The Best of the Best Invest

Do you know that the best of the best invest when no one else is looking. I remember many years ago when Michael Jordan was in his “hay day”, playing and winning when he was sick. He actually had the flu during the NBA Finals. The game was in Salt Lake City, Utah. Karl Malone and John Stockton were playing. I can’t remember now, but I believe it was game 3 or 4 of that series. I was there at the Delta Center. I marveled at his ability to press through the nausea, the fever, the dehydration and everything else to play a courageous game of basketball. I am not sure what it was like watching it on TV, but I can tell you as a Jazz fan, it was nothing short of amazing.

As I muse over being a person who has high expectations for myself and others. I am challenged by the thought that one of the biggest reasons Michael Jordan was able to play the game in the face of the limitations of his body on that particular day, was because of the investments he made years ago when nobody was looking. The hours he spent playing by himself, rain, sleet or snow. The investment he made to get on the courts when his friends were doing other things. The investment he made to get on the courts when he didn’t feel good. His investment paid off during the NBA Finals that day when he was sick. He became a skilled craftsmen in his choice of profession. It didn’t happen overnight. Jordan’s assent to being classified as one of the best to ever play the game, came at great cost to him years prior to him playing for the Chicago Bulls. He invested in the game, in his skills and abilities when no one was looking.

It wasn’t about what his coach did or didn’t do during practices. It wasn’t about what others did or didn’t do for him, though I am sure there were people who were part of his supporting cast, that assisted him in ways we may never know about. What I want you to consider is the investment he made as a player. As a person. He wanted to be the best and a result HE, Jordan made an investment that seeded his life for years to come as he played the game of basketball. So when he was sick, he had no problem suiting up that day. The investment he made years prior to that game prepared him for the challenge. And in the end he was successful and his team was successful. I believe he scored 46 points in that game. (I could look it up, but I am more interested in remembering that game than checking all the facts). I know it was an insane score that a sick man should never have been “allowed” to make in the course of a professional basketball game, but I digress.

Let me say it another way. If you plant a seed in the ground. It takes awhile to actually have evidence that life exist. You may not know for days, months or years if the seed you planted will actually yield fruit. But if you water it, and weed the soil and care for it, there is something going on underneath the ground that you can’t see with the naked eye. The time you take to care for that soil, is your investment in the expected fruit. When that seedling pokes its head through the soil, what a day that is. You can see that your investment paid off.

That’s how I see it for Michael Jordan. But really this post is not about him, its about you. It’s about your investment. How much have you invested in your career of choice? Do you complain when things don’t go your way or all of the resources you need are not available? Can you see the investment your boss or organization has made in you that if you shifted your perspective and began to see what they offer, the good, the bad and the ugly, it actually might help move you forward under the soil to breakthrough?

The best of the best in anything make an investment that no one sees. It’s what they do in the wee hours of the morning, or the time they spend learning a new skill or ability that no one may ever know about. It may just be quiet time to think through a problem or issue until you reach a creative solution that turns a project around that seemed impossible. At the end of the day, if you are not the best of best, it has more to do with your investment or lack of investment than anything else. Something to consider!