10 Lessons from Jeremy Lin

Saw this article recently, and am really inspired by the phenomenal Jimmy Lin. A quote struck me hard from the article, thought I really have to blog it down.

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else." Judy Garland

Here's the article, by Eric Jackson on Forbes.com. Nice piece of writing I must say!

Just Lin, Baby! 10 Lessons Jeremy Lin Can Teach Us Before We Go To Work Monday Morning

Lin-sanity has swept up the NBA over the last week.  Now it seems like the phenomenon has gone worldwide.

Friday’s 38 point performance by Harvard grad Jeremy Lin for the New York Knicks against the LA Lakers was his greatest performance yet as a starter, since he burst on to the scene and propelled the team to 4 straight wins.

Lin now has over 200,000 followers on Twitter.  He’s got over 800,000 on Weibo – including 200,000 new ones in the 24 hour period after beating the Lakers.

But there’s more to this story than basketball.  This isn’t just a modern-day, real-life version of the Hoosiers movie.  The Jeremy Lin story is incredibly popular because we can all see a little bit of ourselves in this man’s struggles and now successes.

What can all of us learn from this young man — and how can we apply these same lessons to our own lives when we go back to work on Monday morning?

1. Believe in yourself when no one else does. Lin’s only the 4th graduate from Harvard to make it to the NBA.  He’s also one of only a handful of Asian-Americans to make it. He was sent by the Knicks to play for their D-League team 3 weeks ago in Erie, PA.  He’d already been cut by two other NBA teams before joining the Knicks this year.  You’ve got to believe in yourself, even when no one else does.

2. Seize the opportunity when it comes up. Lin got to start for the Knicks because they had to start him.  They had too many injuries.  Baron Davis was gone.  The other point guards were out.  Carmelo Anthony was injured.  Amare Stoudemire had to leave the team because of a family death.  Lin could have squandered the opportunity and we would have never have noticed.  But he made the most of it.  You never know when opportunities are going to arise in life.  Often, they’re when you least expect them.  Make the most of them. Don’t fritter them away.

3. Your family will always be there for you, so be there for them. It wasn’t until a few days ago that Lin got his contract guaranteed by the Knicks for the rest of the season.  Before that, he could have been cut at any time.  He had to sleep on his brother’s couch on the Lower East Side to get by.  His family always believed in him and picked him up when he could have gotten down on himself.  That made him continue to believe.  If you want your family to believe in you like that, you’ve got to be there for them too when they need it.

4. Find the system that works for your style. Lin isn’t Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant.  He’s not a pure scorer.  He’s a passer and distributor – who can also score very well.  It didn’t work for him in Golden State or Houston – where he was before landing at the Knicks.  But Mike D’Antoni’s system at the Knicks has been perfect for him to show off his strengths.  You’ve got to do your best to understand what your strengths are and then ensure that you’re in a system (a job or organization or industry) that is a good fit for those strengths.  Otherwise, people overlook the talents you bring to the table.

5. Don’t overlook talent that might exist around you today on your team. You probably manage people at your own company today.  Are you sure you don’t have a Jeremy Lin living among you now?  How do you know that “Mike” couldn’t do amazing things if you gave him a new project to run with?  How do you know “Sarah” isn’t the right person to take the open job in London that you’ve been talking over with your colleagues?  We put people around us in boxes.  He’s from Harvard.  He’s Asian-American.  Not sure he can play.  How many assumptions have you made about talent around you?  Don’t be like the General Managers in Golden State and Houston, and let talent slip through your fingers.  With all their money, scouts, and testing, they didn’t have a clue what they had in their hands.  Do you know what your people (or even yourself) is really capable of?  Take off the blinders of assumptions you wear when you look at the world.

6. People will love you for being an original, not trying to be someone else. You’ve got to be you.  You can’t be some 2nd rate copy of Michael Jordan.  There will never be another Michael Jordan.  Just be Jeremy Lin — yourself.  Whatever that is.  That doesn’t mean you don’t work hard — it just means you find what you’re good at and do it.  Fans will love you for being you, just like they love Jeremy Lin.  Judy Garland said it best:

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

7. Stay humble. If you one day are lucky enough to have newspapers want to put you on the cover in order to sell more, don’t let it get to your head.  It’s been remarkable watching how humble Lin remains through all this media frenzy.  It makes his teammates and fans love him that much more.

8. When you make others around you look good, they will love you forever. I didn’t know how good Tyson Chandler was, until I saw him playing with Jeremy Lin.  Lin has set Chandler up many times over the last week for easy dunks because he drew the defense and then passed the ball.  That’s partly why the Knicks are playing so well.  They are all working harder to share the ball with others.  And it’s beautiful to watch.  And when the media swarms Lin, he tells them how good his teammates are.  Do the same with your peers and reports.

