Fall Is For Football

I was driving back to the office yesterday and passed the Little League fields here in town.  It was late on a beautiful fall afternoon and there were a couple of games going on.  I’m guessing the kids were somewhere around 10 or 11 and from the looks of their uniforms they had been playing for a bit.

I had an immediate reaction to this and it probably wasn’t what you’d expect.  Oh sure, I think it’s great that they were outside and playing instead of vegging out in front of the TV or video game.  But I found it kind of disturbing and it kicked off a business thought as well.  Let me explain.

I’m willing to wager that these kids focus most or all of their athletic endeavors on baseball.  When I was growing up, we played organized baseball only in the Spring.  It was organized football – either soccer or American football – in the Fall and organized basketball or hockey in the Winter.  Of course we played all the sports – OK, maybe not hockey – all year but the organized part – drills, coaches, etc. was limited to a season.   There was no option to play organized baseball in the fall.

The problem is that most kids today specialize.  They find a sport they love and for which they have a talent and then they stick to that.  Let’s put aside the epidemic of stress injuries in kids from lots of repetitive motion (single sports!).  I think it makes them less complete athletes and people.  What about playing something at which you’re less skilled just for the joy of the game?  How about learning to get better where you don’t have natural ability?

And that’s the business lesson.  Too often we focus on our areas of expertise and ignore all the rest of what’s going on around us.  Marketers don’t learn accounting, accountants don’t hear the sales presentations and so on.  We play our sport at a high level but the business muscles we need to handle other tasks often atrophy.

We all need to get out of our comfort zones from time to time, both to learn and to avoid injury. Besides, maybe you’ll find out you’re actually better at something else!

Thoughts?