I remember golfing with my friends. Some of my closest friends. I was in my twenties. I was a decent golfer, got down to the low teens, regularly in the low 80s. Two of my roommates were excellent golfers. They were both accountants. They did not fit into Happy Gilmore’s stereotype of golfers. They were a plus-two and a three.

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The legendary catcher Crash Davis was at the center of the baseball movie Bull Durham. Early in the movie, rookie pitcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh and Crash meet behind a bar in Durham… you know, the classic “wanna step outside” moment. The moment culminates with Crash challenging Nuke to throw a baseball at him, followed by Crash planting seeds of what could happen if Nuke misses.

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If you have access to something that can set you apart, and you're willing to put in the work necessary, your skill set can compound. The gains that you can make will set you apart from others due to the advantage you have been given. Will you capture it, or will you let it slip? 

We are the average of the people we spend the most time with. We pick up their habits, we pick up their opinions, we pick up their attitudes toward the world. If you hang with people who make bad choices... well, you will make bad choices too. 

For most of us, it's not enough to read. The information just tends to get lost over time. It's about cataloguing the information in a meaningful way in order to be able to reference it later. There are many different ways to go about it, and there's no right way... but there needs to be a way. 

If you want to be successful, you need to look at what those who are truly successful are doing. The best students... are they taking notes differently? How do they study? How do they organize their thoughts? The best athletes... how do they practice? Do they watch film? What do they look for during a game?

This episode started out about compounding, and how a small investment in a person at a critical time in their lives can make a massive difference. I guess it's still about compounding. But there are times you can take a small thing—an offer of space or access—and give it to someone to see what they'll do with it. It happened with Bill Gates and his access to the computer lab in his town. It happened with my daughter and her baseball teammates here in Bedford, N.H. Sometimes it's the happenstance of access and someone believing in you that really creates the opportunity for growth. 

Shane Parrish had a great quote in his Brain Food newsletter in late July about life rewarding action. We'll review the quote here and how this ties into becoming a champion, and why hard work wins. 

Sometimes things just tie together. We have just finished reviewing the Core Values for UNC Women's Soccer, and I was reminded of a quote from their legendary coach Anson Dorrance to Mia Hamm. He saw her working out on a cold morning and wrote her a note that said "The vision of a champion is someone who is bent over, drenched in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when nobody else is looking.”

Others, including Dr. Rob Gilbert, have said similar things. But these quotes all revolve around doing more than expected. If you want the same results that other people get, the best way to get them is to do the same things they are. If you want different results, you have to do more. 

Leaders can change an organization's culture. For the 1988 Dodgers, that leader was Kirk Gibson. Gibson was on the receiving end of a prank that changed the Dodgers' season.

“Basically, I don’t want to be a part of their fun and comedy act,” said Gibson. “I’m not a radical guy. I go by the rules. This other bull is foreign to me. I like to have a good time, but a good time to me is winning.” “I wasn’t ready to play in the game after that,” Gibson said. “Some racehorses walk into the gate; others get all hyped up. Before game time, I get all hyped up and I don’t have a sense of humor. That’s obvious.”