MADE IN DETROIT

I’m not perfect. Far from it. Morally, ethically, athletically, and any other way I could be perfect, I am not.

But, I grew up with parents who tried to instill a strong sense of right versus wrong in me. Because of them, I try to live life with the goal of “explicitly do right” rather than just “don’t do wrong.”

And, for better or worse, I — along with the majority of boys I know — grew up with athletes as my role models. Those role models last today. I still idolize those rare sportsmen who can achieve the highest level of success in their profession AND do things The Right Way.

When Tiger got in his car accident just about two years ago, I tweeted:

He was a role model of mine: someone who did things no one else has ever been able to do, someone with extreme physical attributes AND mental fitness. Someone who had family values first (remember his relationship with his dad?). Someone who gave back to the community. Someone who was an athlete and intelligent (Stanford, anyone). He was doing it The Right Way.

So when the crash happened, I just hoped for the best. I hoped his career wouldn’t be hurt.

Fast forward and we all know how this plays out: Tiger is an asshole. He tried to hide as much as possible, and for a long time didn’t even take blame for what happened. He may have done some great things in his life, but he hurt the people who should have mattered the most to him, and he’ll never recover from that.

This morning, Joe Paterno (another apparently stand-up guy who wins The Right Way), embroiled in a scandal of his own, offered his resignation at the end of this season. It was the only logical choice for him. Here’s some snippets of his resignation letter:

I am absolutely devastated by the developments in this case. I grieve for the children and their families, and I pray for their comfort and relief.

…

This is a tragedy. It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more.

My goals now are to keep my commitments to my players and staff and finish the season with dignity and determination. And then I will spend the rest of my life doing everything I can to help this University.

If you ask me, this is the voice of a man who understands the grave mistake he made. Heck, his first statement is for the well-being of the childen, not himself, or the university.

Clearly, JoePa didn’t actively Do Right, and instead he just Didn’t Do Wrong. And, it’s on a colossal scale: child molestation within his facilities is far worse than Tiger’s infidelities or Ohio State’s free tattoos. Hence, he had to resign; there was simply no other option. Further, it’s entirely saddening to me to know that everyone will remember him for this, and not for the 50 years of good he did as a head coach. Time will tell if there’s more to this story, but right now I’m inclined to believe what he’s saying.

Which is why I’m actually upset with Penn State’s Board of Trustees decision this evening to not allow JoePa to continue to coach the remainder of this season, firing him effective immediately. If JoePa is seriously committed to the university (I believe he is), and he understands that his inactions caused great harm to these young boys (I believe he does), I’m surprised the university isn’t going to use him to help repair the damage caused, rather than shut off one of their greatest assets, who (I would guess) would be willing to do anything for that school.

The story hasn’t even begun to be written about what happened at Penn State, and it could turn out JoePa was a terrible person, but I hope not. I want to believe he is the guy everyone has thought he is. Albeit, one who made a huge mistake.

Regardless, over and over again I’m learning that there’s no such thing as an all around role model. Everyone cuts corners. Bill Gates is an amazing, philanthropic, man, but he built Microsoft in slimy ways. Steve Jobs was a product genius who denied his daughter for a long time. Tiger Woods could swing a golf club, but couldn’t keep it in his pants. JoePa could graduate a ton of academic all-american football players playing at an elite level, but couldn’t follow up on a child molestation report about an assistant coach.

To me, this all boils down to: Be your own role model. A role model for yourself, and a role model for others. I make plenty of mistakes, but I hope to be the type of person I wish I could see on TV. The type of person I hope my future children will look up to. Someone who makes mistakes, but only makes the same mistake once and makes up for them when they happen.

habitlabs:

He’s taught me, over the past 6 months, an invaluable lesson: Competitive advantage doesn’t arise from ideation or the ‘unique’ view you have of the market.

It arises from building the sh*t out of something people love (PG also tried to teach me this one, but I was infinitely more stubborn last summer). It arises from being proactive. 

It arises from knowing the problem intimately, throwing solutions at it obsessively, until you own the solution. It’s a ‘problem’ oriented focus, not a market or market positioning oriented focus.

This means feeling competitive is pretty much mental masturbation at this stage.

The only competition we *really* have is internal.

When we execute on our very unique vision by building defensible, ‘heavy lifting’ tech we will not only ‘own’ the problem of health behavior change, we’ll also ‘own’ the solution. 

Lessons learned (the hard way):

1. Quit worrying so much about the competition.

2. Don’t waste your time worrying about what everyone else is doing. 

3. Keep an eye on the market, adjust plans at the micro level, but if the market or competitors really surprise you, you probably haven’t been paying enough attention (or your team doesn’t count ‘experienced market creators/visionaries’ as part of the ranks). 

Love that.