Why We Need to Celebrate Success

Last week’s post was named “Sports Innovation meets Business Performance & Trust”

During a recent podcast I discussed a very good friend of mine who was a successful NBA basketball player, whom followed a successful c-suite career in a large global Fortune 100 Technology company.

“How Might We Align Sports Innovation With Leadership and Trust”, the podcast that explores bold questions at the intersection of leadership, innovation, and trust.

During the podcast we explored transformative ideas and strategies for leadership and community. In this episode, and how leaders can cultivate impactful mindsets.

Rob Aston and I first met in Houston in 1998 – Compaq had recently acquired Digital Equipment, Tandem Computer and as a PC company was for the very first time about to enter telecommunications. The launch pad for this was World Telecom 99, an ITU sponsored event.

Compaq introduced a new initiative to improve the performance of its events arm, which accounts for around a sixth of its Marcom budget.

Year One was spent putting this process into operation, Year Two was focused on performance standards, and the necessary culture changes to achieve effectiveness targets.

Assuming success, Year Three was focused on implementation and evolving the process.

Like many businesses, Compaq wanted to achieve a major sea-change in its behaviour in an attempt to improve performance (financial and other measures), build on its strengths and outperform the competition sustainably.

This required a degree of commitment and culture change on the part of its frontline operators.

Objectives
– Current Evaluation of Corporate Event & Marcom Management
– The Proposed Strategy for Corporate Event & Marcom Management
– Implementation of The World-wide Integrated Design Strategy
– Cost Analysis & Justification

Rob was in charge of the global program and brought me in to platform and showcase the largest program of the calendar year and to take the global brand across 4 continents.

Rob and I travelled extensively: Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, South Africa, N. America, South America, Asia Pacific, and Europe.

There is a tremendous amount of trust that formed over the years, building trust between a supplier and a company is a crucial aspect of a successful and efficient business relationship. It fosters open communication, collaboration, and mutual benefit, leading to improved performance and cost savings.

When my grandmother passed, Rob flew down to Las Vegas where I was visiting on business and we travelled on a road trip, through the Rockies. We often took road trips; Miami through the keys, Boston to Salisbury, Monaco to San Remo, San Francisco to The Big Sur, San Francisco to Napa Valley and Sedona. Never a dull moment with Rob on a motorcycle adventure – or any adventure for that matter.

When Rob lost his family, I visited his hometown of Pittsburgh and spent time with him across his childhood memories.

There’s no doubt that winning requires hard work over a long time. Hard work alone, though, is not enough. Muhammad Ali, one of the greatest boxers of all time (even nicknamed “The Greatest”), said: “Champions aren’t made in the gym. Champions are made from something they have deep inside – a desire, a dream, a vision”.

Rob would always state to me: “If you have no spirituality you have no life” – never a more truer statement.

Mental toughness and what it is is a quote we hear a lot. And it has scientific evidence: in a study of Jamaican sprinters, the elite sprinters were found to have superior coping skills and mental toughness compared to a sub-elite group, suggesting that psychological skills may indeed be a differentiating factor of winners.

Seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady has also said that mental toughness is what separates winning and losing.

And Rob is a huge New England NFL Patriot fan – but what it is and how you can cultivate it is slightly more complex – but also fascinating!

Self-confidence generally improves performance as it reduces negative thoughts and helps us focus. It seems, however, that more self-confidence is not always better. The relationship between performance and self-confidence isn’t linear, and too much can make us complacent and less likely to learn.

We need to celebrate Rob Aston and successful athletes.

Rob Aston has been a literal globetrotter for much of his adult life. A large collection of the former basketball luminary’s personal sports memorabilia will be featured in the James Sorbara Carnegie Sports Exhibit, part of the Historical Society of Carnegie’s museum.

And a number of family history books that Rob has written over the past dozen years will also be donated to help tell the community’s story.

He followed that by doing a stint with the Harlem Globetrotters, helping them transition from a serious basketball team into an entertainment franchise that still attracts scores of fans nearly 60 years later.

Given those exploits, Rob is no stranger to the spotlight, and recalls his dad’s statement: “You don’t want to hang around pro basketball for too long because people might get the idea that’s all you can do”, he said. So Rob had to set a goal to play professionally for three years – and that’s what he did.

Rob made the most of his time with the Globetrotters, traveling the world, entertaining fans and working with basketball legends such as Meadowlark Lemon, Curly Neal and Geese Ausbie. His rookie season, in 1967-68, he was in charge of the “tricks” – the gags that the team would play on the flummoxed opposition.

Rob never second-guessed his decision, as he flourished both in the classroom – graduating with a degree in education – and on the basketball court, where rebounding was his specialty.

The 6-foot-8 Aston still ranks fourth all-time in career rebounding with 10.9 per game and is tied for second in Mid-America Conference games at 11.7 per game. He still ranks third for most rebounds in a single game at 25.

He was no slouch on the offensive end either, as he averaged more than 18 points per game as a junior and senior and finished with over 900 points during his three-year varsity career (freshmen were not eligible to play varsity in those days). His all-around play earned him a spot on the All-MAC first team his senior year.

Still, Rob never regretted going the Globetrotter route after his college playing days ended. It afforded him the opportunity to see parts of the world he’d never seen, and he even dropped the Globetrotter name a time or two when needed later in life.

Like the time he was at a restaurant in Brazil and no tables were available. He mentioned that he was a former Globetrotter and a table magically appeared.

Although it’s been some time since he suited up for the Globetrotters, those memories are never far away, as Rob currently plays in a jazz quartet whose keyboard player is his former Globetrotter roommate. The band has played professionally for the past 15 years.

Rob’s time with the Globetrotters was just a warmup act for his actual globetrotting days, as he wore out a few suitcases while working for Digital Equipment Corp/Compaq and then Hewlett Packard. One of his positions at Digital required him to travel three weeks out of every month.

Rob said: “I’ve seen the pyramids, the Great Wall – anyplace you can name on six continents, I’ve been there” – he has visited 40 countries – 20 with the Globetrotters and 20 in his post-playing career, a stretch that saw him work for such heavy hitters as Gillette, Compaq and Hewlett-Packard.

Now 82, Rob is retired and lives in Houston –  he is a pilot and poet and spends time riding his Harley-Davidson in addition to playing music professionally, we still get to see each other occasionally.

Finally, research acknowledges that behavioural traits and coping strategies are partly genetical. But ample research also shows how these traits can be massively influenced by environmental factors, and that anyone who is serious about gaining an edge – in sports or in business – should nurture and train one’s skills to face and overcome stressful situations.

So, if you are naturally self-confident and have a strong belief in yourself, great. Just watch out you don’t become over-confident and blind to your flaws.

If you, on the other hand, lose your nerve before a competition due to the adrenal response caused by stress and anxiety, or if you have difficulties controlling your emotions in crucial moments – don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of performing at the highest level – these are all skills that can be learnt and mastered.

Lastly, we should be careful with labelling someone as mentally weaker than someone else based on performance.

Lacking sport-specific skills, not mental toughness, is what primarily makes an athlete vulnerable. Only when skills are on par for the demands of the sport does mental toughness start playing a larger role. And that’s where the marginal, but crucial, gains can be made.

As Vince Lombardi once said:

“Once a man has made a commitment to a way of life, he puts the greatest strength in the world behind him. It’s something we call heart power. Once a man has made this commitment, nothing will stop him short of success.”