Great People Are Drawn to a Definite Purpose

Have you ever seen a professional sports team that’s absolutely stacked with talent but rarely, if ever, wins a championship? The older I get, the less I can tolerate the ever-increasing nonsense that’s seemed to have taken over professional sports so I can’t speak in much detail about any specific team (in any sport) over the last decade or so. From a distance though, I’d have to point to any team Lebron James has played for over the last ten years. While I’ve never been much of a basketball fan, just the little bit of exposure I get to ESPN while on the elliptical machine continues to show me that he’s had incredible talent all around him, wherever he’s played, and has lost more championships than he’s won AND those teams have failed to get to a championship even more times. 

At one point, I followed professional baseball very closely. Having grown up a Red Sox fan, I remember listening to game four of the 2004 ALCS very late while driving from the airport in Memphis, TN to the hotel I was staying at in Jonesboro, AR. My first surprise was that it was still going since it started before I boarded my flight from Atlanta to Memphis. The next surprise was that the Red Sox won with a 12th inning walk-off home run by David Ortiz. The Red Sox went on to win the next three games against the Yankees then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series. I was enamored! But that’s not the point here; that Yankees team had as much talent as I’ve ever seen on a baseball roster, and it did for several years afterward. However, this same organization that won four championships in just five years less than a decade prior (1996-2000) has only made it there twice since, losing in 2003 and winning in 2009, despite continuously having one of the highest payrolls in baseball - every single year - as well as some of the biggest names in the game.

Alex Rodriguez, arguably one of the most talented players to ever play baseball, signed the biggest contract in MLB history (at the time) in early 2004 to play for the Yankees and was there through his retirement after the 2016 season. While I’ve always admired his ability, I’ve never respected his demeanor, and I can’t help but believe what I've always felt was a “me first” air about him that impacted the overall culture of the teams he played for - in spite of being stacked with talent.

Let’s be honest about all this though, not a single baseball team has ever asked for my opinion. That’s stunning since I was an extremely good player - other than the running, hitting, and catching parts. But the reality is that the teams we build in our respective organizations depend on team member chemistry and cohesion just as much (and likely more) than any we’ll ever watch play a sport on television. That’s where the purpose we’ve been looking at becomes critical.

A-Rod made a ton of money but I’d bet that a lot of the players around him would have preferred winning a few championships. The folks that were chirping at me on social media about how companies owed them more and how they thought I was making a case for paying as little as possible aren’t likely ones who are striving for a championship in any industry - or a definite purpose for that matter. And I’ve just never seen strong teams built when the “you owe more, then I’ll work harder” mindset is in place.

What I have seen over and over and over again has been great people choosing to buy into a definite purpose when all other things are equal. To that end, I’ve seen a significant number of them choose purpose even when everything else isn’t equal! When that purpose is strong in the organization and with the individuals throughout the organization, it’s only a matter of time until best-in-class performance follows. And that nearly always yields the higher pay that far many people believe they deserve without earning it… But this almost always starts because great people want to be part of something that matters - so we’ll pick up there soon!