Performance Lessons From The REAL Wendy Rhoades in Billions
“We don’t have to be smarter than the rest. We have to be more disciplined than the rest.” — Warren Buffett
Good morning, coaches!
Today we have:
🎙️ Coaching Coaches: David Shaw, Stanford Football Head Coach: Developing Players On & Off The Field
💭 The Paradox of Stress
If you have any feedback or content you think could be helpful for other coaches, feel free to reach out or leave a comment.
Here we go!
✍️ ARTICLES
Why ambitious people have (unrelated) hobbies: Churchill was a painter, Mr. Rogers was a swimmer, and my former podcast guest Nick Nurse is a musician and rode his bike while in the 2020 NBA bubble. The key to avoiding burnout is having a hobby outside of work.
There’s nothing to feel guilty about for being idle. It’s not reckless. It’s an investment — in you, in your happiness. There is nourishment in pursuits that have no purpose — that is their purpose.
🎙️ PODCASTS
The Investors First Podcast: Dr. Gio Valiante: The Art of Performance in Investing, The PGA Tour & The NFL. I was lucky to speak with Dr. Gio Valiante, a Sports Psychologist and Performance Coach to professional athletes and investors. He’s worked with Steve Cohen (many know Steve and Gio’s dynamic via the hit show Billions on Showtime — Wendy Rhoades’ character is based on Gio), golfers like Jordan Speith, Justin Rose and Camilo Villegas, and currently serves as the Head Performance Coach of the Buffalo Bills.
The episode is like getting a masters degree in what it takes to be an elite performer. He talks about what makes the best truly awesome at what they do, whether it is one of the best investors of all-time like Steve Cohen or Tiger Woods. [January 21, 2021–46 minutes] iTunes Podcast | Spotify | Google | Breaker | Website Link
That’s the commonality that I’ve experienced laterally across the best of the best…they all have a bit of an appetite for risk, they love the work, and once they master all the skills in the work and they catch up to everyone else, at that point they show the courage to create and innovate, reinvent, and turn the work into art.Steve Cohen doesn’t trade for money; he hasn’t needed money in 30 years. Bill Belichick isn’t coaching for money. It’s the work that’s nourishing.
Coaching Coaches: David Shaw, Stanford Football Head Coach: Developing Players On & Off The Field. This seems to be one of listeners favorite episode to date - Coach Shaw is one of the most well-respected coaches in any sport and at any level (hear why an NFL GM said they wanted to hire him). I urge you to check out this ESPN segment on him and his brother if you have’t seen it yet. [March 30, 2021—28 minutes] Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Website Link
It's approaching that mentality of being great at whatever you do and never cheapening anything. I don't have to be lesser of one thing to be great at something else.
💭 MISCELLANEOUS
The Paradox of Stress (via The Upside of Stress):
One night, she (Alia Crum) was working alone late in the basement of the psychology department at Yale, lost in a train of self-doubt, worrying about her research project whether she would be able to finish it. There was a knock at the door. The department’s IT guy opened the door and looked in. Before Crum could say anything, he commented, “Just another cold, dark night on the side of Everest.” Then he closed the door and walked away.
Two weeks later, Crum was lying awake in bed when his comment came back to her. “If you were climbing Everest, you can imagine it would be cold, and there’d be some nights it would be dark, and you’d be tired,” Crum thought. “You’d be pretty miserable. But what did you expect? You’re climbing Everest.” At that time in her life, finishing her dissertation was her Mount Everest. She wasn’t sure she would succeed. But that challenge was important enough to be worth weathering a few cold, dark nights.
Everyone has an Everest. Whether it’s a climb you chose, or a circumstance you find yourself in, you’re in the middle of an important journey. Can you imagine a climber scaling the wall of ice at Everest’s Lhotse Face and saying, “This is such a hassle”? Or spending the first night in the mountain’s “death zone” and thinking, “I don’t need this stress”? The climber knows the context of his stress. It has personal meaning to him; he has chosen it. You are the most liable to feel like a victim of the stress in your life when you forget the context the stress is unfolding in. “Just another cold, dark night on the side of Everest” is a way to remember the paradox of stress. The most meaningful challenges in your life will come with a few dark nights.
📺 VIDEO
The art of misdirection | Apollo Robbins (9 minutes): Robbins is known as the greatest pickpocket in the world and has done so by mastering the art of attention. He does a really entertaining demonstration with someone in the crowd and manipulates them by controlling his attention, showing the power of it. It’s a great lesson that your players’ attention needs to be monitored and you can help influence them to focus on what you think is best for them. It’s also a reminder that we ourselves need to monitor what we focus on and be sure that we aren’t missing something right in front of our face.
When we think of misdirection, we think of something as looking off to the side, when actually it’s often the things right in front of us that are the hardest things to see. The things we look at everyday that we’re blinded to.