SHOW UP, HAVE COURAGE, DARE GREATLY

 Here is an excerpt from my book WIN THE DAY on Courage. 

In the words of author Ray Bradbury, First you jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down. It takes courage to jump and trust that you’ll build your wings on the way down. Most people stand at the top waiting endlessly for the wings to be built before they jump. We’re talking about the courage to take that plunge, a risk few are willing to take. Those who do risk are fearful but they go anyway. It’s like the story of the young boy in Paulo Coelho’s THE ALCHEMIST, who takes the trek across a vast desert trusting that there will be a caravan coming in his direction that will have the supplies he needs to complete the journey.

Life is filled with stories of heroes, risk takers and warriors of indomitable spirit who take the chance they are given to realize something greater than they can imagine. This is what a win the day champion does. A champion has heart. The word courage in French is coeur and in Spanish it is corazon, both when translated mean heart.

It is said that when racing horses die, only the champion receives a burial ceremony. They discard the body and bury the head and the heart – the two parts of anatomy that enabled the horse to never give up, competing all out even in pain. Like horses, champion athletes compete with heart, having courage to give their all.

When I think of courage, I always remember the brilliant words spoken by Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “The Man in the Arena” in 1910:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is not effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends

himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Win the day culture athletes and coaches are not timid souls. They are not afraid of failure knowing that loss and setbacks are great teachers. They may fail but do so “daring greatly” and get back up and try it again, wiser and stronger. They show up, which is half the battle. Many in this world never show up. In championship cultures, everyone is “all-in” living the core values and engaging with being authentic and vulnerable. Now, that’s what I call awesome courage.

In Brené Brown’s book, DARING GREATLY, title taken from Roosevelt’s speech, she talks about this great courage. “We must walk into the arena, whatever it may be...with courage. We must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen.” So many athletes hold back, fearful of going all out because they may look silly, fail, let their team, coach, parents down, make a mistake or not be good enough. A true champion, I’ve learned, is willing to dare greatly, jump off the cliff, knowing that others will “have my back.” That’s the win the day attitude.

There’s an ancient expression that basically says the arrow that hits the bull’s eye is the result of a hundred misses. Ultimately, after many attempts, it finds the target. This happens all the time with my work. Sometimes I make 100 calls to get one positive “yes.” I’ve had numerous rejections with my attempts to publish books, yet winding up with some best sellers. I’ve lost more competitive events than I’ve won but courageously came back for more as a wiser competitor.

The University of Maryland women’s field hockey team had just beaten Old Dominion University 3-2 in overtime, gaining a slot in the Final Four in Boston. My work with Maryland throughout the year consistently emphasized the need for athletes to play with their hearts (courage) and the importance of the team over the individual. This is always a challenge with a team of many stars. Following their victory, the Maryland Terps received the highest of compliments and greatest validation for their efforts. The “Old Dominion coach said, “Maryland competed, hustled, and played with their hearts. When a team does that, it is very difficult to beat. Maryland won as a team.”

What did Coach Missy Meharg mean by “they played with their

hearts?” I would define heart as the willingness to take risks to improve, even in the face of potential failure; the courage to go all out and discover your capability at the moment; the freedom to lose, learn from it, and forge ahead; planning with fearlessness, tenacity, and audacity’ being bold as you look at your opponents and dare them to match your intensity.

For champions, this is the spirit of play. Athletes playing only with their heads tend to be too ego involved, smitten with themselves, and overly concerned with outcomes and winning. Courageous athletes and coaches, on the other hand, have a deep desire to win – but if they don’t win, they refuseto measure their self-worth by any outcome. According to Olympian gymnast, Simone Biles, “being a gymnast means having the strength to hold on and the courage to let go.” Letting go and moving on from defeat is a courageous act.

RIGHT SPEECH FOR SERVANT LEADER

 Here is a new excerpt on one of the Buddhist Eightfold Path's leadership values. I will do a few more but not all. Here we go.

According to the mindful leader, right speech involves five conditions: speak at the right time, speak only the truth, speak gently without hardness, speak words that benefit others and speak with loving kindness, avoiding all maliciousness. The key factor in Right Speech is the creating of harmony and happiness among those you lead while at the same time avoiding harmful words to reduce suffering. All of this is relevant when speaking to oneself as well.

