Brian Wynne Williams
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Your Own Standards
Author: Brian Wynne Williams16 Jun
Watching the NBA finals on Father’s Day reminded me of a childhood memory that has stuck with me. My dad was more into football than basketball, but he was a sports fan and would generally watch the big games. When I was 11, we watched some of the ‘87 Lakers-Celtics finals together. My only memory of the whole series was the most boring play in all of basketball: an early-game foul shot.
Magic Johnson was at the line. His free throw bounced on both ends of the rim, and went in. It went in. Count it. Score. But when Magic took the ball, he was clearly disgusted with himself. He was acting like he’d missed.
I remember thinking “what’s he so mad about? It went in.” It had gone in, but it hadn’t gone in the way he wanted it to.
I realized quickly what separates great players in the NBA from all-time great players like Magic: personal standards. The lesson I took away was that your personal standards matter more than everyone else’s expectations of you and even more than the rules that you play by.
At Viget, we talk about having higher standards than our clients, to push ourselves to do great work. I love working with people that are motivated by, above all else, their own personal standards for what they’ll be proud of.
It’s not always about working longer hours or making more money or generally “exceeding expectations.” To continue with the sports analogy, I remember missing lots of shots in lacrosse that I was pleased with, because the mechanics of my shot felt right and I knew it was making me a better player.
The rules of business are even less clear. If you spend your career focused on keeping score the way everyone else does rather than deciding for yourself what qualifies as success (both in daily challenges and as a whole) I predict you’ll ultimately be disappointed. Set your own standards — then always try to exceed them. You’ll be happier and most likely more successful by any standards anyway.
It’s possible that Magic missed the next free throw and smiled because his shot felt right. But I doubt it.
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I'm co-founder/CEO of the web consulting firm Viget Labs. I spend most of my time near Washington, D.C. with my wife and kids. Here, I write about whatever comes to mind. More about me ...
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7 Responses for "Your Own Standards"
What an excellent post, Brian. It’s good to have high standards, to understand what it is you’re aiming towards and recognize when, regardless of the outcome, you know whether you performed at a level you’re proud of. Like last night’s game–if I were on the Lakers I wouldn’t have been proud of the performance, even though they ultimately won.
The one caveat is that as we get older it seems that our standards get higher and higher, and we have to recognize when it’s simply impractical to expect that perfection. Or, when to recognize that mistakes do happen. That is, when we underperform, we have to, like Magic, move on and play the rest of the game.
Thanks for sharing this story–I empathize, and will pass it on.
Right on Brian! What helps me is being transparent about what my standards and goals are so that my close friends and general community will help to keep me accountable.
@Jared — thanks! I think it’s good that our standards keep rising as we get older (… and older … and older …). Hopefully we’re getting better at our craft, and without raised standards we’d stagnate. You’re right, though, you’ll always have setbacks and mini-failures if you’re pushing yourself the right way, and you have to keep moving.
@Justin — great point.
Great post. I started to bypass this post on your front page and I’m glad I didn’t. It seems to me that the overwhelming majority of players do it as a job and while that handful of “greats” are trying to perfect their craft. I think this relates back to what Jeff Atwood discusses about with the 20%/80% at http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001002.html.
Brian -
Great stuff. I can relate on many levels. I’m a big believer that true leaders tend to have very high standards and expect (more than) the best best from those around them.
Thanks for sharing…
dj at bronto
twitter.com/djwaldow
Great post Brian. I must say that i’m a NBA fan, and a great Michael Jordan fan. It’s amazing how small is the world as I used a similar idea from great Michael Jordan to achieve better standards in my small company in Argentina and to motivate the team and take their standards up and to show them they can do whatever they propose to do…
The story is that during the conference after Chicago Bulls title #6 at Utah (where Jordan hit a win shooter ball after stealing the ball from Karl Malone hands). When asked how he could consistently hit big shots when everyone from the opposing team and the whole world itself knew he was going to take it, MJ looked as if he didn’t understand the question as say: “Do you mean did I worry about missing the shot?” and then he say: “Why would I worry about missing a shot I hadn’t taken yet?”
… As you said in the post, that’s the difference between normal people, best ones and all time best ones…
This is a great example! People that attain greatness don’t get there by getting a lucky bounce, and they definitely don’t take credit for it when it happens. You have to push yourself and set your own standards. I guess, in the end, the game that really matters is the one that you play against yourself.
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