As you know, I’m a baseball fan, and a New York Yankees fan. When I was young, we only got baseball on TV on Saturday afternoons (imagine that!). I lived in an area that did not have a major league team, so who was on TV?
The Yankees.
Later, I moved to New York for graduate school and lived the life of a “real” fan. Today, the owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner, died. It’s been really interesting to see the reaction and the old clips of him on TV.
He wasn’t liked by everyone. He was often mean, demanding, arrogant and perfectionist. He bought and traded players and hired and fired managers at will. He drove us fans crazy with his changes and tinkering, and he traded our favorite players away often.
He took a diminished Yankee team and re-invested them with pride and drove them towards victory again. The road was rocky and decidedly not pretty. That didn’t bother him.
The Yankees won seven World Series Championships under his stewardship. Together with the 20 won before he became owner in 1973, that is 27 World Series Championships, the most recent last year. No other sports franchise has won more than the Yankees.
Winning was paramount to Mr. Steinbrenner, as he was always addressed. He wanted to win more than anything. In fact, he said:
“The day I don’t want to win for New York, that’s the day I better get the hell out of the business.” – George Steinbrenner
and
“The only thing I want to do more than win is breathe.” – George Steinbrenner
When I think about Mr. Steinbrenner, there are two aspects to his legacy that stand out:
#1 He didn’t care what anyone thought of him. He didn’t apologize, deny, diminish, or smooth over his desire to win.
#2 He never stopped working towards his goal of winning.
What is so important to you that it comes right after breathing on the list of priorities?
What would happen if we all focused that intently on what we really want in life?
(Thank you, Mr. Steinbrenner)
Ha. LOL. It’s kinda cool to think about what I want THAT MUCH.
To be thin? To be happy?
(But I always thought this Steinbrennerguy was an awful person. Who wants to be like that?)
Well, I certainly didn’t like his methods myself! But his drive to win resulting in, well, WINNING! If we drive towards health, won’t we be truly focused and ultimately healthy?
I don’t believe he had to do some of the things he did in order to be successful. That’s where judgment and our own values come into play. But let’s also not assume that, in order to be successful, we have to be awful people.
By the way, your statement “To be thin? To be happy?” struck me.
Most people think they are the same thing. “If I’m thin, I’ll be happy.”
Most advertising says “Thin = Happy.”
In my experience with thousands of clients, this equation is garbage. Thin does not equal happy. Many people get thin and are not happy so they throw thin away. Many people get happy without getting thin and can’t accept happy because “it’s supposed to go with thin, right?”
What do you really want, Charlotte? Thin? Happy?
If it’s happy, don’t let thin or not thin get in your way. Or let it confuse you. Go for happy.