Last month as I watched the first half of the Super Bowl come to an end with the Patriots trailing by 21 points, I turned to the group assembled in my living room and said “this one’s over, so much for Brady and Belichick winning ring #5”. Of course, we all know what happened next.
I remember questioning why the Patriots didn’t play more aggressively having the ball with a minute to go in the first half, but they simply ran the clock out and headed to the locker room. What did Belichick say at half time? Time to give up? Let’s put our best face on and try to make things respectable? Obviously not as they made their half time adjustments and had everything work in their favor in pulling out a 34-28 win.
Didn’t see that happening!
Similarly I recall sitting at the breakfast table on election day with my daughter and wife. I’m a bit of a political junkie and with all of the polling and expert analysis I’d received the previous three months, I announced, as a matter of fact, that we need to prepare ourselves to start saying “Madame President”. I was so sure the democratic candidate would win. President Trump is now firmly in command.
Missed that by a little!!
Three years ago I went with my oldest son to see a local band called Twenty One Pilots at a downtown Columbus music venue. My son loved them and said they were going to be big. I thought they were just another local band. Last month they accepted the prize for best pop group performance at the Grammy Awards.
Surprised again! Acceptance speech here, if you want to know why they aren’t wearing pants….
Hindsight being 20-20 it would be easy to conclude “this guy is really out of touch”. Well I may be….I know my kids would agree……..but my point is there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Similar to the three examples above, organizations and individuals working in the economic development space often find themselves in situations where what we thought was a done deal doesn’t end up that way. That’s when we need to be nimble enough to make adjustments on the run, as some would say the Patriots did; committed enough to outwork your competition, as some would say Trump did; and have an unwavering belief in your mission and ability, as some would say Twenty One Pilots do.
As Tyler Joseph, frontman for Twenty One Pilots said when accepting his bands Grammy, “Anyone from anywhere can do anything”.