The basic rule of thumb for Right Speech is if it is helpful, true, factual, timely and pleasing, then you may say it. If something is not pleasing, yet helpful, true and factual, you may need to choose the right time to say it. All Right Speech needs to be pleasing. All Right Speech gives rise to peace, happiness and connection in oneself and others. If you as coach get off this path, that’s fine but know that with such awareness you can choose to get right back on track.

Sports leadership is a perfect venue to provide many opportunities to practice Right Speech. In the cultures I help coach teams we choose to compete and live by values that enhance how we relate and speak to one another. Respect, compassion, joy, selflessness, love, trust, mindfulness and positivity help to create environments where Right Speech can proliferate. There is no room for whining, drama or harsh behavior in places that wish to inspire mastery.

Right Speech is rooted in the fundamental belief that we truly care for one another. Masterful performance and mindful leadership in sports is all about such caring. Steve Kerr, head coach of the champion Golden State Warriors, told me recently that “I want to make sure that my guys feel valued, respected, important and relevant.” When they feel this way, magic happens and they compete at higher levels. But how does he do this? How do any of us make this happen?

How can we best demonstrate our caring for each other? It’s not about connecting my professional coaching head to your head. It’s about connecting my human heart to your human heart using Right Speech. The following can help you to better understand this factor in your coaching.

To connect my heart to yours, I imagine that I open the little door to my heart and become mindful of how I care for you. This “open door” policy reminds me to be caring, genuine, authentic, and vulnerable. I can then use Right Speech such as “I love being with you. There’s not another team (person) I’d rather be with than you right now.”

How does that make you feel? How do you think your athletes would feel if they heard this? Have you ever said this to an athlete? Why not? To not do this, there’s a chance you could lose them. To do it, you increase the chance of getting your team to go the distance, to work harder, to be loyal, and become mentally

tougher. Performance on and off the court is all about how the coach leads with Right Speech; how you feel is how you’ll perform. It’s really quite simple. When you care for your athletes like this, they reach their full potential. How you impact another, with regard to how they feel can be determined by what I call the RIVER effect.

Having kindness through Right Speech for all others is what the RIVER effect is truly about. The RIVER effect is a five-letter acronym that I use consistently as a reminder for me to be mindful and extend kindness to all my relationships. It helps me to connect and care more deeply. I do what I can to help others feel the RIVER and what it represents. In that regard, I want others to feel relevant, remarkable, important, inspired, valued, validated, empowered, excited, respected, and revered.

How do those you coach behave, act, play, work, and compete, when they feel the river consuming them? When you remember and adopt the acronym RIVER, you can easily create amazing opportunities to inspire, empower, validate, and respect others using Right Speech. It becomes a mindful touchstone that, when used, increases the chances that others will be loyal, go the distance, work harder, and be mentally strong.

The following are examples of Right Speech that you can use to coach the RIVER effect with others.

• You’re important to this team. We need your awesome efforts.

• (Relevant)

• I love your work ethic. It motivates all of us. (Remarkable)

• If you keep playing like that, you’ll be one of the best athletes I’ve

  ever coached. (Inspired)

• We value your presence on this team. You bring out the best in

  everyone. (Valued)

• That last week of practice was one of your best thus far. (Validated)

• I want to give you permission to keep being a great leader. (Inspired)

• When you play and compete like that, you’re being a true champion.

  (Empowered)

• Without you, we wouldn’t be the great team we are. (Revered)

• I appreciate and love how much you give of yourself to your

  teammates. (Important)

  Golden State Warrior head coach, Steve Kerr, uses the RIVER concept on a consistent basis and by so doing, gets the most from his players. Pete Carroll of the Seattle Seahawks is always looking for an opportunity to demonstrate similar

caring strategies that help his athletes feel respected and important. I told him about the RIVER acronym, and he agreed how helpful that is in bringing out the best in others.

Cindy Timchal, winningest lacrosse coach ever, for men or women, has adopted and adapted the RIVER effect to her coaching style. When she’s mindful of using it, she notices that there is a major “buy-in” to her system. She bathes her athletes in the RIVER and then notices the tsunami, that is, how “the athletes are super willing to put it all out on the field.”

