Friday night I randomly flipped through ESPN’s On demand menu and found “Requiem For The Big East,” which I hadn’t seen in quite a while, so I decided to watch for a few minutes; and then an hour and a half. I watched as a reminder of those original days of basketball but also to see in the background the faces of so many friends of the past all in a different time; it was great picking out the faces in the crowd.
It was only after that as midnight closed in that I suddenly realized what Saturday would bring in this new normal.
Silence.
For the first time not just in my lifetime but in anyone’s in the last 150 years in North America there would be no Little League practice or soccer, no March Madness or Spring training, no high school lacrosse or softball, no Olympic workouts, no swimming for exercise…maybe some golf or some other single safe distance events but nothing that we would know as normal in sport, or entertainment in what is always the busiest month of the year on the calendar; the only month I can think of where every league is either playing, prepping or winding down pretty much across the continent.
Today. Nothing.
Now that’s the downside, and it is a deep slide. Those who say “its only games and we can do without” forget that this is a people business; and there are thousands of people in the event space scrambling to bridge lives from today to when play starts to come back, and what that will look like. Coaches and trainers are looking for income, event people are going out of business already…and on and on.
Personally I am keeping the glass half full and then some. I see lots of brand reinvention as businesses that were once thought to be small and disruptive find their way. I listen to people in management who are showing empathy and leading vs getting caught up in drama, while you hear others who are sadly worried about keeping their excess vs sharing with those who need. I have been part of the work from home economy for over a decade so I have somehow figured out the balance to some extent, and have spent time trying to help others manage the flow. I see lots of hope and opportunity down the road, and we will return to some form of normalcy before too long…depending on what your version of long is.
One thing that we learn from sports is what we take away from loss and unpredictability. If you are on the business side you have little control over the outcome of events, and this is something which we have no ultimate control over, although, ironically, we can help by listening and flattening the curve…short term pain, long term gain.
The other thing we get from sports, and from good leaders, is teamwork. Working together, and supporting each other, albeit remotely, is invaluable today. Selfishness is a killer; selflessness is needed. Mark Cuban’s like with Chris Cuomo the other night really rings true.
“In a crisis good leaders go from me to we pretty quickly.”
We need more we and less me now more than ever.
So a few ideas to keep things going…some of these I stole from my colleague Pat Cavanaugh, you can watch his short video here.
Find your five each day; make a list of five people to text, email or call every day just to catch up with.
Birthdays. If you are on Facebook, check out the birthdays listing every day. Drop those people a message, it will lighten their day.
Use “I had No idea”: We do this in class but do it yourself. Ask yourself what you learned today for the better. One thing every day will help.
Keep Moving Things Forward. Many indications are infection may still get worse, especially as some knuckleheads still think it’s a scam or it won’t happen to them. However, what is true is every day is closer to the end of this. Take each day, do the positive and keep going. Don’t look back.
So that’s it for now. Below is yet another late night remembering…
Grantland Rice’s poem “Game Called”
Hopefully it is back to games before long…just a bump in the road.
Game Called. Across the field of play
the dusk has come, the hour is late.
The fight is done and lost or won,
the player files out through the gate.
The tumult dies, the cheer is hushed,
the stands are bare, the park is still.
But through the night there shines the light,
home beyond the silent hill.
Game Called. Where in the golden light
the bugle rolled the reveille.
The shadows creep where night falls deep,
and taps has called the end of play.
The game is done, the score is in,
the final cheer and jeer have passed.
But in the night, beyond the fight,
the player finds his rest at last.
Game Called. Upon the field of life
the darkness gathers far and wide,
the dream is done, the score is spun
that stands forever in the guide.
Nor victory, nor yet defeat
is chalked against the players name.
But down the roll, the final scroll,
shows only how he played the game.
