Career Management Lessons from 42

This weekend I had the pleasure of seeing 42, the new film about Jackie Robinson.  I love baseball and have read much about Robinson, the first African American to play in the major leagues.  The film also had some interesting things to say about work and career.

1.  Listen to the boss

To be successful, Robinson had to follow Branch Rickey’s strategy of not fighting back.  In turn, Rickey had to understand Robinson’s situation and keep him motivated in standing against racist taunts and physical abuse.  The films also shows two other great examples of bosses in control.  Rickey tells Robinson’s first manager to treat his new player as he would white players.  He then warns the manager that he will be fired if he doesn’t do so.  Later in the film, Phillies manager Ben Chapman rained vulgar slurs at Robinson.  His team’s executive orders the racist Chapman to pose for a picture with Robinson.  Wanting to keep his job, the bigoted manager posed with Jackie Robinson.  Moral of the story:  want to keep the job?  Listen to the boss – or find a new job with a better boss.

2.  Be willing to take risks

Both Rickey and Robinson took great risks in going against the long established color code.  Rickey bucked the system.  Robinson literally put his life on the line.  In the end, their risks changed the game and did much to open the eyes of a country.  There is still racism in America, but men like Jackie Robinson and Branch Rickey changed the game because they were willing to challenge accept wisdom and customs. To achieve our professional goals, we need to be ready to take risks and face our inner fears.

3.  Be willing to change

A few of Robinson’s teammates welcomed him.  Most did not.  However, the film shows them learning to accept him and, more importantly, respect him.  From what I’ve read, the transition wasn’t as fast or smooth as the film depicts.  But, as Robinson endured, his teammates accepted him.  In many work experiences, accepting change is the first step to being successful.

4.  Don’t quit

If I were only given one word to describe Jackie Robinson, it would be strength.  He faced hate from all angles.  His life was threatened.  Still, he did not quit.  Robinson knew what kind of treatment he would face, and his determination opened the door for other African American players.  It made baseball a better game and America a more equal nation.  In the end, Robinson’s fame is as much a matter of his mental strength as it is his great accomplishments on the field.  Again, he is a role model for any worker who faces obstacles and still achieves a goal.

I don’t mean to make 42 into a simplistic story.  It’s not.  I strongly recommend the movie as a great biography and as source of inspiration.

Sabbath, March 31, 2013

[On Sundays, this blogs explores a diverse topics beyond the world in “Sabbath,” a title inspired by the similarly titled poems of Wendell Berry.]

Here Comes the Sun

Yesterday was a great day.  For the first time in several months, I put aside my winter coat for a much lighter jacket.  Yesterday and today, the sun has been out and so are people, who have clogged sidewalks in my neighborhood.  Spring is here – finally!

Where last winter was unusually mild, this winter was average in its temperatures, cold but not too cold.  This year’s winter, like an unwanted guest, would not go away.  We had no warm, sunny March days.  Tomorrow, April 1, which is opening day here in Chicago for our American League team, will go back to being cold, but that is just the way April tends to be: a few good days, a few bad days, and a few really cold, gray, rainy days that almost make one wish for the dry, sunny cold of February.  The real good news is that Spring is here and the worst is over.  It will be five or six weeks before we get to the next stage of the season: complaining about how hot it is.

Today is also Easter, a day of hope and change.  I’m not religious, but I do enjoy seeing people going to and from church.  This holiday invites bright colors and an equally light spirit.  For those of us who follow a more secular bent, it’s the start of the summer game, a new baseball season.  The teams I root for most, the Indians and the Cubs probably are not going to be contenders.  However, the joy of spring brings hope for a miracle.  Fans, like church goers, are people of faith, especially those who root for the Cubs, a team that hasn’t won a World Series in more than 100 years.

A few blocks from my office, two new businesses are opening, which follows a national trend for an improved economy.  2008 taught us that anything can happen in a large, complicated economy, but recent news has been more upbeat.  Hopefully summer will bring more jobs, higher home prices, and businesses that are making money.  I’m a little worried that we are seeing a new real estate bubble, but that worry is tempered by warm weather and bright sun.  Tomorrow’s problems will come tomorrow.  Today is a good time to smile.

Enjoy this fine day and those that will follow.  I’ll close with a few words from Wendell Berry’s 1982 Sabbath poem III:

The flock, barn-weary, comes to it again,

New to the lambs, a place their mothers know,

Welcoming, bright, and savory in its green,

So fully does the time recover it.

Nibbles of pleasure go all over it.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

Yesterday Delmon Young of the Detroit Tigers was arrested in New York for a hate crime.  Young saw a group of men give money to a panhandler who was wearing a yarmulke and Star of David.  He yelled an anti-Semitic slur, which led one of the men to engage him about his comments.  Young, who was intoxicated, apparently assaulted this man and was later arrested.

