Up at 4am today to get on a plane to another suburban office park in America that looks like all the other ones. City? That’s not really important, right? Good times. First thing I see on my iPhone is a note from Don MacPherson (of a cool company called Modern Survey) hitting me with a link to his latest blog post, entitled “Have Some Pride”
“The score of the pickup basketball game was 18-4 (play to 21). We missed another shot, they got the rebound, beat us down the court and scored another easy layup. “Have some pride,” yelled one of my teammates. Honestly, he was the one in five of us who was giving maximum effort. The rest of us were beaten. Going through the motions. It’s no surprise we lost.
I have played thousands of pickup games as an adult. This is one of the few that I remember. “Have some pride” still rings in my ears today. It was a great reminder that every person has a choice in how they react to their challenging circumstances.”
Words to live by for a guy like me, with 3 or 4 emails in my inbox that I don’t want to deal with because they represent impossibly complex situations or relationships that appear DOA for a multitude of reasons.
Words to live by for a guy like me, who like everyone else in the world finds himself in a professional rut from time to time when it feels like it’s simply “time to make the donuts” again at 4am on a Monday.
Get busy living or get busy dying. Insert sailor language of your choice at the appropriate place in the phrase “Have Some Pride”. I’d go with “Have Some _____ Pride”. But that’s just me.
We all get to choose. It’s ironic that the only thing that can make tough circumstances (which seem totally external) bearable is our personal response to them.
Have some pride. (Thanks Don)
This is a theme for me today; employee engagement, pride of ownership are all internal, not driven by the organization but by me and for me, I make my life, both at work and at home. Need to remember that!
Posted by: ADPTalent_Jan | September 17, 2012 at 01:46 PM
Yeah...baby have some pride. Great post KD.
Posted by: Mar10ez | September 17, 2012 at 01:47 PM
That's it KD...success - or at least progress towards it - always generate enough of an endorphin spritz to justify the effort. Yet pride in itself is a dynamic variable in that one person' 100% pride is another's 50% which is what makes managing pride (AKA coaching) so darned tough.
Pride is learned and is only built up over time; neither a CEO nor HR can implement a "Pride First" campaign and expect buy-in and results over the short term because the incremental steps towards "the goal" are (a) not specified, (b) not quantified, or (c) unknown (or a combination).
Pride is a culture not a campaign. Pride is genetic not a game (didn't intend on rhyming). Pride is signing up to win not to giving up.
Posted by: Steve Levy | September 17, 2012 at 02:14 PM
Worth repeating indeed! Thanks for sharing.
Posted by: Rusty Brand | September 17, 2012 at 04:24 PM
Coming from someone in the UK and with just completed Olympics 2012
Pride is part of what drove the athletes irrespective of their origin, and no more so than in the Paralympics. One look at these 4.000 brave women and men and what they overcame of adversity and struggle to get to that level, - WOW and silences you for ever. It is everywhere and for everyone and there is a lot of it, and that is what makes greatness in all human beings, - no matter their situation.
Posted by: Jacob Sten Madsen | September 18, 2012 at 04:03 AM
Thanks KD. This really hit home and the timing was right. When I am feeling like a victim, put upon and generally down & out I need to remember that what I really control is how I respond. And how I want to always respond is to have some ______ pride!
Posted by: Michelle | September 18, 2012 at 11:44 AM
You only have 3 or 4 of those emails in your inbox? Are you sure you are in HR?
Posted by: Earl | September 18, 2012 at 01:57 PM
Awesome! Good read.
Posted by: Modd Man | September 20, 2012 at 03:22 PM
I used to have pride...I used to be a big pride guy...and even though I'm not a religious man, I realized why 'pride' is one of the seven deadly sins. For me, pride got me in trouble...it made me try to make myself better than others and win at all costs. I used to be the guy that would yell "Have some g--d--- pride" when playing that very same pickup basketball game.
One of the best gifts anyone ever gave me was from a friend who said that whenever I want to use the word pride, to replace it with the word grateful.
Today, I would say with a smile, "I'm grateful to be out here guys, enjoying some hoops." And win or lose, I'd be happy.
Posted by: Steve Santorino | September 21, 2012 at 07:02 AM