While I didn’t realize it at the time, my first and only meeting with the iconic men’s basketball coach at the University of North Carolina, Dean Smith, showed me that he was brilliant at using the RIVER effect, even though he hadn’t thought about it in this way. He was the kind of leader who used deep, genuine Right Speech. Following an intimate 45-minute meeting together, I felt so inspired, valued, and important that I committed myself to writing my book, Coaching with Heart.

The RIVER effect fulfills all of the components of Right Speech. It is helpful, true, factual and pleasing and the time is always perfect for such words. Make the RIVER your “go-to” acronym for effective leadership.

THE COMPETITIVE BUDDHA FOREWORD

 I include this Foreword to my next book because it really matters that Steve is aligned

with this thinking. It inspired me to think that my work reaches all levels of performance. I hope you enjoy 

this. 

In 1992, early in my NBA playing career, I was lost.  I was a marginal player, in my 4^th season, hanging onto my position with the Cleveland Cavaliers. I was good enough to make it in the NBA, but I couldn’t get out of my own way. I needed to trust myself and my abilities, to let loose and really go for it.  Instead I found myself in a constant state of caution, in ‘don’t make a mistake’ mode, and my game suffered.

My best friend on the team, Danny Ferry, knew I was struggling, and he told me about a book he had been reading, called ‘Thinking Body, Dancing Mind,’ by Jerry Lynch. Danny suggested that I read it as a way of finding the rhythm and flow that I was searching for. At the time I really didn’t know much about Eastern philosophy, so when I learned about Taoism and how it was really just a practical guide to a simple, clear way of living and being, I was intrigued.  After all, my own mind was severely clouded with thoughts of failure in my career, and all I really wanted was to let myself play without interference.

Thinking Body, Dancing Mind became a crucial element in my development that year as an athlete and as a person. The book was filled not only with Taoist wisdom, but with practical techniques that I was able to apply to my training on the basketball court every day. With this new approach to my career, I was able to break through that season with one of the best stretches of my career. I started the final 15 games or so for a very good Cleveland team, and I felt freer than I had ever felt on the court. In fact, the basket never looked so big to me in my entire life! Raising my level of play so dramatically helped to increase my stock around the league, and I would go onto play another 11 seasons in the NBA.

Just as importantly, reading Jerry’s book - and later meeting him - changed the way I thought about sports and life in general. I began to realize how much power existed in the delicate balance between the mind and the body. Playing for the Bulls was where I ultimately felt that intersection most strongly, because while Michael Jordan brought an almost maniacal physical competitiveness to the gym every day, Phil Jackson brought a sense of calm and mindfulness. This beautiful balance served as the foundation of those championship Bulls teams, and as my worlds and thoughts continued to collide, it was not a surprise to find that Jerry Lynch and Phil Jackson were friends who shared a deep connection through this evolved yet ancient way of thinking and being.  Through Phil, Jerry and I began our own friendship - one that has lasted for more than 25 years. Every season during our trips to the west coast, I would see Jerry and his family and we would catch up on his latest books, my family and career happenings and everything in between.

The decades have passed and times have changed, but Jerry and I have remained in touch, and now, ironically, we are both in the business of helping people find the best versions of themselves. For me, what began as a lesson in new ways of thinking about playing and competing back in my early 20’s has evolved into a full philosophy of coaching in my mid 50’s. Having been blessed with the amazing opportunity to lead the Golden State Warriors the past six seasons, my staff and I have instituted a core philosophy that is built on finding the balance between competition and joy.  Jerry, meanwhile, has written a book that jibes perfectly with my vision for the Warriors, called ‘The Competitive Buddha.’ The book exhibits Jerry’s quest to use sports to teach Buddhist values like connection, selflessness, compassion, patience and love, and THEN how Buddhist wisdom can foster healthy, competitive masterful performance environments in sports, business and life. I think this is Jerry’s best book yet, and it’s not by accident.  Jerry is a lifelong learner - which I also aspire to be - and a lifetime of living and learning has led to his beautiful work about  Buddha for better sports and sports for learning the Buddha - a two way street that ultimately is about helping people find joy and contentment in their craft and in their life. 

