“Coach MacLean, I need to quit”, Marty sheepishly offered.

“What?!  Why do you want to quit?  This is our last tournament”, I countered.

“Well, all I do is get beaten, and it’s pretty tough on my self-confidence and self-image”, he replied.

Hmm, he had a point.

Marty was a junior high student who had been on my wrestling team for 2 years.  In that time he had learned a lot, but he hadn’t won a single match.  In fact, truth be told, he probably hadn’t scored a single point.

That’s pretty tough on a 14 year old.

He had stuck with the program, and now about a month before our last tournament he was quitting.  What could I do?

Well, I gave him the “Dare a Mighty Thing” speech.  One of my favourite quotes if from Teddy Roosevelt: his “It’s Not The Critic Who Counts” speech.  I have morphed it into my Dare a Mighty Thing speech.

“Marty, you can’t quit.  You can’t give up.  You have given yourself to this sport for 2 years.  And by not giving up you have won, even if you never win a match.  ‘How’ you ask?  Because you have dared a mighty thing.  You have chosen to step out of your comfort zone and face your fears.  You have chosen to try something bigger than you are – and just by doing that you have won!  You are a better man for having given this your best shot!

And, as Theodore Roosevelt said, ‘Far better it is to dare a mighty thing than to take rank with those poor timid spirits who know neither victory, nor defeat.’

Even in ‘defeat’ you have won because you dared greatly!”

“So here’s our plan: do you believe if we train really hard you can achieve the goal of scoring 1   point in this tournament?  Don’t worry about winning – just focus on scoring 1 point.  When you do that, then focus on scoring 1 more point.  Can you do that?”

I gave Marty some time to think through my thoughts and decide whether he would commit to staying and working on our plan.

He decided to stay.

We worked hard right up to the tournament.  And you know what?  In his first match he was beating his opponent 9-0 when Marty pinned him.  When the referee slapped his hand on the mat and yelled “pin”, I could see in Marty’s eyes a look of bewilderment and shock, then utter jubilation.

He had done it!  Not only had he accomplished his goal of scoring 1 point, he did it over and over and over again – and he had won his first match.

I saw Marty’s self-confidence and self-image grow 10 sizes that day.  He ended up winning the silver medal in his weight class.   Truth be told, he won the gold medal, but was robbed by a bad referee and given the silver.   However, Marty didn’t care – he was on cloud nine!

I think there are many leaders who may feel like Marty.  You have had a string of tough issues to wrestle with.  Maybe you feel like you have been losing for a while: losing money, losing market share, losing employees, losing momentum, losing confidence.

You may want to quit.  You may want to give up.  You may feel overwhelmed by the task(s) in front of you.  You may be asking yourself, “How on earth am I going to get through this?”

I would like to suggest a similar strategy for you as I did with Marty: focus on scoring 1point.

How can you score a point?  What is 1 thing you can do to move your issue forward.  That 1 action may not solve the problem, but when you add 1 more action, then 1 more action, then another and another, they all add up, and before you know it you have overcome that which was opposing you.

Your greatest opponent is passivity and complacency.  Fight back.  Stay in the competition.  Focus on scoring 1 point.

You know the old adage: How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

Dare a mighty thing: just score a point.