What is the ingredient of success?

Tomorrow (22 Sep) is the 2nd anniversay of my retirement ceremony from the Air Force after almost 28 years of service in the military.

So much had changed in the Air Force since I joined and it seemed things were going for the worse. I knew several people who were retiring who refused to have a ceremony and those who did had a real bad attitude in their speech. As much as it sucked, (and I was "run under the bus"on the way out), I didn't want people to remember me as the guy who "made a scene" at his ceremony.

So I decided to give a speech about something positive--something to teach the younger troops about what I learned over the years.  Everyone really went out of my way to give me a good ceremony and I appreciated that.  I told them to keep the cost cheap and I would help pay.  It really angered me when I saw other people who were retiring expecting a very expensive ceremony.  My belief is that nobody owes me anything and I do not expect it.

I gave what was perhaps the speech of my life with stories of triumph against all odds. I talked about leadership, being positive, but the jest of my speech was about preparation. I brought up my victory in a pool tournament, about my team's run to the championship pool title.

I was team captain and we were one game away from elimination. It was time for some quick thinking. I rearranged our lineup and placed myself in against their best player. Lucky me, I ran the table in two turns. Then I told my Korean teammates about my dream of victory. It was made up of course--the lesson here is you can only make a tall tale once. Real success comes from preparation--not let's do it for the Gipper. You can only use that one-liner once.

We came back, winning the next four games evening the score. Now it was time for the tie-breaker. The tension was unbelievable. It wasn't just a game to the Koreans. It was fulling the destiny of my "dream". The opposing team put their best player forward. My team insisted that I play. I said, "No, that's not how the dream was. In the dream "Me Ho" (can't remember her name) won. I think it was a great psychological shock for this guy to face our worst player. He might have even felt disrespected. Well, Me Ho was winnless in this tournament--losing two games. So, I was placing our worst player against their best in the final round. Sounds crazy doesn't it? I don't know if it's because the Koreans are superstituous or what, but she stepped up to the table believing in herself.

Right before the game began, I leaned over and spoke to Me Ho.  Everyone probably thought I was talking strategy.  I whispered to her, "If you win this game, I'll make love to you."  Well, Meo played like a professional and sent this guy home packing. I don't think she won it to sleep with me and I was just kidding anyway. 

It was an emotional ending as my team was cheering and the opponents were breaking pool sticks over their knees. In fact, I was almost hit by one of these sticks. These fragile egos could not live with the fact that they were beaten by 4 women and one guy.

I suppose the moral to the story is this: "Isn't it amazing what people can accomplish when you believe in them?"

Bottom Line:  Preparation brings the consistancy of success, nothing else.

keep working

cheers

Paul