Not everyone sees the game inside the game.
Most people look for a job. Some people look for an opportunity. A small group looks at every job as an opportunity — and can't help but see the business inside the business.
A friend and I were talking tonight about a young guy — good coach, good player, good person. There's a real opening for him to step up and own a program that desperately needs leadership. He has everything it takes.
Except he doesn't want it.
And I think that's actually fine. But it made me think about what separates people who *see* an opportunity from people who *take* it.
Most people look for a job. Some people look for an opportunity. A small group looks at every job *as* an opportunity — and can't help but see the business inside the business.
I'm in that last group. Always have been. In almost any conversation — customer, prospect, friend — I'm already sketching something in my head. A hole in their market. A service they need. A better version of what they're doing. It's not a strategy. It's just how I'm wired.
I used to take that for granted. Tonight reminded me not to.
Being ambitious isn't about being reckless. It's about being willing to risk being wrong — publicly, sometimes expensively — in exchange for a shot at something bigger. That requires a kind of confidence most people quietly opt out of.
If you have it, don't waste it.
And if you see it in someone else, tell them. They might not know what they have.
