As a coach, this would have been an excerpt from my post game speech to the team the last few nights.
“Go find your kicker and go slap an attaboy on his helmet. He can’t help it that we put the team into overtime.
We fumbled, we pulled facemasks, we dropped passes, we misread the offense, and we threw interceptions to make the game closer than it should have been.
It was us that got us into this mess.”
Great leaders don’t allow their followers to single out the blame.
About a month ago I posted an entry on style, and how it does not win championships for teams or in itself make a businesses successful. This remains true.
But today, we get to see that style does have its role….buzz creation…i.e., awareness.
10 years ago no one cared about the University of Oregon. Now, they are getting some of the best recruits from all over the country and are consistently ranked in the top 10. From half a world away, 18 year old boys are leaving Texas, Alabama, Florida, and so on to move to the Pacific Northwest and play on the gridiron.
Remember last years’s National Championship? Texts and tweets filled our phones with talk about the neon green cleats the Ducks were wearing. I was privileged to be at the game. It looked like their feet were wrapped in tennis ball fuzz. I now own 2 Oregon shirts, my wife has an Oregon shirt, and today I’m flying an Oregon flag outside of my home in Texas. Look at what neon green cleats started.
Today’s matchup of Oregon and Wisconsin could not be more Mac vs. PC., and it will be very easy to see who owns the style points when the teams hit the field. Oregon is reportedly wearing silver cleats and black chrome helmets.
There will be future University of Oregon players watching the current talent in today’s Rose Bowl. And no matter who wins, the future players will go to bed and dream of one day wearing silver cleats and black chrome helmets.
What can style do?
And today the buzz is a black chrome helmet.
Anyone can learn to scramble and fry rice on a 3×6 steaming griddle.
Anyone can slice an onion, stack it into a volcano, and light the canola lava.
Anyone can become a master shrimp tail slapper.
Sure, the hibachi experience is quite entertaining, but we really sat down for the chef’s secret sauce.
Create and refine your sauce. Our mouths are watering.
Sayonara.
The minute we are born our fingers are rolled in ink.
In a moment our uniqueness is filed and recorded…vault locked.
This uniqueness was not meant to be stored in a database.
Through you, God has art, song, and understanding He wants communicated to the world.
It appears that our thumbprints hold the color, music, and font to transfer these messages.
Daily re-roll your fingers in ink then reach out and touch somebody, something, some place, or some idea.
We follow those with stained fingers.
We think we’re after making a living, but our soul is really after the production and exchange of art.
We think retirement sounds nice, but our hands were meant to create.
We think we want to be settled, but our feet are wrapped in Nikes and hate being idle.
Converse with your soul,
then allow your hands to respond with creation,
then move your art to the marketplace.
Ashton.Gustafson 