When do you cross the line - Confidence to Cockiness?

"If you say you're going to do it, and you go out and do it, it ain't braggin." Dizzy Dean, Hall of Fame pitcher

The confidence that a successful person displays is fun to watch. They are a shining star and you want to be like them, to have that air of invulnerability, to seem to be on top of everything. But the line they can cross, to overbearing cockiness, how does that happen? Where? When? None of us really like to deal with a braggart, but there is some sort of magnetic quality about someone with inner strength and courage that you can feel. But arrogance is most often a detriment to a relationship of anykind, business or personal and should be avoided.

Thoughts to Provoke Action

"Prefer the errors of enthusiasm over the complacency of wisdom." Branch Rickey, Hall of Fame Executive

Perhaps the single greatest downfall for any successful person, complacency. Websters definition is "self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies" which is of course accurate, but not nearly as descriptive as I thought it would be. Complacency in the real world, in baseball, in business, in life, in love...what is your definition? I see not only the self-satisfaction, but the blindness that followsin seeing the further action one must take to maintain their level of competency. It seems it is human nature, once you get to a point of success, you feel it is no longer necessary to strive to hold that level.

But the truly successful, they never stop. Their attitude is relentless and it keeps them on top, always.

Losing - Does it Drive you?

"If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing yuor grandmother with her teeth out." George Brett, KC Royals 1986

How many of us accept losing without a fight? How many of us use the experience to learn? How many of us make every attempt to never lose in that way ever again? How many of usstudy and analyze the loss enough to know what went wrong, where, and when?

Winning is great, but losing can be a more valuable teacher.

Winning - Not the Charlie Sheen variety.

"Winning isn't everything. It's second to breathing." George Steinbrenner

Sometimes I wonder if salespeople have the same drive that professional athletes do. I believe the successful ones must. One has to be smart about time and resource management, but I believe too many unsuccesful people do not succeed simply because they quit too early. Never say never, always try, fight fight fight, down to your last at bat - still swinging. As Yogi said "It ain't over till it's over."

"Most one run games are lost, not won."

"Most one run games are lost, not won." Gene Mauch

When you barely lose....was it because of what they did? Or was it because of what you did or didn't do?

Victrix patientia Duris

"There are three secrets to managing. The first secret is have patience. The second is be patient. And the third most important secret is patience." Chuck Tanner, Piitsburgh Pirates Manager

Leadership - Then vs. Now

"Learn to know every man under you, get under his skin, know his faults. Then cater to him — with kindness or roughness as his case may demand." John McGraw

"In playing or managing, the game of ball is only fun for me when I'm out in front and winning. I don't give a hill of beans for the rest of the game. The men who loses gracefully, loses easily. Sportsmanship and easygoing methods are all right, but once a team of mine is on the diamond, I want it to fight. Namby-pamby methods don't get much in results." - John McGraw in The Old Ball Game: How John McGraw, Christy Mathewson, and the New York Giants Created Modern Baseball (Frank DeFord, Grove Press Publishing, 03/02/2006, Page 51)


The manager of the New York Giants, Little Napolean was his nickname, a player from 1891-1906 and manager from 1899 to 1932.

His approach, would it work today?