Throughout my years of playing golf, I have played in a lot of tournaments. There have been all kinds. There is the two-man alternate shot, where each player takes turns hitting the ball until you finish the hole, and then you continue in this manner for the rest of the round. There is the four-man scramble, where every player tees off, then the team chooses the best shot each time. There is the more challenging tournament where every player hits his own ball every shot, and once the hole is over, the best score of the players on each hole is recorded on the scorecard. I even remember playing in a tournament where each player could pick up their ball and throw it to extend that shot. We were playing the Raptor Course on Langley Air Force Base, and it was on the 306-yard, par 4, 15th hole. I had my usual drive of about 250 yards, so I had a little over 50 yards to the green. I thought for sure I could sling a golf ball close enough to where it would roll onto the green. I learned in that moment that throwing a golf ball is not that easy. You can probably guess my throw didn’t go anywhere near the distance I expected.
Now, ideally in any tournament, you have a team that consists of all great players. But for most of those I played in, we just wanted to have fun. But we did try to gather players with different strengths. For example, we wanted someone who could hit the ball a mile off the tee. We also wanted someone who could putt really well. That way each player felt he or she contributed to the effort. The way to the best score was to utilize everyone’s strengths. Much like my dad taught me. Use the strengths you have, do your part, and do your best.
You’ve probably seen this saying, or one like it, before: “Growing up every boy thinks his dad knows and is great at everything. When that boy becomes a teenager, he thinks his dad knows nothing and can’t do anything right. When that boy becomes an older adult, he remembers his dad did know everything, and was great at everything.” I can identify with the child, though as a teenager, I never fell into the trap of thinking my dad was a clueless parent, and as an older adult, I understand that my dad never really knew everything, but that doesn’t erase the fact that he knew stuff about a lot of things. I’ve written about this before, but my dad was exceedingly mechanically inclined. That was one of his significant strengths, and something that he could do better than any other person I knew. He took that strength and did his best with it. He just had an uncanny ability to fix anything he got his hands on. And when he lacked things to work on, he helped others and I never remember him asking for anything in return. He could visualize something and then bring that vision to reality. In short, my dad found what he was good at.
Samuel Adams is the face of a major beer brand today. (That came out of left field, didn’t it? I promise it will make sense in a moment.) Did you know that it is widely believed that he had nothing to do with brewing beer, and instead worked in his family’s malthouse? Now, it is true that malt is necessary for brewing beer, but according to historians, Sam did not make beer. Not only did Sam not make beer, he also didn’t make money. He had a miserable business mind. He was so bad that he bankrupted the malt business owed by his father. But that wasn’t even his first business failure. When a younger Sam received a significant amount of money from his father for another business venture, that failed as well. Sam just was not good with the money and the business aspect of, well…running a business. But what Sam lacked in business, he more than made up in his ability to communicate with clarity and to organize the patriot cause that stirred Americans to rebel against the British crown. He is called a founding father for a good reason. He served on both the First and Second Continental Congress, and according to many, was the heartbeat of the revolution. He wrote under several aliases as he sought to inspire his fellow Massachusettsans in the fight for their rights. He very likely was the impetus behind the patriots boarding three ships in the Boston harbor and dumping tea into the water in what we know today as the Boston Tea Party. With the value of the tea at 9,700 British Pounds (approaching $2 million in today’s money), it is no wonder the king responded by applying greater pressure on the colonists. But Sam and others would not be persuaded to relent.
I bring Adams’ story up because he was someone who, despite failure in what should have been a no brainer for him…making malt for beer, found that his strengths resided in a completely different venue. That is how it is sometimes. I am much like Sam in this way. He should have been a shoe in for running the family business…except he wasn’t. I should be an excellent fixer of all things mechanical…except I am not. And that is perfectly fine. That is what my dad taught me…to find my strengths and use them in the best way possible.
Throwing a golf ball will never be my strength, nor will fixing machines. But I learned a few years ago, after taking the Strength Finders Assessment, that my strengths are kind of nerdy (if I may use that word). After the assessment, my top six themes were Analytical (data driven, want to understand patterns and how they affect outcomes), Achiever (need to experience attainment or accomplishment), Deliberative (like to plan ahead so you can anticipate what might go wrong; you are a private person who selects friends cautiously), Context (you look back in history to understand the present), Developer (you see the potential in others and want to help them find success), and Intellection (solving problems and developing ideas, and other mental activities that are important). When I look at that list, I realize that those are indeed some of my strengths. They served me well over the years as a leader in the Air Force, and ultimately in my time working in the Pentagon. And I owe it all to my dad, who showed me the value of finding my strengths, putting them to good use, and always striving to do my best.
Faith, Leadership, and History 