With Heart, You Can Lift a 1000 Pound Cow or Defeat 61 Enemy Planes in Aerial Combat even if Blind in One Eye
PUBLISHED:
Drucker wrote: “Living in fear of loss of job and income is incompatible with taking responsibility for job and work group, for output and performance.” But how can you avoid fear of job loss and loss of income when both are real possibilities in your situation?
A highly successful Broadway musical of the 1950’s, Damn Yankees, suggested that winning was always possible with “heart.” This blockbuster was based on a book The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, by Douglas Wallop. In this book, a fictitious Yankees team, dominated major league baseball. It was challenged by another fictitious, but less successful Washington, DC team. A song in the Broadway musical promoted “heart” as more important than baseball skill.
Here’s the song as performed in the musical:
The Washington team eventually beat the “unbeatable” Yankees.
Drucker’s Analysis
You must acquire any traits yourself before you can instill them in others. Drucker knew only one sure way to acquire heart and the self-confidence that resulted.
Everyone starts out in life having to accomplish some difficult acts in infancy. Yet as adults they are not remembered as being difficult or even think of them as much of a challenge today.
Unless you have an injury which you haven’t yet overcome, there is no longer any doubt that when you stand, advance one leg and then another, that you are going to move forward, and when you open your mouth, you can communicate easily. Those who have impairment of these skills usually learn to accomplish them again. Even with the most serious disabilities, most overcome these limitations even with artificial limbs.
Adults have a right to expect to be able to learn and succeed with complex and challenging tasks. But they may not be successful for one of two reasons. Either he or she has been unsuccessful at similar tasks or projects in the past or has never tried to accomplish the tasks at all previously. Those who have never tried a task at which they don’t expect to succeed frequently haven’t tried because they feel that they would fail if they did try. But I know they can do them because they’ve already accomplished more challenging tasks years ago by just learning to walk and talk.
Learning to Crawl First
How many infants have you heard of that simply hopped out of their cribs and began to walk and run? I haven’t heard of any. The typical sequence is that an infant learns to roll over, begins to crawl, gains self-confidence enough to stand up, gains a little more self-confidence and without instruction takes a step and falls. But the infant knows that it made a start and will eventually succeed. Usually, the parents are are full of praise and cheer enthusiastically even though the infant may not have managed to take a single successful step. . The attempt is certainly not thought of as a failure, but rather an uncompleted effort, and the infant eagerly tries again. If he or she doesn’t grow up to run a four minute mile, at least running is mastered along with walking.
This illustrates one fact as to why some, including experienced executives, sometimes lack self-confidence to accomplish new things, which aren’t as demanding these early essentials. An infant learning a task frequently has cheering supporters. But even if it didn’t, who’s to say that the first step, even with falling, was a bad attempt? However, as we get older, some others are more judgmental and a few involved may even hope we fail! They criticize us if we make a single mistake. They are not encouraging like our parents as we learned to walk. As a result, we get the idea that it was not a good attempt no matter what the results. It took my youngest son, today a highly successful management consultant and investor, almost two years to learn to talk. I wasn’t worried. I knew that he had heart, and it took Einstein almost four years to master speech!
Gain Self-Confidence through Experience as You “Pay Your Dues”
Many of us eventually become successful almost automatically and there is nothing wrong with this, except that it is usually a longer process. Basically, you enter your work or profession, do what you are told, work hard, exert effort and are eventually promoted. Some call this “paying your dues.” Your efforts are eventually recognized and rewarded. As you progress, you gain self-confidence. However, with this method you are subject to fate and what tasks are assigned. You usually advance and reach some of your goals eventually, but there is a better way which is more efficient and certain.
Take Charge of Your Own Confidence Building
If you have heart and decide to voluntarily take on challenging goals in your own areas of interest, it is much faster than the previous method and you have more control. It is based on the principle of your taking charge and deciding on your own progress and development. This takes heart. You can develop just about anything, physical or mental, by beginning with a small challenge and intentionally building confidence over time as you progress with self-selected challenges toward a goal you want to achieve. It is related to the slower, “pay your dues” method but it is much easier, less risky and you are guaranteed results since you are not dependent on someone else’s requirements. You decide what you want to do, how often, and when.
British WWI flying ace Major “Mick” Mannock shot down 61 planes in aerial combat during his time as an aviator. Unknown to his enemies and medical experts that qualified him for flying, due to an injury, he was partially blind in his left eye. But this didn’t stop him.
How did Mannock succeed? He proceeded purposefully toward goals that he set for himself despite his handicap. In Japan this process is known as “kaizen.”
Drucker noted that: “Every artist throughout history has practiced ‘kaizen’.” You will be a top producer if you pick your own goals for your development and if you work on developing these talents further.” If you want to get physically strong, exercise your muscles every day, and every day they’ll grow bigger, and your strength will increase.
Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t start out with those powerful muscles that led to his winning bodybuilding championships and eventually to becoming the top paid actor in Hollywood and then Governor of California. By exercising with increasingly heavy weights, his muscles got larger and stronger until eventually he was world champion.
In bodybuilding, this didn’t start with Arnold. Milo of Croton was a champion Greek athlete and Olympic competitor in the 6th century B.C. He participated in six Olympic games four years apart. Before the first, he began an exercise which brought him strength, self-confidence, and eventual fame throughout the ancient world. Milo lifted and carried a newborn calf weighing about 80 pounds. He continued every day for four years before the Olympics began. By the Olympics started, the calf was a full-grown cow weighing 1000 pounds. Milo carried the cow the length of the Olympic stadium, creating a spectacle which not only demonstrated his strength and self-confidence, but discomforted his competitors and created a psychological advantage.
Though the calf weighed only 80 pounds when he started, when he carried the same calf four years later, it had grown into a 1000 pound cow. Milo’s feat was noted in several books written about him during his lifetime.
Now I’m not suggesting that you begin lifting a calf which will become a fully grown cow to develop your self-confidence, although this would undoubtedly do the job. But the principle works for other accomplishments in your own field. All you need to do is to make the decision and begin to set goals in an area of your interest, and then to do them. Select an easy goal to begin and proceed as you successively accomplish more difficult goals. Every time you complete one, congratulate yourself. Your heart and self-confidence are taking you to success.
This is how Arnold trained with weights. He increased their poundage as the calf increased body weight. Arnold further increased the difficulty of the exercises as his muscles and strength developed. Because he had heart, his ability and capability as well as his confidence increased and like Milo, Schwarzenegger eventually did things that others, maybe even he, never thought he could do when he started. If you follow his plan, you too will have acquired the strength and self-confidence you need to succeed in whatever you desire, and like Governor Schwarzenegger, Milo of Croton, Major Mannock in World War One, and many others, this can take you to great levels of success in whatever your interest or occupation.
*Adapted from Peter Drucker’s Way to the Top, by William A. Cohen, (LID, 2019).
