100…

During practice 100, earlier today, I gave the team the chance to decide where we took our 100th time together. Fun, back to a hard one in 99, forward to something new, or anywhere else they deemed worthy. They chose fun. So, we watched a gut wrenching scene from the movie Joy. Damn, does Chet know how to have fun or what? We watched, wrote, talked, got curious, and finished by getting challenging. We’ve come a long way in 100 practices. Fun, huh….

This team is one of the fastest growing we work with. Growth is good, as long as it’s sustainable, I reminded them. This team, maybe like yours, has favorable numbers, much momentum, and lots of great, leverage creating ideas. They are domain specific experts in need of more people. So, here’s the nugget I let them linger with.

We are limited and leveraged by our ability to level up and bring in the right souls – the 100% right souls. We are limited, not by capital, but by character. We are limited, not by competence, but by character. We are limited, not by compounding growth, but by character. You see, friend, most systems are not limited by capital but by their culture. And, your culture is not reflected by the words on your walls – it’s reflected by what you reward. Sound like a fun practice?

Slow down and reflect. What levers are you pulling? Leveraging metrics, working capital, and loading up the team for one more do or die mission? Leveraging the right souls with the competence and character to level us the hell up? No easy answers, huh leader. Your job, leader, is to get off the horns of your dilemma. Fact. You choose. Your choices have consequences. Be careful who you listen to.

Live hard. Love harder…