9. Never forget about the importance of luck or fate in life. Some people believe in God, some in destiny, some in luck.  Whatever you believe in, be grateful for it.

10. Work your butt off. Lin couldn’t have seized his opportunity if he hadn’t worked like crazy for years perfecting his skills.  There are no short cuts to hard work.  Success is a by product of that.  If you’ve got a Tiger Mom who’s always pushed you to work hard, great.  If not, let your conscience be your own Tiger Mom!  Get up early, stay up late.  Nobody gave Lin any free passes. Why should you get any?  You can only control what you control and that means you’ve got to work harder than anyone else you know.

I hope the Lin-sanity continues.  And I hope we all can apply these lessons to our own work and family life.

There’s a great line from a New York Times article on Lin and his faith which is worth it for all of us to remember (from Romans 5:3-5):

suffering produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.

The invisible pot of gold

Just went through an interview, and found myself totally maxed out from the one plus hour session of questioning and answering.

Felt I put up a good performance for the entire session. I say performance because I felt I could only sugar coat my replies in a manner understood and accepted by my interviewers. This performance was much more difficult than expected, because I was defending a battle that was already biased at the beginning. Both parties were looking at the situation with different perspectives, understanding and level of acceptance. Rest assure, that I was often graceful and tactful in my replies. And I'm glad I was able to do that.

Truth be told, I came across as a candidate of contradiction. Some aspects which they loved and some which they couldn't comprehend. And the incomprehension led to an immediate dislike, even when they have never experienced the good or the bad side of it. Simply because they heard stories of this unknown.

I found myself listening to their theories of what an entrepreneur should be like - with their risk taking attitudes, impulsive decisions, not taking orders or ideas from others - basically traits which they felt unfit for the role. A silent thought kept creeping up on me. "Are you an entrepreneur too?". They are not exactly wrong, some entrepreneurs could be like this. But that's because it's their business. If it's other people's business, I'm sure they cannot care less. It's all a matter of context.

Needless to say, they were rather concerned with my experiences as an entrepreneur, because they felt my entrepreneurial aspect would not be a good fit on the corporate administrative role. The assumption was because if I'm an entrepreneur, I should be all the traits they've mentioned. Should they read E-Myth revisited by Michael E Gerber, they should know that behind every business person, is a human with a basis of administrative work - the basic worker/manager. The entrepreneurial aspect is the basis of foresight and ideas. They work hand in hand.

In a way, I was badgered because I was different. The differences between my two varying skill sets in the corporate and entrepreneurial aspects stuck out like a sore thumb. These skill sets gave me a balance of skills, taught me experiences to deal with people of different natures, gave me varying perspectives to come out with more solutions to a problem, and allowed me to have greater foresight in my planning and decision making process due to the enlarged area of knowledge.

To me, they were always a good thing. But at the interview panel, it now seem like my Achilles heel, signaling a red light, alarming the people I need to please, that the additional and differing skill set could potentially prevent a conformation to their culture, to the work. That I might be a challenger of systems, a restless individual who hates mundanity. In essence, the horrifying animal of Generation Y.

Perhaps it's the stereotyped they have on entrepreneurs, which I reckoned they have never been, or of seeing unique individuals such as myself with contradictions they have never come across. I was perceived as an individual threading on thin ice between a person they would like to hire, and a person they are trying to avoid.

Do I see myself different from them then? Yes and no. Yes, because I'm certain at some point of their lives, they would have thought about their dreams, just like I did. Whether to go after it, or live without pursuing it. They would also have the little something which was unfulfilled, and always contributing to that silent "what if" at the back of our minds.

Yet, we are different because as a Gen Y, I took sometime to find out the pot of gold at the other end of the rainbow, and I learnt precious knowledge in the midst of the journey. Knowledge which would now be difficult to explain or describe to the others.

To them, they only saw a search which mounted up to nothing. They saw nothing but a detour of one's journey, which could otherwise have been avoided if we heeded their advice. But truth is, because they didn't experience this detour, they will never understand that the pot of gold was never really a pot of real material physical gold. There might be nothing at the end of it. But there's always something on the way to it.

To me, my pot of gold is the new life perspective which I can now have, on top of what I've already known in my 28 years. My 2-year gap, which seemed like a detour to many, became the best learning journey of my life. My pot of gold was much more than I've expected. It's a pity that this gold is my currency in my world, and will not be the common currency until the rest can see the value of it. Until they realise the true value of my currency, I'll always be masked as a Gen Y, restless and inconsistent, misunderstood by the eyes who fail to see the pot of gold right under their noses.

I crave to see how my pot of gold looks like to different individuals. It might not work with the interviewers, but I'm sure there are others who appreciate it as much as I do. Few, I might say for now, but more to come, I must add.

The interviewers asked how I see myself in 5 years time. By that time, I would have really hoped this pot of gold would have been grown into a larger pot, in a currency which many could use and see. But only if you let me be.

Zee