About four years ago, I was having lunch with Rocky. He told me he was taking on the challenge of starting a swim team for a health club complex and his goal was a state championship within five years. No small feat, since top swimmers stick to established programs that can groom them for potential college scholarships. Recruiting competitive swimmers would be extremely difficult.
I had just launched a local paddling group, with the objective of 500 members within five years. The larger groups of this type peaked at a few hundred, and many of them were located in hot beds of kayaking and canoeing, adjacent to desirable bodies of water for such activities. We were not, and there was already a local paddling organization that was part of an international outdoors organization.
Rocky and I toasted each other and smiled. “You’ll never make it,” we said in unison. The inside joke was that we had both been told that about things in the past. If you’re into the types-of-people expressions, the two types are those who avoid challenges because of the potential of failure, and those who seek them because they make the victories that much sweeter.
Today, at lunch, I toasted him because his team won the state championship this past weekend. My paddling group passed 500 some time ago and is just one short of 600. We raised our glasses and smiled. “You’ll never make it.”
He set his glass down and looked at me speculatively. “Do you think winning is genetic?”
“I don’t think so. Why do you ask, son?”
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