Enjoy your journey, continue learning and seeking knowledge, and find wisdom and contentment as you travel down your own path. Peace.

Steve Kerr

THE ELEMENT OF JOY IN YOUR CULTURE

 The following is from my book, WIN THE DAY. Enjoy it and share it with others.

One of the reasons they are so special is they have so much joy in the process of each game. They don’t talk much about records. But our guys have a lot of fun from one night to the next. I think that’s part of our success. It comes from enjoying everything every day.

Steve Kerr, Head Coach, Golden State Warriors

To be perfectly honest, I could fill this part of the book on Joy with conversations, emails and texts I’ve had with Coach Kerr over the past four years and all I’ve learned from him about being a champion coach. He’s extended to me the opportunity to contribute my expertise but I believe I’velearned and benefitted more from this relationship than he has. My point is, our “consultancy” is filled with joy and fun as we continue to love what this is truly about, making a difference in each other’s lives. Because of our relationship, I can now fully understand why he’s such an awesome coach and why his guys go the distance under his tutelage.

Let’s talk more about this. The first and most important of the Warriors’ core values is Joy! Steve wants everyone to have fun. It’s a game and we play because of the fun-factor. It’s fun to be a Warrior because they are a selfless brotherhood of athletes coming together for each other for something bigger than the game. With this environment, everyone feels safe and as a result, they love playing with each other. When you have fun, you will work harder and have greater commitment and motivation to compete.

From a fan’s perspective the Warriors are fun to watch and fans are as well. I love being at the games not just to watch a great culture of athletes but to watch a fun loving fan base celebrating joy and excitement. I can easily absorb the joy the bench players are having when a teammate, starter or sub, does something special. The guys literally “jump for joy.” It is fun knowing that all of your teammates want the best for you. While selflessness (see value on Selflessness) is truly noble, they buy-in because of the joyful results they get from giving to each other. It’s fun and joyful to be part of anorganization that allows its athletes the bandwidth to be themselves in all its diverse population. It’s joyful to be part of a loving, caring coaching staff that actually listens to you. When Steve first took over as coach, his idea was to find ways his guys could be happy (see section on Don’t Worry, BeHappy). Happiness translates into joyfulness. It is because of this happiness that for a large part, his team is successful.

What I want you to take away from this is how joy and selflessness can play a key role in your culture as well by implementing the Steve Kerr philosophy stated above, why and how his team experiences joy.

THE COVER OF NEXT BOOK

 I have been talking about my next book and placing excerpts about it on this Blog. Here, now ,is the final cover design ( will be in hardcover). I love how simple and clear it is, just like the messages within the book. And now, it can be pre-ordered on AMAZON right now and as soon as it arrives next Spring, you will receive your copy. Click on the image. It can grow larger.

KNOW YOUR WHY

  I'm changing it up today. I am including an excerpt from my buddy, John O'Sullivan's latest best seller, EVERY MOMENT MATTERS. His work is remarkable and life changing.

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe. 

—Simon Sinek

We spend the vast majority of our time in traditional coaching education learning the tools to run a great practice and coach in the competition. Intuitively, this seems to make sense. Yet whenever I ask a room full of coaches to write down five qualities about the best coach they ever had, knowledge of the sport usually only entails about 10-15 percent of the answers. Instead, they speak about emotional intelligence and the ability to connect. The best coaches have realized that in order to be their best coaching self, they must authentically be their best self. To do that, you need to do the inner work first. You have to know your why. Just ask eight- time NBA champion and current Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr.

Kerr had a fantastic career as a player, winning five NBA Championships with the Chicago Bulls and the San Antonio Spurs and establishing himself as one of the premier three- point shooters in the history of the game. He will be forever remembered in Bulls’ history for hitting the championship-winning shot in game six of the 1997 NBA Finals. He also had the opportunity to play under legendary coaches such as Lute Olsen at Arizona, Phil Jackson with the Bulls, and Gregg Popovich with the Spurs. And yet, in 2014, when he was given his first NBA head coaching job with the Golden State Warriors, he had a conversation with another coaching legend that made him realize his preparation for his first head coaching job was insufficient.

