I sat down with my family last night and watched the movie, 42.
I knew of Jackie Robinson’s story, but the movie helped me understand the issues of the time on a deeper level. What a story! What a struggle and what a victory!
While there were many lessons in the movie, the one that stuck out the most was how he fought the prevailing attitudes of the time.
He fought by not fighting. He fought the biases and segregation attitudes by performing on the baseball field and not engaging in what other people were doing and expecting him to do.
This was a counter-intuitive strategy and a huge battle for him in every way imaginable, yet he persevered.
To think differently, to know that your thinking is right in the face of such overwhelming odds and to stay the course despite this, the mark of a true hero.
He was not completely alone. He had his wife’s love and support.
Of critical importance, Branch Ricky, part owner and General Manager of the Dodgers was there for the rough times right from the beginning.
Branch Ricky was his mentor.
Eventually his team members came around and supported him too, as did the fans, but it was a lonely, rough and rocky road getting to that point.
Every successful and accomplished person has a mentor or two, bar none.
The bigger the challenge, the more important the mentor becomes.
Fortunately, we do not have to fight issues of the magnitude of those facing Jackie Robinson.
But the solutions to the issues facing us require different thinking in order to produce different results. It’s a question of degree.
We can conquer any challenge facing us. We just need to build our team, starting with our mentor(s) and working out from there.
You only get results if you take action on your ideas. Do it now!
