There are No Automatics In Life
It was a play that he had done probably a thousand times during practice, countless games and in his mind. Tony Romo, the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, performed that simple task so often that he and everyone else considered it automatic.
And it was…..until it wasn’t.
Saturday night I watched as my beloved Dallas Cowboys fell to the Seattle Seahawks 21-20 in their Wild Card Playoff Game. The loss was one of the worst in recent memory. It left me hurting as a fan and even more for a young guy named Tony Romo. The perfect snap, the botched hold and an entire season down the drain all in a matter of about three seconds.
Anyone who knows me knows that I live and breathe the Dallas Cowboys and I have for as long as I can remember. I am so silver and blue that rumor has it I came out of the womb with the shiny
Boy was I rooting on Saturday night! Let’s just say neighbors for three blocks knew the game was on and likely knew when and how it had ended.
Watching the game end like it did really, really hurt. However I managed to pull a lesson or two from it. Something I hope might make sense to you and by sharing it might assuage my pain.
Simple, everyday actions that we all take for granted and consider automatic can sometimes go erroneously wrong.
Something as simple as not returning a customer’s phone call because it is late in the day can cost you.
Taking your super star employees for granted and not recognizing them for their effort often enough can cost you.
Failing to say the words “I am sorry” when you screw up can cost you.
Not remembering to say “Thank you” to anyone and everyone who has ever purchased something from you, supported you or believed in you can and will cost you.
We all bump through our personal and professional lives I believe taking things for granted. We all have our “automatics” that we overlook and assume will always be there and go smoothly for us no matter what. If I learned anything Saturday night, there are no give me’s in life. I learned to remember that the automatic is not guaranteed and just when you begin to think it is that’s when life has a funny way of sneaking up on you to remind you it is not.
Saturday night was painful for me not only as a fan of Tony Romo’s and the Dallas Cowboys but a fan of life. It was a painful reminder that those things we take for granted can and will always find a way to break at the most inopportune times if we give them permission to do so. And by permission I mean….failing to place the proper importance on all the things we do…even the simple most automatic things.
Life offers us no automatics.
What I believe is Tony Romo will grow from this mistake. He will be back next year a better quarterback out there on the football field. His willingness to accept responsibility during the post-game news conference proves he will take this misstep and utilize it to motivate and inspire himself in the future. And I firmly believe on Saturday night, as tears filled his eyes and his heart was broken with the pain of the loss, he became the real leader of the team. Somehow in defeat and despite a huge mistake, he taught me something.
Saturday night’s game was good reminder to us all. The simple automatic things in life and in business can and will in a moments notice slip through our fingers if we let it.
Ripple On Friends!
Steve Harper
1 comment:
LOVE the new site! It's clear, packs a punch, is easy to navigate and illustrates exactly what it is you do. That's not often the case with websites, unfortunately!
Bravo and wishing you the best of the best for 2007!
Donna
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