.  He also knew, that if year in and year out he did this there might be a year when Kobe got injured and he would have a chance to sneak into the Western Conference finals and break some rules to get to the finals.  This year was that year, but the Nuggets ownership lost faith and instead the team is mired in mediocrity, not good enough to get in the playoffs, not bad enough to win the draft.

Following the rules gives you a false sense that it is easy to make it into the playoffs, and managers and leaders will often lose big when they think they can replicate getting into the playoffs so they fire the rule makers and bring in a risk taker who doesn't have self control.

Tim Tebow was a bad quarterback.  Every game he ever played in his life he took huge risks, and for most of his pro career those risks did not pay off.  But one Saturday afternoon, after a bad team squeaked into the playoffs because everybody else was worse, he took a chance and won a game.

Gun slingers and mavericks are really fun to watch.  Managers and leaders will often lose big when they fall in love with the show and let the show ruin the product.  You do not want an exciting team on that Tuesday in the middle of summer, you want a win.

The moral of the story here is that no matter what your personality type is, you have a huge advantage.  If you are exciting you can discipline yourself to get base hits and be in the playoffs at the end of the year so your talent can shine.

If you are a rule maker, stick to your guns but know when a real opportunity presents itself (Payton Manning becomes a free agent) you have to take it.  You have to sacrifice what got you there to win the championship.

Both ways are hard, and in world of irony, both people will believe the other persons road is easier.  It is not, so just focus on your road.