I watched one of Gary Vee's posts and he talked about pointing your thumb instead of your pointer finger. When you take whatever is going on in the world around you and assess your circumstances, before anything else, point your thumb.
I was nominated a team captain for my junior year basketball season. The year before I started on varsity but was really limited in what I could do on the court and as a 15 year old, didn't really have an ability to speak up to my older teammates. My junior year was the first time in high school where it was really my team. I think that one important thing to always know is that you practice how you play.
During this season in practice, I was extremely immature. I would talk excessive amounts of trash, slap a teammate after hitting a 3 in his face, and conduct myself in an erratic manner. As a result of that my teammates did the same exact thing. Joked around in practice, left early after practice, and flat out didn't take excellence very seriously. We failed that year as a team and our season actually ended with me sprinting for a late close out and chipping the shooter, sending him to the line for game winning free throws.
The next season, I was locked tf in. I set the tone by sacrificing my numbers for the better of the team. Junior year I averaged 9.4ppg and with two new transfers, I knew that I would have to be way more of a facilitator. Each time we ran sprints, I was first or second. I would run next to the big men and force them to keep up. We took every practice seriously and stayed hours after practice to keep shooting and working out. As a leader, I became a lion and our teams culture resembled that.
One game we were playing the second worst team in the county. It was kinda far out and none of us were excited to play since we had a huge game later that week. I remember turning up the aux and clapping crazy. Everyone followed, we hit the court and were screaming during warmups. It intimidated the living shit out of the other team. First play we ran a backdoor for a lob and I threw it up and bang! We beat them by 40. My team went 19-2 that year and even though we lost early in the playoffs, I felt like my team resembled my drive and personality. I was willing to die on that.
Running a company is a big switch up for me. There isn't practice and there isn't any real games. I felt like for a little while as a team, we were going through the motions. My team has my friends in it and I remember even sipping on a beer during one of our meetings.
I am obsessed with FITS and trying to get it off the ground. However, I felt like myself and my team wasn't performing the way I thought we should. Instead of pointing the finger, I pointed the thumb. It made me think about junior year and how I was acting in practice.
One thing about me is that I would rather die than fail. In order to get to the next level, I had to show my team that they are lead by a lion and not a sheep. I started waking up at 6am every single day. Making numerous instagram, blog posts, tweets, youtube videos, tik toks. I obsessed over building product and finally took the create idea and made it into a reality. I realized that as the CEO nobody is going to work more than me. Therefore, I have to set the bar so fucking high that people are sprinting and jumping to touch it.
Self-awareness is everything. You have got to understand why you didn't perform the way you wanted to. Instead of looking around and waiting for other shit to happen, you have got to set the mf tone every single day. What am I doing wrong? What can I do better?
I remember when we first started, everybody wanted to know exactly what their role was. I gave them titles and explained what I wanted out of them. However, I didn't write it down. Therefore, there is way too much room for interpretation. People may be stepping on other people's toes, or might not know what they should do on a daily basis. Instead of blaming them for that, I realized that it was completely my fault. I wrote down full job descriptions with one common goal, list of expectations, metrics, their process, and an example of their daily week. I feel like in order to accomplish anything, it takes you understanding that you came up short.
I set out a 3 part strategy for our business. In order to succeed we have to do x,y, and z. However, I can't say that and expect other people to come up and execute. I need to incorporate all aspects of x,y, and z into my life and show how its done. Shane texted me yesterday and said "If I can't believe this is the way 100% then I need to change what I'm doing".
Life is about self-awareness and execution. Everything is in your control and in order to get to that next level you have to carry yourself to that standard.
