We all spend such a great deal of time trying to get good at something. More often than not we try and get good at a few things. Heck, we now live in this crazy society in which doing more than one thing is the standard all around us. However, with that comes a deep drop in accuracy…..poor craftsmanship…..and getting the job done the way it was assigned. This simply means we are getting work done, but not getting great at it. The output is lousy…..but yay we got it done. Is this what good companies are doing today and calling it success??

I believe in this concept I like to call “linear focus”. I am not sure if it is really a term people use, but I know it exists. Olympic athletes have linear focus built into their DNA. I have paid attention to this type of DNA always hoping I could latch onto it in some capacity. Truth be told I never did anything with a linear movement until fairly recently…..I kind of like to break dance and go all over the place. It is not entirely a bad thing to be abstract, however you need to hone in on that one thing and get “great” at it.

I spent some time working at a company where my direct boss was a former Olympic athlete and so was the originator of the product that was developed. We all worked at a rapid pace and there were only about 6 of us and I was the least significant in many ways. However, let’s get back onto what my boss did for me in the time I worked for him. Oh…..he positioned my focus so it was linear all day long even when I was sleeping. It took him every bit of 90 days to make it happen…..oh…and it did! Here is the conversation we had over email when he was driving me nuts and getting me back on the tracks so to speak:

Me: “I really don’t think you like me and I am ok with that”

My boss “In the time you wrote me that email you could have gotten some work done Brad”

I spent 90 days of being pushed passed my threshhold to inherit linear focus and get “great” at something. On some levels I know I achieved what I was supposed to and others I may of missed the boat. However, he took many coachable moments and pulled me aside. He was not always nice to me, but it was because he believed in me and wanted to get me focused at a linear level.

I thank him every day in my head for what he did for me. He changed my life and paid attention to me when I really thought he could not stand me. Actually, he cared about me. We once took a short car ride together and he spent a great deal of time asking me about the pain I went through when my dad died. He cared about me then and I know he cares about me now. I am not one of his best friends by any means……but I to care about him deeply. He knew what he was doing with me and he believed in me back then more than I did in myself. I owe you buddy:)

By Bradley D. Weisman
bweisman@inthesport.net www.inthesport.net