People ask me, “why are you back in school instead of pursuing some kind of baseball related job? You don’t really want to be a business man when you could be around the game, do you?”

They list off a litany of reasons for why I should be back in baseball, any part of baseball. Things like, you played in the Majors, or wrote books about baseball, or have been on national television. They say these things like having done them guarantees me a job someplace. Where, exactly, they don’t know, but someplace… surely someplace.

Generally speaking, I think we tend to assume that those individuals who have had a brush with fame or success have somehow elevated themselves to a permanent position of stability, upon which they will always be successful. All they need do is cite previous success and the door for future success will open.

If that’s the case, why are so many famous people broke?

When I was playing ball, I was always afraid that once I’d finished and been spit out of the game, I would crash land at the bottom of life’s success ladder, clueless and directionless. Mind you, such a scenario was perfectly realistic. Lots of former athletes crash following their careers—even athletes with much, much more fame, success, and money than myself. Seeing titans of the profession become deadweight on a couch someplace is pretty scary. Seeing them blow all their money on bad investments, or take up unnecessary risks just so they could have the feel of their previous lives back, is even scarier.

I wondered why they did it, why they bet big on stuff they didn’t know when all they really needed to do was let their money compound and live within their means. Heck, just a couple years of big league earnings, when invested correctly, is enough to let you work a part-time, for shiggles job you like for the rest of your life.

However, by the time I reached the end of my career, I knew how it happened. In fact, I could feel it happening to me.

While in the pursuit of baseball glory, I’d trained myself to see success through a certain filter. For example, I needed to beat other people to feel like I’d done something worthwhile. I needed to work hard at something, and feel like I’d pushed myself to the limit. If there was a parameter for winning, I needed to meet or exceed that parameter. I also needed—and this is dangerous —to feel like I was noticed for what I’d done. I was motived by the thought of being honored as the best.

Pushing yourself to the limit, wanting to be the best, motivation through recognition—those are all great things for a healthy, functional athlete. However, take that mindset into another area in life and it can work against you. Like, when an athlete gets hurt and all those driving mental conditions are still there, but the ability to act on them is not. Or, when an athlete leaves the game.

Now that I’m not in a profession where I can compete with, beat out, or get noticed for things by big crowds, I sometimes feel the need to create situations where that can happen (we can debate the meta of me writing this blog into infinity!). Now, since going back to school, I’ve also realized that I’m not the only person who does this, nor are athletes the only type of people.

Almost everyone believes a strong work ethic is paramount to success. For the record, I’m one of those people. A strong work ethic is absolutely the one intangible trait you must have if you want to get anywhere worth getting to. That said, when people think of strong work ethic, they usually only see the work side of it; work hard, don’t complain, push yourself, want it more and so on. On this front, the business world can be full of just many cliché’s about attitude as baseball.

But those who only see the “Work” in Work Ethic often forget that, in order to do your very best work and not burn out, become a soulless machine, unethical person, or bitter drudge, you need to strike a balance. And balance can be much harder than hard work.

You can’t strike a balance if you don’t come to an understanding with what is pushing you towards the decisions you make. You will, like Pavlov’s dog, hear the ring of certain job parameter bell and come drooling for it. You’ll take the risks you don’t need to take. You’ll rationalize the illogical. You’ll create people to compete against, search for recognition when you don’t need it, and look for a way to win when there isn’t one. You might even get the job you want, then blow it because you don’t realize who bad a fit you are for it—a dangerous scenario with lasting career consequences.

Ironically, a little of any of these things mentioned above give you an edge. This is why it’s so easy for people with a natural bent towards achievement at any cost to get into to trouble, especially those who keep driving forward with no pause for reflection. They think more is better, and that positive results will scale proportionately with their level of investment/intensity.

Even now, while focusing on school, I feel the need to be the best, to do something great, and to put my family’s financial safety on the line so I can feel like I won in front of the world, puling at me. Again, working hard, wanting to do great—not bad. However, letting that ethic mutate into, “doing great is not good enough and I cannot and WILL NOT be happy with it,” Or, though it was great, not enough people acknowledge it, so it’s WORTHLESS!”  is very bad.

It’s also bad for business. Any type of business, baseball or otherwise. Looking back I can think of how hard I beat myself up over things I couldn’t control in baseball… So fruitless. Yet, it’s fruit I know the taste of and my first inclination when directionless or unsure is to go back to it.

When you let the desire to achieve run rampant in any workplace, you’ll never be satisfied with what you do because you’ll always be looking to out do it, even though you’ll take more than enough time to beat yourself up over failures. You’ll expect your workers to be like you and you’ll push them to the edge. Then, if they keep up, you’ll compete with them. Feel threatened by them. Be bitter at them.

You’ll also miss things about yourself that you really need to see clearly if you want to improve, or stop hitting a wall. Sometimes less is more, even though such a concept does not seem to fit into the strong work ethic philosophy.

Truth be told, if there was some great baseball related job out there asking for me, I’d probably consider it. And just because i’m back in school doesn’t mean I’m not looking for it. Yet, I know that I still have a lot to learn—as well as unlearn— before I’ll be ready to take another shot at what I’d like to do. I want to stick around longer next time, enjoy it, balance it, and thrive. I’ve always said there is more to life than baseball… even in a life anchored by baseball.

In the meantime, I just need to fight of the urge to do something stupid 😉

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