Stop Waiting To Be Seen

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What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. I saw something from Forbes just this morning as I was reading this, and I’m like, oh, man, I got to talk about this, because this is awesome. If you know me, if you know anything about me, I’ve talked about baseball a lot because I used to play baseball when I was a kid, like from age seven to geez, or eight, seven or eight, and it was nine years that I played it, I was actually really freaking good, and it helped me define a lot of the ways that I lead. Because I’ve coached even after that. I’ve coached baseball, I’ve coached softball, and I’ve coached even kids T-ball. It’s been a lot of fun for me to go through that and then go back to my roots and be able to teach this stuff out. I love baseball for the game that it is, and even more so, just the teamwork that’s involved in the positioning that takes place. So I’m going to read this to you here. It’s very much my leadership style. But what I’m going to talk to you about is not leadership today. I’m actually going to talk to you about what we were talking about just a minute ago, which is getting each other’s backs.

 And by the way, I got this idea because we use something like an Entrepreneurial Operating System, right? The book traction. If you’ve ever read it by, I think it’s Gino Wickman. I’ve read Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman as well. It’s all along the same stuff. We follow that format. This three-hour meeting is something that I saw that all these big com big tech companies traditionally did, like Steve Jobs would do it with Apple, you know, Bezos did it with Amazon. Musk has done it in versions over the course of the life of Tesla, so that everybody is there on the same field, ready to solve the problems in real time, ready to advance things in the real in real time. Everybody is backing each other up. So it’s like, I need this. Like, cool. We’re going to do it right now. I got you. This was on Forbes, right? Talking about the CEO the sorry, it’s the former CEO now, and co-founder of Netflix, Mark Rudolph. I’m going to read this to you. It’s like once in a high school baseball game. Netflix co-founder Mark Rudolph was playing second base. I don’t know if you’ve ever played second base. You might relate to this, right? When the ball was hit towards the first baseman. I know exactly what the second baseman is supposed to do. 

Does anybody else know, as you’re listening, the second baseman is supposed to go behind the first baseman in case he misses it, whatever it is, and it’s backing him up. So it says that when the ball was hit towards the first baseman, Randolph did what he practiced every single day, and backed him up, right, the ball alluded the first baseman. This is what I’m talking about right here, because if it’s hit too fast as a ground ball, or it’s just too high. That’s why, as they go, it’s like, as the first baseman’s moving over, the second baseman comes right in behind, in case it gets back past the first baseman. It says the ball was looted by the first baseman, so Randolph snagged it and threw the runner out at second. So what that tells me is that the runner was so quick, and this ball was just a little crazy, a little wonky, right, that the runner ended up rounding first and going towards second base. He thought he was going to get a double out of this, just because of maybe a gaffe by the first baseman, but Mark Randolph here snagged it and threw the runner out at second. When he returned to the dugout, he was surprised to be met with everyone just being so enthusiastic and high-fiving him and patting him on the back and saying, Dude, you’re awesome. Way to go. And he’s sitting there thinking, this is brilliant. I love this, right? Imagine his mindset here with this. 

He remembers his exact response as everybody was praising him. His response was, I’m there. Every play isn’t that powerful. He’s like, he’s looking around, and he’s like, why the praise now? Like, I can imagine what’s going through his mind. It’s like, I did what I’m supposed to do. It’s like, right now, it’s like everybody’s praising me because maybe it was a game-winner. I don’t know. It doesn’t say that, right? Maybe it was allowing them to advance something, or whatever it was in the game strategy. I don’t know, but his response was quite simple and exactly as he remembers it, Hey guys, I’m there every day. I’m backing up the first baseman every single day. He wasn’t bragging to his teammates, right? He was just being very literal, you know, just saying, Yeah, I do it all the time now, like, yeah, I got this, Ryan. That’s not the point of what he was saying. I’m there every day saying I’m literal in this. And thinking about it, backing up the first baseman was exactly what he had practiced doing time and time and time again, until it was second nature to him, until that’s just what happened. That’s just where he goes. It’s muscle memory. It’s neurological memory. 

Every time the ball gets hit to the first baseman, he’s automatically there in position behind him, backing him up. Right? And now he was also trying to relate the lesson that he learned on that play, on that exciting play that he had when he did that, and everybody’s high fiving him and praising him says no one ever sees all the times you do something, until the one time you do it and you find yourself in the right place at the right time. To me this like, hit home so hard, so freaking hard, because there’s so many things that we do day in and day out, and truly that even the leadership in companies do day in and day out that everybody within a company might not see behind the scenes, or if it’s in a relationship, it’s like all the things I don’t know, but, you know, building reach out, and everything that I did right, I had my wife at home who was actually there tending to the matters of the house. It’s like the success. There was a good partnership that existed there, and I had no idea what went on every single day, like day in and day out, all the little tiny things, just like vice versa, she would have no idea what went on every single day, with, with, reach out, with, work with business, any of that stuff, until there was, like, these micro moments. 

