A few months ago, I told Netta (Finnish soccer star at Ohio State), I was going to call on her in every BTL team practice. You see, her English isn’t great (her words, not mine) and she’s constantly running my English words through her Finnish translator during our team practices. Her English is actually really freakin great compared to my Finnish, you know. Her response after I told her I was challenging her?
Thank you.
Omg, wish I could bottle up that attitude.
Here’s truth. It takes her awhile to translate. Most often the fault is mine, not hers. My words are more like French. BTW, this is true for most of you reading this. I don’t speak English. I speak Chet and it’s weird. My words are not easily understood. Work to do on my end, huh.
So, this past week in our practice I asked Netta what she had. Her response was freakin’ magic. “I’m not sure what you said earlier, was it with an edge or on the edge?” Now I had to pause, not because I didn’t understand her confusion but because her question was freakin’ genius. We had gotten curious with four athletes trying to understand the roots of their “edge.” They bring an edge in a game you cannot miss when you watch this team play. And, they play on the edge of their performance envelope. So the answer to Netta’s inquiry is “with an edge and on the edge.” It’s both.
Most athletes and business dudes perform in the middle of their performance envelope, somewhere in the comfort zone. Every once in a while they take a risk and get outside it (not for long) and push themselves into the challenge zone. This is where growth resides. Masters go further. Masters push themselves to the edge – the edge of the challenge zone and the one right next to it – chaos. Masters push the envelope.
Masters bring an edge and play on the edge. They have the same fears as you and I, they just love seeing what they got. So, they push boundaries. Study Chuck Yeager. He broke the sound barrier. “Pushed the envelope” beyond what the engineers believed was possible. Got calm on the other side. Almost always does, if only you keep pushing…
Thanks, Netta, for bringing your Finnish edge to BTL. Your game is so good, you make it look easy. We all know it is not. Keep pushing your performance envelope too. You are built to break standards. So is this team. All it takes is a little more belief (always from the few) to break through perceived boundaries. Truth. Damn.
Live hard. Love harder…
BUILT TO LEAD 