Industry Magazine C•Suite Atlantic Magazine Spring 2018 | Page 3

“A PLAYER WHO IS FULLY
PREPARED ON THE
PRACTICE FIELD WILL
FEEL READY TO MEET
WHATEVER COMES
HIS WAY ON GAME DAY
AND THUS, FEEL MORE
CONFIDENT AND ABLE TO
MINIMIZE DISTRACTIONS
OF FEAR AND DOUBT.”
papers, I took on a caddie job at our local,
private country club. The caddie master
turned me down initially, laughing that
the bags were bigger than me. I told him
I would just hang around at the caddie
shack and wait for an opportunity. The
other caddies tore into me as I spent
days waiting for an opportunity that just
wasn’t coming. They said if it ever did, I
wouldn’t be able to “loop eighteen”. Well,
one day that opportunity came late in the
day and I was the only kid left to carry a
bag. Not only did I make it around the
course, but the member requested me for
his next round the next day! It turns out
that I befriended hundreds of members
over several years and their advice
significantly helped me in my future
entrepreneurial pursuits. GRIT!
Now seventeen years old and I get a job
at a national chain grocery store as a cart
boy. Soon thereafter, I was a stock clerk.
I’ve always enjoyed an extra amount of
energy and would challenge myself to
fill my assigned shelves faster than the
full-time adult stockers. Those guys sure
rubbed it in, laughing that with the union
we were in, they could coast and make the
same as I was making hustling around. In
my second year in the store, I was named
assistant store manager, where we
employed around 200 employees. GRIT!
It was painful in my high school
freshman year to be the last guy cut
from making the team. I hate to lose! The
summer following I spent no less than
six hours each day practicing the game. I
not only made the team sophomore year
but I was also ranked in the number one
position on the team. Junior year, I was
named player-coach. GRIT!
There’s just not enough space here
to note the many times grit came into
play as I led six start-up businesses into
national platforms. And then leaving the
comfort of business success to start over
as a “starving speaker”. So much GRIT
was the key along the way. I laugh all the
time thinking back to being fifty-eight
and not knowing how to swim and me with
my bucket list of racing an Ironman. And
now I have fifteen Ironmans completed,
including the World Championship. GRIT!
Again, pearls from Saban: “The
characteristics that made up our 2003
national championship team are the same
attributes that form my philosophy for
success. Terms like conviction, dominate,
adversity, perseverance, commitment,
attitude, teamwork, road map, pride,
relentless, and intensity. Now, how good
do you want to be?”
The keys for me on the journey of life
have been clear goal focus and practice,
practice, practice. Duckworth in her book
says that “deliberate practice predicted
advancing to further rounds in final
competition far better than any other
kind of preparation. Gritty people do
more deliberate practice and experience
more flow, and flow is for performance.”
Pete Carroll, Seattle Seahawks coach:
“A player who is fully prepared on the
practice field will feel ready to meet
whatever comes his way on game day
and thus, feel more confident and able to
minimize distractions of fear and doubt.”
My all-time favorite book on GRIT
is Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible
Voyage by Alfred Lansing, telling of
Shackleton’s 1914 voyage to Antarctica.
Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.
How bad do you want it?
Let’s finish with a few more pearls from
Angela Duckworth: “To be gritty is to keep
putting one foot in front of the other. To be
gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and
purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest,
day after week after year, in challenging
practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven
times and rise eight.”
So, HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?
ABOUT
JACK DALY
JACK DALY is an experienced and
world recognized sales speaker and
sales training expert, who inspires
audiences to take action in the areas
of sales, sales management and
corporate culture. He brings 30 plus
years of field-proven experience
from a starting base with CPA firm
Arthur Andersen, a captain in the
U.S. Army to the CEO of several
national companies. Jack is a proven
CEO/ Entrepreneur, having built 6
companies into national firms, two of
which he subsequently sold to the Wall
Street firms of Solomon Brothers
and First Boston. His professional
sales trainer know-how has turned
him into an accomplished sales
coaching authority and author of
books including Hyper Sales Growth,
The Sales Playbook For Hyper Sales
Growth and Paper Napkin Wisdom, all
Amazon #1 Bestsellers.
JackDaly.net
1. youtube.com/watch?v=45gf _W0tNMA
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