In eager anticipation of the Super Bowl yesterday, hoping to get my sports mojo flowing, I switched on the NHL telecast of the Pittsburgh versus Washington as I worked around the house. What a great game. The visiting Penguins jumped to a 4 to 1 lead and then lost in overtime, 5 to 4. That was fun to watch but what struck me about the game was that the two best players in the league were matched against one another, the Cap’s Alex Ovechkin and the Pen’s Sidney Crosby who, combined, scored 5 of the 9 goals in the game. They are incredible to watch. The announcers were singing their praises throughout the game, their incredible hand-eye coordination, their size, their eyesight and then the thing that I heard loud and clear that stopped me cold. It was how hard they both work at their game. They work harder than most everyone else in the league and because of that (at least in some large part), they’re the best. Hard Work can sound like…. “Practice makes Perfect”…… “The Early Bird Catches the Worm”…..”The More that I Practice, the Luckier I Get”……but to me it all boils down that there are no easy ways to succeed. No get rich quick schemes. It’s all about working hard and doing the little things that others refuse or are too lazy to do. We all have unique gifts but it’s Hard Work and the commitment to doing it that distinguishes the average or good from the great.
