Growing up in Western Pennsylvania football was king and the sport every young boy aspired to play. We didn’t have options like today for kids to hone skills in a sport based on their physical and mental strengths. I was one of those young boys that yearned to play football, but my father had other ideas. He refused to let me play pop warner football due to the risk of injury and said I had to wait until junior high before he would permit me to participate. At that time soccer was just starting to sprout in our area so I decided to try it which thankfully, I grew to love over time. While soccer and track became my primary sports growing up, I still had this internal desire to play football mainly because of recognition and popularity that followed if you were good.

As mentioned in previous posts, I was very successful in track both at the high school and collegiate levels. I was recruited to run track as a sprinter at my college alma mater and had a very successful freshman year. Throughout my first track season I become very close to several football players that ran track to stay in shape for football season. Because of my speed, this group of friends coupled with the football coach thought it would be a great idea for me to play football and more specifically wide receiver anticipating my ability to “break away” from defensive backs. I immediately bought in to this experiment thinking this was my chance to play football and receive the praise and adoration that comes with it. What seemed like a good idea ended up an utter failure. While I was fast in a straight line, I had no lateral quickness. While I had great ball skill with my feet and a soccer ball, I had poor skills at catching a football. Lastly, while I was very comfortable playing on a field against another team in soccer, I was not enjoying the fact it was the opposing teams goal to hit, hurt and take down their opponent as the main objective in football. Thankfully for myself and my fellow teammates this experiment only lasted one season. My season highlight was catching a long pass in my face mask. I quickly realized my strengths did not line up well with this sport and as a result I had to humble myself in realizing my limitations. Additionally, I needed to reframe how to measure my own success.

Leadership Takeaways:

1. Don’t let perceptions cloud your measure of performance. I clearly had a perception that playing football was a way for me to be a “star” while completely missing the fact that my strengths didn’t line up to succeed.
2. Fail fast. Be aware and humble enough to understand and acknowledge when your not set up to succeed. This does not mean your not a strong leader or performer, it just means your in the wrong position or situation.
3. Don’t solely lean on your own understanding, pressure test your measures of performance with colleagues, friends and family. I perceived being a good football player led to success and notoriety when in reality if I focused on my true strengths, I would be successful in different, more valuable ways.