I thought it would be worth stirring the pot a little by giving a shoutout to a very special group of people who I will simply call “The Doers.” You know, people who just plain get things done. They may not be the most popular all the time, and in fact, they may be outright despised by those who might simply be jealous of their success.
Many have pushed the envelope on everything from fighting wars to interpreting the law to using tough negotiating tactics to using whatever means is necessary to get’er done! Some even have a mean streak in them and their tactics are either rightfully judged as despicable or, in some cases, unfairly misunderstood by the masses. Despite the critics, they got things done.
The list is long and famous/infamous depending on your point of view. It includes the likes of Genghis Khan, Julius Caesar, Christopher Columbus, Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Edison, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Wernher von Braun, Martin Luther King Jr.,, Muhammad Ali, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk. You may not like some of them, but I am advocating that you at least give them the credit for making things happen, mostly for the greater good. They dared to go where many will not.
Two of my favorite quotes hang framed in my house where I see them daily. At the risk of “TMI,” I stare at them whilst I’m seated on the throne in my master bathroom water closet.
“You see things; you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?” ― George Bernard Shaw
The other is even more appropriate for this subject and pardon me if I borrow a section from my own book to describe it in more detail:
One of the most inspiring speeches ever given was, “The Man in the Arena,” by President Theodore Roosevelt on April 23, 1910. This speech is framed in my house where I see it every day. It is a reminder to have the courage to try things to the best of your ability and ignore the critics. The message is especially relevant in today’s social media-driven world where we are inundated with “fake news.” We are surrounded by “critics without credentials,” those anonymous Internet commenters who criticize just for the sake of being contrary and are negative because they have no real passion or purpose of their own.
I have taken the liberty of modernizing Teddy’s speech below:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the person who points out how strong people stumble, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if they fail, at least fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”
I believe what Teddy was saying is that it is far better to have the courage to try your best and fall short, than to have never tried at all. When you are engaged in a worthy cause and someone is trying to tear you down, ridicule you or create a barrier for you, simply look at it as a compliment and a source of motivation. These critics and naysayers haven’t taken the chance, put their reputation on the line or had the guts to go after their dream. But you do have the guts to go after your dream. Bring it on!
If we were to try and separate the list of Doers into the good, the bad and the ugly, it would create quite the discussion. For every Abraham Lincoln or MLK, there is a Richard Nixon or an Andrew Carnegie. One could argue that Andrew Carnegie did more philanthropic good than the sum of his evils from his businesses that cost thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of lives in the pursuit of his steel empire. No one can argue with his success, certainly if the metric is his accumulation of wealth, his impact on the industrial revolution in the world and his many contributions to society. But at what cost? At least in the end he tried to right many of his wrongs, so I’ll give him some credit.
There is a popular saying from the 1980s often attributed to Malcolm Forbes, the billionaire publisher of Forbes Magazine, that boasts: “He who dies with the most toys wins.” It could be found everywhere from T-shirts to major publications to television and movies. It was from the same era of the blockbuster movie “Wall Street” with Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko who said the infamous line, “Greed is good.”
But if we are to equate getting things done only in these material terms, then perhaps we are discounting the real value to society as a whole. Jeff Cranston is an author, podcaster and foremost the pastor of my church. In his sermon this past Sunday he talked about the Forbes quote above and stated: “It should say: He who dies with the most toys…still dies!” His message was obviously about measuring success in a spiritual way, and not a worldly way.
The question that I think we don’t ask enough is “Why do you do what you do?” Is there a deeper meaning and a more significant endgame for what you are trying to accomplish?
The term WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) has become popular in today’s playbook for success as measured by some. But what about WIIFT (What’s in it for them?)? Shouldn’t that be part of the objective as well?
Isn’t it far more noble to “get it done” with the greater good in mind? With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I think it’s a good time to re-evaluate what matters most when you are making the tough calls. Service to others matters. It should matter as much as possible when being a Doer.
I have had the pleasure of working with a number of college and high school coaches and their student-athletes this fall and have found the importance of this time to be immeasurable to me. My role isn’t to call plays or whip the kids into shape. It’s to give them life lessons with topics that include sacrifice, focus, unity, resilience, humility, anger, all with a biblical context. By the way, we can do this in the south a lot easier than I could have up north. Just saying.
The “getting it done” goal isn’t just about wins and losses on the field or courts, but in life. I can only hope and pray that some of my messages are connecting. It may be years before we’ll know but we are planting good seeds.
Sadly, I have witnessed coaches and teachers under more pressure than ever by helicopter and lawnmower parents who think the world exists to worry and care only for their individual kids. We have become a society of whiners and critics without credentials. I’ve seen school boards fire coaches because a board member’s kid didn’t make the varsity team or isn’t playing as much as Coach Mom or Coach Dad thinks they should.
It’s why I’m not fond of the unlimited transfer portal in the NCAA. It’s too easy for kids (usually influenced by parents and “advisors” who rarely know the whole story) to give up. It’s fine to let the student have one pass, but after that there should be a consequence. Look I get it, no coach or administrator is correct all the time. Most of us try to do the right thing, but we do hear the voices, and we do feel the pressure.
Aren’t we all supposed to be in this together for the good of the kids? Kind of sounds like what the country needs right about now: both sides of the aisle to act like adults and work for the common good.
I like people who get things done. But I really like people who get them done for the greater good. I challenge you to be a “Good Doer.”
