Jason Kidd and the ‘Overnight Success’ Theory

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From the outside looking in, it would seem Jason Kidd is an overnight success, nabbing a head coaching job with zero experience just days after retiring as a player. He beat out people like Brian Shaw who have been preparing for a role like this for years. So how did he become an overnight success?

The reality is, there is no such thing as an overnight success. Whenever you see someone make it big, there’s a tremendous amount of work that went on behind the scenes. When I took EntreLeadership with Dave Ramsey, he noted how when his book became a New York Times best-seller, everyone called him an overnight success. What people didn’t see was the work put in beforehand. Teaching seminars to less than 10 people. Working full time, raising a family with young kids, and writing a book in his “spare” time. That spare time? It was entirely between 10pm and 2am.

Now with Jason Kidd, it’s easy to point to the obvious. He was an extension of the coach on the floor, and was more or less a player/assistant coach his last year or so in the league. He’s considered one of the best basketball minds of our time. But still, that doesn’t create that much separation from other candidates – especially ones who have been serving as apprentices for this position for years under big names.

This passage from ESPN about him taking the coaching job caught my eye:

Kidd said he began keeping a diary in 2010 about how coaches handled different situations and noted how he’d do things differently.

That’s called doing work. This is something my dad taught me. All things being equal, there is one variable you can control – you can outwork everyone else.

That’s at least 3 years of preparation behind the scenes that no one knew about. It’s having a goal, and figuring out how to work toward it, and how to set yourself apart from everyone else.

It’s funny – one Imam told me that he regularly gets requests from people to “teach me how to do what you do.” Meaning, teach me how to travel around the country and speak at conferences and teach classes as a living. Just the mere fact that a person thinks there is some kind of shortcut, or trick that you can replicate to achieve this shows they don’t get it.

The better question to ask is how they got started and what seeds they planted 5 years ago or 10 years ago, that set them up to eventually become successful.

What Exactly is it That I Do?

 

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Some other great quotes from Mad Men

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Picture: The Difference Between Successful People and Very Successful People

 

 

 

Focus

 

Cross-posted from Farnam Street

The Good Old Days

This is Water – David Foster Wallace

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

It’s like they studied my day and made this video.

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(H/T Farnam Street)

Dedication to Your Craft

“It’s work,” James says. “It’s a lot of work. It’s being in workouts, and not accomplishing your goal, and paying for it. So, if I get to a spot in a workout and want to make eight out of 10, if I don’t make eight of 10, then I run. I push myself to the point of exhaustion until I make that goal. So you build up that mentality that you got to make that shot and then use that in a game situation — it’s the ultimate feeling, when you’re able to work on something and implement it.”

-Lebron James

Being the best means putting in the work, more than anyone else – even if you’re already more talented than everyone else.

Update on Well Project (RamadanWater)

So this past Ramadan, we launched a project for Raheem & Aisha (ramadanwater.com) to raise money to sponsor the construction of a water well. We just got confirmation from them that the process has started to build a well in Cambodia. The entire project is a 2 year project, so about 18 months from now we should be receiving photos and GPS coordinates etc.

Jazakumallahu khayr to everyone who helped out!

The Prophet (SAW) said: “The best form of charity is giving someone water (to drink)” (Ahmad, An-Nasaa’i and Ibn Maajah)

Sa’d asked: Apostle of Allah, Umm Sa’d has died; what form of sadaqah is best? He replied: Water (is best). He dug a well and said: It is for Umm Sa’d. (Abu Dawud)

If you’d like to contribute to a project you can do so at:

  1. Islamic Relief  - choose water and sanitation in the drop down menu
  2. Charity Water

 

 

Perfect Your Art, Particularly Khutbahs

This is a great 5 minute video where Jerry Seinfeld discusses the 2 year process it took him to write his Pop Tart joke. Dedication to your craft is what really sets people apart from others. Interesting take-aways, especially for a khateeb:

1) Patience in writing what you are working on. It takes time and hard work. The most successful people put in ten times the work as everyone else and make it look natural. This reminds me of a Dave Ramsey quote where he says he worked his butt off for 15 years, and then after making it big everyone called him an overnight success.

2) Making sure that your closing is strong. There have to be high points scattered throughout the speech to keep the audiences attention by being part of an overall story.

3) Relentless dedication to the point to point flow of what you are saying. In the Qalam Institute khateeb workshop we teach this as one of the ‘secret sauces’ of good speech writing. Every detail must be meticulously planned out.

 

4) In the end, your success is in your simplicity.

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(Hat tip to Michael Hyatt for the video)

Insightful Perspective on Education: Stop Stealing Dreams by Seth Godin

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