Bullseye. (CtbG Y4:E4)

Early last week, I was sitting with a Superintendent talking about the future. We were discussing their district, but we were also having a broader discussion around hopes and dreams. That’s when she asked me if I had read “Dream Big” by Bob Goff. I told her that I wasn’t familiar with him, and her face lit up like a Christmas Tree. She said, “You’ve got to read that book. Actually, don’t read it, listen to it.” She talked about her recent experience listening to the book and how Bob, as the author-reader, brought the book to life.

Aside: It feels wrong to keep writing without first mentioning something important: I hate audiobooks. I don’t believe that listening to books counts as reading books, though I am mostly okay as long as people don’t say, “I just read this book,” when what they actually did was listen. I expect to hear from some of you regarding this, and I welcome your thoughts. Just don’t expect me to change my position.

Moving on, I told them I would download the book and listen to it this week since I was going to be driving around a lot throughout the week. After our meeting ended, I jumped into my rental car, enrolled in a free trial run of Audible, downloaded the book, and hit Play. As I started driving back on the windy roads of West Virginia, I immediately understood why she wanted me to listen to it rather than read it. Goff makes the content come alive with his animated storytelling and contagious zeal for life.

A few hours into the book, Goff tells the story of Matt Emmons, an Olympic Gold Medalist at the 2004 Games in Athens. His sport was Olympic Rifle Shooting and he had already won the Gold Medal in the 50m Rifle Prone Event (using a borrowed rifle). Heading into the final position of the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Event, Emmons was in first place and set to win another Gold Medal with his final shot. In fact, he was so far in the lead that all he had to do was hit the target. No bullseye. No rings. Just the white part of the target would have been enough to secure the win.

Emmons steadied himself and took aim. Steady, he lined up his sights with the bullseye, exhaled the breath from his lungs, and squeezed.

Bullseye!

The silence that followed his shot was deafening. Nobody was cheering his shot or the fact that he’d just won another Gold. That’s because he didn’t.

Emmons – the best Olympic rifleman in the world – shot a perfect bullseye at the wrong target. Instead of Gold, he dropped into 8th place.

Hitting the bullseye doesn’t matter if you’re aiming at the wrong target. It doesn’t matter at the Olympics and it doesn’t matter in leadership, either.

Haven’t we all seen busy, productive, and wildly skilled leaders perfectly chase the wrong thing and shoot the wrong target? If we’re honest, haven’t we been those leaders, too? We executed the job perfectly, but we aimed ourselves at the wrong goals.

One of the marks of greatness, I believe, begins with clarity around our target. Are we clear about what we’re trying to achieve and, more importantly, why we’re trying to achieve it? If not, it doesn’t matter how well we execute or how hard we grind – we’ll never hit the right target. Given how hard the work is and how high the stakes are, this just isn’t a mistake we can afford to make.

Most of you reading this are beginning the day with a relatively slower start due to the snow and ice, so I invite you to spend some time making sure you’re aimed at the right targets, both personally and professionally.

Greatness begins by aiming at what truly matters.

#ChooseToBeGreat

Angelo