PRODUCTION > POTENTIAL
Take a minute here today to stop and consider this simple question: what does you at your best look like? In whatever important areas of life matter most to you - in sports, in school, at work, or at home - try to envision your peak performance. Think about your mindset and your approach, your attitude and your energy, your drive and your determination. That version of you that you’re picturing there? That’s you at your best, and I’m guessing here today that that you is pretty good.
There’s value for each of us in clarifying what it looks like when we’re performing to our potential. That word “potential” paints a promising picture of what it is we're capable of doing or who it is we’re capable of becoming, and let's be honest, that's pretty exciting to think about. In the sports world, we regularly see teams or programs fall in love with the idea of a player’s potential. Instead of choosing to reward someone for their past performance, they choose to put a down payment on the hope of a promising future. Finding a diamond in the rough - that rare, raw performer who actually turns their potential into reality - that makes a coach or a general manager look like a genius. But that’s a risky roll of the dice, one that doesn’t always work out.
That’s the shadow side of potential we also have to acknowledge here today. Yes, it can be promising. But it can be pretty painful, too, when what could be becomes what never was. You can find just as many, if not more examples of athletes who had a very high ceiling - and who got paid because of it - and yet never came close to turning that promising vision into reality. NBA Hall of Fame basketball player Kevin McHale said it best. “A lot of guys have potential written on their tombstones.”
So while there’s value here today in clarifying a vision of you at your best, I also hope you can see that a vision in and of itself is really pretty meaningless. Who you could be or what you’re capable of doing isn’t nearly as important as who you actually are and what you actually do. The hard truth is, success doesn’t care about your potential. It cares about your production. In any meaningful area of life and performance - including the ones that matter most to you - production beats potential, and it’s not even close.
That's because while potential is an idea, production is reality. It’s the tangible evidence that you've had an impact on winning. It’s the positive contribution you can point to as proof of your value. It’s the kind of mindset and approach, the kind of attitude and energy, the kind of drive and determination that moves the needle and makes a difference. Production starts with recognizing that if you have the potential to be great, but you aren’t? Then who cares? Success sure doesn’t. Success could care less who could’ve walked through the door today…it only cares who actually did.
So what I’m saying is, let’s work on putting our potential in the proper place. Is there value in clarifying that vision of you at your best? Sure there is, but only for the purpose of pursuing it - of taking who you could be here today and turning it into the reality of who you actually are. Otherwise, what you’re capable of is irrelevant. It’s what you do that moves the needle and that makes a difference. So if you want to win today, then bring the mindset and the approach, the attitude and the effort, and the drive and determination that represents you at your best. That’s evidence that you understand the truth, that production beats potential...and it's not even close.