And I’m sure you can think about this too, because imagine the times that you might have been, you know, like you think you’re being overlooked for a promotion in a job you might have had, okay, or maybe you’ve had you’re servicing a customer or something like that, and you’re there every single week, or you’re doing just like, some regular maintenance or something like that, and you’re going the extra mile every single time. You’re doing just what you do, because that’s what you’re supposed to do. That’s part of your job. And you’re doing it all the time, something that you are showing up for, for that other individual, for that company, for that customer, for that partner, all the time, and that’s what you continuously do, until the one time they walk in, it’s like, Wow, you’re really good at that. You know, I think you could do some bigger things for this company. Or, geez, honey, you’re really good at that. I appreciate that you do this every single day. Or, man, thank you. Thank you. You know, I never saw anything from that light before. Thank you for providing for us. Everything you do is never going to be seen by everybody, or sometimes even anybody, and that’s okay. 

And you know what? I had to get over some of this a little while back myself, and I’m telling you this because this is a matter of ego. You know, I love it. It’s fulfilling. It’s a rush when I speak on stage, when I get DMS from somebody listening to a show like this, or whatever it is, from just a phone conversation that I get these DMS, or somebody sees me on stage, like later on, two years later, this just happened, actually, at an event a couple of weeks ago, at the Kaseya event in Vegas, dude walks. I was like, Hey, remember me? I’m like, kind of not really. He’s like, You know what, when I saw you talk on stage two years ago, and you said that one of the best things you ever did was eliminate contracts from customers. He’s like, I did that for all my customers, and my net profit went up 35% because now they just focus on the value rather than the price in terms of the contract. Thank you. And I’ve had other people DM me and be like, Man, that show that you talk about, it really hit hard. That podcast episode that was out last week really hit home. And man, that changed my life. I love hearing these things, but the reality of what actually happens is whatever customer you’re affecting, whatever spouse or partner that you have, whatever kids that you’ve brought into this world. 

Most of the stuff that you do on a day-to-day basis, for all of those people, will never be seen. And I used to want to live for those moments, especially being on stage right, And to see somebody like get it in the moments, or be coaching somebody on the fly, you know, at an event, because they crowd after you, whatever it is, and be like, I’m going to tell you this, and then right now, I’m going to see the gratification of something that happens, or they’re going to send me a message next week. You know what? It almost never happens, and why? Because I used to think it’s like, they’re just not getting it. Why don’t they make a change, or something like that? But you know what? Maybe it just wasn’t the time. Maybe they weren’t having an open mind in that moment, whatever it is, but it’s like, that’s the moments that I would start to live for, and then I was able to correct myself and have a little bit of personal growth on my own and kill my ego and say, You know what, I’m okay with being the seed planter. Because if I’m the one who finishes the process of growth, or that epiphany, or am able to guide that individual into something life-changing for themselves. 

Or I was the one at the very beginning where they heard it for the first time, and it still took them 18 times after that, from different people, until the one person came into where they were open, and they’re like, Yeah, okay, this. To work, or I’m okay with being the eighth, ninth, or 10th person in the line, because most of the fruits of my labor and most of the fruits of your labor, and this is, this is hard hitting, right? Just like this guy to who’s like Mark, this former CEO and co-founder of Netflix, Mark Randolph, is saying, Well, I’m there every day. Have you ever felt like that to where it’s like, I’m doing this every day? Why don’t I get noticed? And that’s okay, because what’s still going to happen is that you’re still going to have the result that you’re trying to drive. You’re still going to have that environment that you’re trying to create. You’re still going to have that household that you’re working for, that you’re putting in all the effort for, for your kids. You might not ever see the outcome of some of those things, but just understand that there would never be an outcome if you weren’t doing those things over and over and over again, the outcome can still take place. 

You just might never see it, but you’ll have no impact if you never do it in the first place, or you’re not consistently showing up over and over and over again, time and time and time and time again. And then those small moments that just pop by, to where someone actually says, Hey, I notice those are so fantastic. And those are the cool moments that will keep you fueled for the future. And just imagine all the 1000s, 10s of 1000s of other times where you don’t hear anything and take gratification in the fact that you are fulfilling your purpose. For a lot of people in this world, that’s the cool thing. That’s what our division leaders are doing. That’s what we’re doing every single Monday in these marathon meetings. If you want to call them that, I don’t know what to call them, right? But that’s what a lot of people do in their homes and their jobs in a lot of different areas of life. So go out there and be the seed planter.