How is this a worker issue?  This is a case of a well-paid employee (Young makes $6.7 million a year) being really stupid.  It’s almost certain that he will be suspended by his team or the league.  It is also possible that the Tigers could move to cut him and void his contract.  His market value will also be hurt if not ruined by this incident.  I imagine he could even face civil action from the man he allegedly assaulted.

I am frequently critical of how employers treat workers.  In this case, no one can be held responsible but Delmon Young.  Earlier in his career, when he was in the minor leagues, he threw a bat at an umpire and was suspended for 50 games.  I’m sure there was some attempt to have him go to counseling or anger management at that time.  He still has a major problem and no one to blame but himself for his actions.  There is only one word to sum up this incident: Stupid.

Sabbath, October 30, 2011

[On Sundays, this blog explores life and work in “Sabbath.”]

Coming Back – Again and Again

After moving to Chicago in 1986, I became a Cubs fan.  The team’s long time rival, the St. Louis Cardinals won the World Series this week.  Many of my friends who are Cub fans can’t root for St. Louis.  Generally speaking, I wouldn’t either.  This year’s Cardinal team, however, deserves respect and admiration.

During spring training, the Cardinals lost their top starting pitcher, Adam Wainwright, to injury.  Chris Carpenter, the #2 starter, got off to a very slow start and only finished the year with 11 wins to 9 losses.  Over the course of the year, they used several pitchers as their closer.  In the middle of the year, they traded Colby Rasmus, a top prospect, and went to a platoon in center field.  They ended the year with a second base platoon of cast offs Ryan Theriot and Nick Punto.  For most teams, such a year would not lead to a World Series championship.

The team’s first great achievement was making the playoffs.  They were almost unbeatable from the middle August through September.  Even so, the Atlanta Braves seemed to have the Wild Card locked up.  Then everything changed.  The Braves couldn’t win while the Cardinals could not lose.  The reward for making the playoffs?  A first round match up with the team experts called the best in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies. 

The Phillies have the best pitching in the game, maybe one of the greatest staffs in history.  Somehow, the Cardinals got over that high hurdle and went on to beat the Milwaukee Brewers, which set up their championship match up with the Texas Rangers.  The Rangers were in last year’s World Series and had improved an already strong roster.

Texas went up in the Series 3-2, and had a 2 run lead going into the 9^th inning of game six.  Things seemed dark for the Cardinals.  The Rangers’ reliable closer Naftali Feliz was on the mound.  Somehow, the Cardinals tied the game and took it into the tenth inning.  In the top of the inning, Rangers’ star Josh Hamilton hit a 2 run home run.  Again, the Cardinals needed a miracle and got it, scoring two runs for another tie.  In the bottom of the 11^th, David Freese, the Series MVP, hit a home run to seal one of the greatest comebacks in the history of the game.

The seventh game couldn’t have started worse for the Cardinals.  Chris Carpenter gave up two runs in the first and had a rocky second.  After that, he settled down, and his team won the final game by a score of 6-2 in a final come from behind effort.

The best sports stories end with the underdog winning, David beating Goliath  This year the Cardinals played that role.  They never quit or lost faith in themselves.  This team embodied what it really means to be a winner.

 Sunday Extra Helpings

 Series Highlights

 Jonah Keri in Grantland on the Cardinals’ unlikely championship

 World Series Video Highlights at MLB.com

Jack McKeon, Managing at 80

I’ve always been a Jack McKeon fan.  When I was kid in the 1970s, I had his baseball card when he was managing the San Diego Padres.  Later, he became known as Trader Jack, when he was a general manager who liked to trade players.  In 2003, he returned to the dugout and led the Florida Marlins to a World Series championship.  Now, 8 years later, the 80 year old McKeon has taken on the challenge of managing a last place Florida team.

I want to root for McKeon, but it’s hard.  At what point should we step aside and say, it’s someone else’s turn?  Everyone says we have an employment crisis in this country.  If people in their 40s and 50s are going to be competing with 80 year olds, won’t the problem be worse?

Then I turn the coin around:  If an 80 year old is healthy and capable why shouldn’t he or she be able to work?  Some people like to work and don’t want to retire.  I don’t believe we should have a law that condemns older people to lives of rocking chairs and shuffleboard. 

Looking at all angles, I think McKeon’s example just shows how the work world is getting more complicated and will get even more complicated in years to come.  80 year olds won’t replace 40 year olds.  But more and more jobs will be lost to technology and automation, which means there will be fewer jobs for all workers.  I wish McKeon all the best, and I hope to be as vital if I live to be 80 years old.