Kerr had hit the ground running upon being hired by the Warriors. He spent countless hours planning his offensive and defensive game plans, studying other successful teams, building a video library of innovative game plans, visiting with coaches across multiple sports, and compiling concepts and theories that he thought would work with the Warriors. Then, in August of 2014, he was invited to attend the preseason camp of the defending Super Bowl champions, the Seattle Seahawks, and his whole paradigm shifted.

Love what you are reading? Then grab a copy today by clicking the image!

Kerr had admired the Seahawks from afar and loved the joy, spirit, and camaraderie that was so evident as they demolished the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XLVIII. He wanted the Warriors to look like the Seahawks. When Head Coach Pete Carroll invited him to some spend a few days with the team, Kerr jumped at the chance. He spent two days watching the Seahawks train and prepare for the upcoming season. On the eve of his second day, he sat down with Carroll and had a conversation that, as Kerr explained to us when he was on the Way of Champions Podcast, changed his entire coaching philosophy.5

“How are you going to coach your team?” Carroll asked Kerr.

Kerr, a bit taken aback, and stammered, “You mean, like, what offense are we going to run?”

“No,” said Carroll. “That stuff doesn’t matter. You’ve played forever, and you’ll figure out what plays to run and how you want to defend, pick, and roll and all that stuff. I’m talking about what your day is going to look like. What practice will feel like. What are the players going to feel when they walk into your building?”

In that moment, Kerr realized he didn’t really have a plan or know the answer. He wasn’t sure what practice would feel like, what the culture would be like, or whether the players would enjoy coming to work every day. After playing under some of the best coaches of all time, he had just assumed those things would take care of themselves.

Carroll gave him a homework assignment: “When you get back to your hotel tonight, write down ten things that are important to you. What are the most important things to you, personally, in your life? When you come back tomorrow, we are going to narrow down those ten things to four. Those four principles represent you as a human being.”

And then Carroll gave him one final piece of advice, which has stuck with Kerr to this day and is critical for all of us reading this book. “It doesn’t matter what values I have or John Wooden had or Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich,” said Carroll. “It’s what matters to you because, ultimately, your values have to be reflected in the way you coach. That’s what makes it authentic. And if you try to use somebody else’s values, the players will see right through you.”

When Kerr got back to his hotel that night, he thought long and hard about what really mattered to him. He also thought about what he had witnessed the last few days, from the music blaring during practice to the meticulous preparation and attentiveness at team meetings. He thought about the intense competition in each and every rep of every practice activity and the relentless optimism and interaction between coaches and players.

“That’s when it dawned on me,” says Kerr. “Pete Carroll had built his team’s entire practice routine around the energy, curiosity, positivity, and joy that defined him. His team was a reflection of him because every day was based on Pete’s values, on what was important to him. And the combination of that wonderful culture and an amazingly gifted roster had helped the Seahawks win the Super Bowl. It all made sense.”

Kerr returned to Carroll’s office the next day and laid out his four values:

• Joy: after all, they got to play and coach sports for a living, and that should be fun.
• Competitiveness: the goal is ultimately to win a championship, so they must compete.
• Compassion: everyone is suffering in some way or another, and it’s up to us to try and help people—no matter what we do for a living.
• Mindfulness: coaches and players who are mindful bring clarity of purpose to the team and perform at their best.

“That’s great,” said Carroll. “Now you have to build your whole day around those four values.” Kerr asked what he meant. “Well, if competitiveness is a value for you,” said Carroll, “you guys better compete every day. And if joy is a value, then you better have some fun. And if mindfulness is a value, then you better practice it.” Kerr knew he had the final piece needed to build his Warrior culture.

As training camp started, Kerr and his staff set about instilling those values by creating fast-paced, fun-filled practice sessions. Music blared from the loudspeakers. Practices were short and frenetic, packed with information but not drawn out forever. Video sessions were both instructional and educational, with a fair dose of fun. Coaches were not only teachers but were also intentional about connecting with and caring for the players and their families. “We knew it wouldn’t happen overnight,” said Kerr, “but we felt that over time our players would feel our joy, sense our caring and compassion for them, recognize our competitive desire and our mindful approach to coaching. And hopefully, if we were consistent with that routine, the team would begin to take on an identity that reflected those ideals.”

