A Bad Lesson from Sports

I heard an interview recently with a serious and successful business man who talked about the economy, unemployment and the business world in general. One thing he said stuck, especially to my medically sensitized brain. He was speaking about hiring and firing people and said he never hired a bad or incompetent guy. The employees he picked were always up to the job. He fired only in two instances; first, in a business downturn as his business was growing and was sometimes stressed to make payroll and , second, in the instance of an employee under performing. He said that when an employee underperformed it was never because he could not do the job. His failure was always due to the same problem: The employee always had a poor ability to assess himself and always, always, overestimated his performance.

Humility. Caution. Critical self assessment.

We live in a very sports obsessed world. The athlete trains himself in many ways; one focus is to win. How to win is taught. He never learns that a task is too big, too complex. He never learns he is outgunned because, if he does, he is beat before he starts. Blind optimism is a particularly athletic trait; confidence is paramount and sometimes tips the balance. And lack of confidence can kill. The great competitors take advantage of this and make the competition more than just the sport; it becomes a complex battle with history and personality and texture and, if his opponent accepts the new ground rules, he is beat. Muhammad Ali was a genius it this; Patterson the perfect victim of it.

But this does not work in the real world. The real world is indeed complex with history and personality and texture that all must be considered and managed. Confidence and brashness might beat the cornerback but it does not solve problems. Self assessment is hard and may be a success trait. The highest scoring students in self esteem testing are the lowest scoring students in grades.

It is significant that the first--and sometimes the only--Greek word the student learns is hubris.