Persistence

I’ve enjoyed watching Bryce Harper, the 19-year-old rookie phenom for the Washington Nationals.   He entered the big leagues with a lot of fanfare and so far has lived up the hype and handled himself incredibly well both on the field and off with the media.  According to teammates and coaches, he hustles and plays the game the “right way.”

Watching Harper’s Nationals face off against my beloved St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Division Series reminded me of another player, Rick Ankiel that entered the league with high expectations as a flame throwing pitcher for my Cardinals.  Ankiel debuted in 1999 in Montreal against the Expos. He pitched his first full season in 2000 at the age of 20 (second youngest in the league), posting an 11–7 record, a 3.50 ERA. He came in second in the NL Rookie of the Year voting and received The Sporting News Rookie Pitcher of the Year Award.

In the 2000 National League Central Division Championship game Manager Tony LaRussa started Ankiel in the first game of the series against the Atlanta Braves.  In the first two innings, Ankiel didn’t allow a run, but in the third inning he allowed 4 runs on 2 hits, 4 walks and 5 wild pitches before being removed with two outs.

Ankiel never recovered.  He tried to regain his pitching ability before switching to the outfield in 2005.  He spent the next two years learning to play the outfield and working on his hitting skills.

In 2007 Ankiel was called up again to the Cardinals, as an outfielder.  He played for my Cardinals through the 2009 season.  Since then he’s played for the Kansas City Royals, Atlanta Braves and now the Nationals.

Since 2007, Ankiel has collected 438 hits, belted 69 home runs, driven in 233 runs and has a career average of .244.  More importantly, he’s become one of the most feared outfielders for his ability to throw out runners from virtually anywhere on the field.

So often it seems like people run into obstacles or challenges in their lives and run away or shrink from the challenge.   It would have been easy for Ankiel to walk away and nobody would have blamed him.  I admire his persistence and determination to overcome this challenge.

In my opinion, persistence comes as a result of preparation and knowing what you want.  I believe there are four key steps to developing the persistence necessary to get what you want, including:

1. Decide what you want.  If you don’t know what you want, you’ll never know where you’re going.  Once you determine what you want,  it will be easier to be persistent.
2. Develop a plan to get what you want.  Once you know what you want, creating a strategy will help you get what you want.
3. Set goals to measure success.   Goals will allow you to see how you’re progressing and enable you to re-evaluate what you need to do to get what you want.
4. Reward yourself.  Every great accomplishment deserves a reward.   It could be as simple as a night out at the movies, dinner at a favorite restaurant or some new clothes.

Ankiel played for the Nationals this year.  He only played in 68 games and who knows what his career will hold in store for him next year.  One thing I’m sure of is that he has the persistence to bounce back.

Author: Jeremy Kartchner | Google+

The Mitt I Know: I Remember

As I watched last week’s presidential debate, I noticed both candidates were wearing lapel pins of the flag of the United States of America.  As I saw these pins, I thought back to the pins the Olympic Committee commissioned to commemorate the tragedy of September 11, 2001.

Olympic pins are a big deal.  People like to buy and trade them and, in general are rabid collectors of Olympic pins.  As a result, a small Olympic pin with the United States flag and 9/11 printed were made.  We determined that these pins would sale for $5.00.

Leading up to the availability of these pins we held a press conference to announce the pins and give the details.  We had a date selected that the pins would go on sale and focused heavily on the $5.00 price.

On the day the pins went on sale, we set up a purchasing area on the first floor of the Olympic headquarters.  Most of the floor was empty and had not yet been built out so it was wide open and could allow for hundreds of people to be in the building at a  time.

The merchandising team roped off areas designating a line and had rows of cashiers set up to facilitate and speed the sales process so as many people as possible could get in and buy pins.

From a media perspective, we had arranged to have the local TV stations and local print media come cover the event.  Right from the get go there were hundreds and hundreds of people waiting on line to purchase these pins.  The media came and talked to patrons wanting to buy the pins and we had great stories coming out of the event.

As the sales process started it was slower than anticipated.  I was busy working with the media and at first didn’t realize how slow things were moving.  As I wrapped up with the media I began to hear rumblings of the wait.  About this time, Mitt Romney came down and walked into the room.  He was talking to people about the pins and some started complaining to him about the wait.

He went to the cashiers to investigate and was told that the actual price with taxes was $5.37 cents.  Nobody thought to calculate the cost of the taxes into the final price.  We had advertised and publicized the cost as $5.00 so people were showing up with exactly $5.00 or other $5.00 increments in the form of cash or written checks.  Some were buying pins for themselves and for family and friends and had pre-written checks.

The process of finding an extra $.37 cents was slowing the process down as people had to write new checks or check pockets and purses for extra money.  The cause of this slow down was spreading quickly and was frustrating just about every one of the hundreds of people waiting in line.

I remember thinking, “Oh great.  This isn’t going to end well.”

Just as I thought this, Mitt, without hesitation told the head of merchandising to simply charge $5.00 and that he would make up the difference.  He told them to keep track of how many were sold and to let him know the total.  The head of merchandising quickly went and told his team the news and the line immediately sped up.

Mitt didn’t make a big deal about this, but a few people at the head of the line heard this and cheered.  Mitt had other meetings and left.  Many people had no idea why the line sped up and were simply grateful the line had picked up again.

At the end of the day, I was with Mitt walking to his office for another media interview when the head of merchandising walked up and gave his assistant the final number of pins sold.  As Mitt and I walked up to his office, his assistant told him how many pins had sold.  Mitt quickly calculated in his head the amount he owed to cover the taxes for everybody and told his assistant which account to pull the money from.

I can’t remember how many pins sold that day or how much it cost Mitt, but I know it was thousands and thousands of pins.  I also remember hearing the number and almost asking for a calculator to figure out the cost.  Before I could even ask though, Mitt had already calculated the amount in his head and given his assistant payment instructions.

As Mitt walked into his office, I looked at his assistant and asked, “How did he calculate that so quickly?”  She looked at me, smiled and just shrugged her shoulders.  She said that kind of thing happens all the time.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised during the last presidential election when Mitt was able to bring up and calculate facts and figures so quickly.  In one instance the topic was education and President Obama said something and Mitt instantly came up with a number that was in the millions. I don’t doubt he knew that number in advance, but the ability to recall it, explain the number and use it in a way that effectively proved his point was not surprising to me.

As I’ve written about in previous blog entries, Mitt is incredibly intelligent.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a photographic memory to be honest.  His ability to think on his feet, communicate effectively and be decisive always impressed me both in situations at the Olympic Committee and in high-pressure situations such as the last presidential debate.

Author: Jeremy Kartchner | Google+