Last night I watched ABC Evening News. This is something that only happens when family visits. Family arrived two days ago from “up north”. As we were eating some take out pizza, my attention was captured when the “Person of The Week” feature announced the University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball coach, Geno Auriemma, as the person of the week.
Why did this interest me?
Because I love basketball? No.
Because I’m heading back to New England in a few weeks.
Part of my personal brand is exceeding expectations. Not meeting them. Exceeding them! This is really hard to do, day in and day out. So what’s one of my secret tactics?
Paying attention. Paying attention? Yes. Paying attention.
To what?
On a good day, everything.
Very simply, I’ve been trained from day one, to always be looking for small “wows” – things important to people, but people aren’t consciously aware they are important. This is why it’s a surprise and why it exceeds their expectations. They never saw it coming. But once it arrived, WOW!
Well, where I’m headed, UConn Basketball is important. For some it’s “religion”. For others, not so much. But overall, it’s very important to the fabric, the culture, of this community.
If I have an opportunity to get real time, emotional data from the TV, why not take it?
Yogi Berra, a baseball player I think, used to say, “You can observe a lot by watching“.
Words to live by. Seriously, words to live by.
Pay attention and carpe diem, jungle jeff 🙂
PS. I’d like to post again about the coach, Geno Auriemma. He used a phrase, “the Stone-cold truth” to describe how he coaches. The truth hurts, yet the truth can set you free, and lead you to three consecutive National Championships, and five National Championships since 2000. WOW!
