The Most Qualified Don’t Always Win

If there is one thing I’ve learned from sports, it’s that you don’t have to be the best to win. Let me give you some examples.

On my high school football team, I didn’t “fit” my position. I was 5’11” tall and weighed 165 pounds my senior year – and I was the Strong Tackle. The head coach told the offensive line coach over and over not to start me, but coach Epps saw that what I lacked in size, I made up in heart. He fought for me to keep my position. Going against 250-300 pound defensive linemen wasn’t easy, but I found a way around it. After analyzing the situation, I thought, “Well, if they aren’t on their feet, they can’t make a tackle!” so when we ran the ball, I’d just take out their legs. It hurt when all that weight would crash down on top of me, and my hurt shoulders still feel it when I’m in the gym today, but they made very few tackles! When we passed the ball, I remembered Newton’s Law of Motion: An object in motion tends to stay in motion. I’d just let them decide which way they wanted to go, then I’d get underneath them and encourage them to go there! I’d use their weight against them! Success!

In wrestling, being just over the line of heavyweight proved tough! My opponents were MUCH bigger than I was! So I just began by trying not to get pinned. Then I tried to take every advantage I could! But I must say that using my teeth when an opponent flipped me onto my back and I couldn’t breathe wasn’t such a prudent decision – I ended up disqualified that day! However, I did take advantage of the referee’s whistle on the match next to ours! When he blew the whistle and my opponent on top thought it was ours, I turned and tackled him to take a 1 point lead with 5 seconds left! I had beaten a man almost twice my size!

I also played basketball when I was younger. I was never fast or tall, so how would I be able to score points? Well, with a basketball goal in our driveway and two older sisters who were good at it, I learned to shoot from the outside! I could swish a shot before the defender could get close enough to block it!

Then there was baseball. I was a little overweight and very slow. If hit the ball in the infield, how would I ever get to 1st base? So I worked on placing my hits and would punch it just over their heads into the outfield! At least I got to first! Now second was a different story.
My point is that you don’t have to be the best at what you do, but you do have to be a problem solver. Analyze the situation (look), Figure out solutions and multiply them what works), and determine what to get rid of what doesn’t work).

The next time you are up against some odds, follow those three steps! Analyze and try, multiply what works, and stop what doesn’t work. Even if you don’t become an expert at it, you will become better than you were before, which in any sense spells SUCCESS!