Old Songs and New Challenges

The year was 1989, I was eleven years old. The first quarter was about to finish, and I had spent the last six months doing nothing but listening to the Beach Boys. In July of 1988, they released the song Kokomo and that was the start of my lifelong love of the group. The Yankees finished 1988 nine games over five hundred. I didn’t know it at the time, but they would have a losing record every year for the next four years. That was over thirty-five years ago, why have I been thinking about those two things a lot over the last few weeks? When I started writing these articles, I had a few things on my mind. First, I felt like I had learned a lot over the years and so I had a lot to share. Second, I wanted to have everything documented. If I have everything written down, I have something to reference when I need it. Why would I need it? For times of growth and times of struggle.

Back to 1989, while I was busy listening to the Beach Boys, something happened a few weeks before they released the song Kokomo. A group I didn’t know anything about released an album I didn’t know about. The group, Public Enemy. The album, It Takes a Nation of Millions to hold us back. Years later I would listen to Public Enemy a little bit. Never a big fan, but I liked a few songs. I liked them enough to know who they were, but not enough to really be familiar with them. I spent most of my life thinking that the name of that album was “It takes a Nation of Millions to Stop us”. Why does it matter that I was wrong? Well, I have spent the last thirty years or so using that term for motivation. If I have a plan, you can’t stop me! If you want to stop me, you had better bring a nation of millions to help you. If you don’t, you are going to lose. The Yankees may have spent four years losing in the early nineties, but something special happened after that. Starting in 1993, the Yankees have now had a winning season for thirty-one straight seasons. During that time, they have won the World Series five times. My point, I love to win! I want to be around winners. Lately I feel like I haven’t been winning. Lately I feel like I am in the middle of a four year stretch with a losing record. Instead of it taking a nation of millions to stop me, it feels like a cool breeze has me feeling unstable. I went back and looked at a few major decisions that I have made over the last few years. When I looked at them, I decided that if I had to do it all over again, I would have made the same decisions. With the information I had at the time, the right decisions were made. So why isn’t it working out like I thought it would? Originally when I started writing this article, I titled it, “The Burdon of Consistency”. I love that title, and I may use it at some point. What I’ve noticed when I look back lately is that I believe I have been a part of an environment that is so consistent, it’s boring. Issues have come up, it feels like they were taken care of right away in a nice, boring way. Everyone says they want boring. Everyone says they want consistency. I think that is true, but I think they also want a challenge. I worry that because we haven’t had any challenges, people are creating challenges. I know I have things I can improve on, so I don’t want to make it sound like I am perfect. But part of my struggle lately is that I feel like everything brought to me is something that is way out of my control. Does it mean anything when the things that people are complaining about are things that seem to be completely out of your control? If the daily duties of a job have now become boring and people don’t see a challenge, how do you create a challenge that will push them? I’ve been trying for about a month to write this article. No one wants to write when they are currently struggling. No one wants to tell the whole world that they are struggling, and they don’t have answers. But now that the topic is out there, we have a few days to try and come up with some answers. How can I be consistent and create an environment where people feel challenged and not distracted by the things they can’t control? How do we start to feel like we are winning again?