And take on that identity they did. As Kerr so eloquently wrote in the foreword for my good friend Dr Jerry Lynch’s book Win the Day, “I’m proud to say that over time, our Warriors team has had wonderful success, mainly because we have had an incredibly talented group. The culture that has taken hold is shown in Steph Curry’s joy, in Draymond Green’s competitiveness, in the mindfulness of Andre Iguodala, and the compassion of Shaun Livingston and Klay Thompson. It is shown in the brilliantly unselfish play of Kevin Durant, who wanted to be part of a team that connects, cares for, and sacrifices for one another and has forged an identity of his own amongst this wonderful group of players. Ultimately, players determine a team’s ultimate success. It is the coach’s job to give those players a vision, to develop a routine and a pattern that is meaningful and consistent. And when those things come together, the results can be beautiful.”6

Those things have come together quite nicely. In Kerr’s first five seasons as a head coach, the Warriors have won three NBA World Championships, made five straight NBA Finals appearances, set the single-season record for regular season wins, and established themselves as one of the greatest basketball teams of all time. Joy. Mindfulness. Competitiveness. Compassion. Those are the four principles that mattered most to Steve Kerr and had been ingrained in him as a person, the four principles that defined his authentic self.

The lesson that Steve Kerr learned that day from Pete Carroll was a simple one: know thyself. Your team and your program should be a reflection of you. Do the inner work first and get to know your why.

A LITTLE BIT OF GRIT

 Here are my thoughts on an often used term in sports, GRIT. It's simple to understand but challenging to implement. Let's see if this helps you to bring this to your culture. 

Perhaps more than any other characteristic of successful people is the quality of grit. Every one of the 115 champion team cultures I’ve been associated with demonstrated grit. As a competitive distance runner for many years, I admired the mentality of the great Steve Prefontaine. I still remember his words prior to a big race when he said, and I paraphrase, “they may beat me but they’ll have to bleed to do it.” That is grit.

Coach Bob Hansen of the Middlebury College tennis program tells a story about the grit of one of his athletes. It was Spring break, he had a job, he practiced his tennis yet still turned up the volume of life by taking a simple “breather class” and still spend 24 hour writing a paper for his project. According to Bob, he was an “all-in” guy wanting to get the most from himself. This is grit.

In the culture of Anson Dorrance, grit is related to character; real personal character is what he calls it. Included in such character traits is self- discipline, competitive fire, self-belief, love for the ball and love for the game, watching or playing it. He loves Duckworth’s GRIT TEST (included in her book) and requires all his athletes to take it to determine who has grit and to teach them through such a test, the elements that make up grit. Like Anson, I believe that being mindful of what grit truly is, raises the possibility that you can develop it within yourself. I also believe that if you have passion and perseverance, you demonstrate grit. However, these qualities cannot be legislated by you, the coach. The athlete must want to have grit.

In my win the day culture, we never give up, we never fear failure, we never lose confidence and we never let an opponent defeat our spirits. Cindy Timchal’s teams are the epitome of grit. In a recent conversation she admitted to me that our work together on grit was the one key factor in getting them to the women’s lacrosse final four. 

Legendary NFL champion Coach Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49’ers had a strong conviction about his guys being “gritty.” He referred to it as being resilient  In his words, “to succeed you must fail which is part and parcel of pursuing and achieving very ambitious goals.” I remember when his team was on an eight-game losing streak early on in his tenure with the Niners. After a dark, dismal period, rather than give up he discovered something inside (Grit) that helped the team to keep fighting regardless of their record. The next season they won the Super Bowl.

While so many coaches and athletes seem to think that greatness is the result of physical talent, I refuse to accept this myth. While physical talent is important it is the Mental talent that brings championships. Believing it is just physical talent lets you off the hook – “I don’t have the talent so that’s why I’m not great.” It becomes an excuse to not work hard. From my experience with all of my 115 championship teams, I’ve observed that a majority of them won with mental grit, not physical talent alone. When I was a competitive athlete, I had less physical talent than many but few, if any, could outwork me.