Category: persistence

leadership dot #4067: merch

October 2, 2023October 1, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Portillo’s is a niche fast food restaurant that for decades was just in Chicagoland. As recently as 2014, the chain only had 38 restaurants making them elusive and memorable. People would go out of their way to have one of their Chicago hot dogs or famous roast beef sandwiches, and there was always a buzz of activity in the dining area.

Then things changed. I was recently in a Portillo’s and my brother and I commented on how empty it was during the Friday lunch hour. Maybe it’s because in the last decade, Portillo’s has doubled its presence, now with 84 stores in 10 states. And that is only the beginning. Today, they have plans to expand to 920 stores, downsize their footprints, open some drive-through-only locations, and reduce staffing.

The food is still good but there is no longer anything special about the place. Yet, as part of their redesign, there is now an entire section of Portillo’s “merch.” It seems wildly out of place.

Yes, people (me included) may have coveted and proudly displayed Portillo’s-branded items when it was a badge of honor to be near one but already it is becoming generic. Would you want to buy any merchandise from Tropical Smoothie Café or Five Guys burgers? That is how much Portillo’s wants to grow.

You can be big, or you can be special. If you want a group of devotees to pay to promote your brand, becoming pervasive isn’t the way to go.

leadership dot #4049: asking

September 14, 2023September 13, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Most people are glad to offer help when asked. It makes them feel good when they are able to give their time or talent to assist someone else.

Yet, those same people often struggle when asking others for help. Somehow, it makes people feel incompetent or they don’t want to impose — even when they don’t use those labels when others ask.

If you’re someone who hesitates to ask for help, imagine being on the receiving end of the request. It may reframe your perspective and help you see it as a chance for others to gladly be of service to you. Assisting others forms a connection and builds trust. Don’t deny others that opportunity.

leadership dot #3968: perseverance

June 19, 2023June 14, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

The first legislation to recognize Juneteenth as a national holiday was introduced in 1996. The date became a holiday in 2021 — a full 25 years after the initial resolution, and you know there were years of efforts before it ever came to the House floor. Twenty-five years.

I admire the courage and perseverance required to commit time and energy to something where you may not see the results. Teaching children. Planting trees. Working to change policy. Reimagining a system. Addressing social justice issues. Fighting climate change. All these have long-term implications and it would be easy to do nothing because the goal seems so big or far in the future.

Juneteenth became a federal holiday because one by one, grassroots efforts persuaded states to recognize the day. By 2016, all but five states had observed the occasion. Securing national legislation is easier when the states are on board.

Because of the federal designation, today is a day off for many. Use some of your holiday hours to emulate those behind the Juneteenth observance and keep pushing for something that won’t be realized in the short term.

leadership dot #3935: air

May 17, 2023May 16, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

A good example of a positive instigator (dot #3934) can be found in Sonny Vaccaro whose story is told in the movie Air. Sonny was responsible for expanding Nike’s influence in basketball and identifying players to sign endorsement deals.

This was the situation in 1984: Nike held only 17% of the basketball sneaker market, behind industry leaders Converse and Adidas. Michael Jordan had never played an NBA game. The NBA had rules requiring 51% of player shoes to be white. Players never had a shoe designed for them, nor did any athlete receive revenue sharing for a product line they endorsed.

Yet, Sonny became a champion instigator to save the fledgling Nike basketball division from being closed down (as was under serious consideration). He fought to concentrate 100% of the advertising money on one player. He went to Jordan’s home to speak with his mother when Jordan’s agent wouldn’t arrange a meeting. He enlisted the support of Jordan’s former coach (George Raveling) to give credibility to Nike. He and two others spent the weekend at HQ designing a prototype of the first Air Jordan. Sonny did an audible during the scripted presentation to the Jordans and infused an emotional appeal that changed the situation, then forwarded Mrs. Jordan’s revolutionary demand that Michael would share in the revenue of sales.

We know the end of the story — Air Jordan now is an entire division at Nike with $4 billion in annual sales. If Nike had followed convention, they would have split their 1984 advertising funds to sign three players that would have had less impact than a dunk shot.

It seems obvious now that Michael Jordan would be a mega-star and Air Jordans would be a hit, but at the time it was a huge gamble for Nike and would not have happened without Sonny Vaccaro’s instigation. He changed not only the business but the entire sports marketing game with his passion and persistence.

What project in your organization is worthy of the grit required to be an instigator? Maybe the person who becomes its champion should be you.

leadership dot #3922: continuing

May 4, 2023May 3, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I had a terrible cough last month and have been on several meds since then. The cough is now gone, my allergies are under control and I’m feeling like myself again. My natural reaction is to believe I can stop taking the pills and quit using the nasal spray — after all, I feel fine and don’t need them anymore, right? Wrong.

Continuing to do what made things better is one of the challenges we face in many situations.

Examples include:

Continuing to take medicine, whether for allergies, depression, or other ailments, beyond the time they have first made you feel better
Staying with healthy eating habits even after reaching a goal weight
Maintaining payments (only this time to yourself) after paying off the loan or debt
Continuing to be actively involved with the issues following the election

It’s tempting to quit as soon as you have relief, but real success comes when you persist for the long haul.

leadership dot #3905: winners

April 17, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

One of the statistics to come out during the post-NCAA March Madness review is that none of the last four men’s basketball Division 1 champions spent any week as #1 in the AP Top 25 poll. Virginia, Baylor, Kansas, and now UConn won the whole tournament even though the rankings never had them on top.

It’s a good reminder to keep playing your own game — to keep pursuing your own path — and to not get distracted or discouraged by those around you. It doesn’t matter how the external world sees you — the key is to believe in yourself and persevere in working toward your goal.

You, too, can be a winner even if others never expect you to be.

leadership dot #3900: passion

April 12, 2023April 11, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

On display in a campus recreation center were two showcases that highlighted the evolution of the building. One had rudimentary drawings and a brief initial prospectus outlining the concept, and the other case featured architectural drawings and the design committee’s final report. The first was entitled: “In 1984…it was a dream,” while the second headline proclaimed, “In 2000…it came true.”

The displays themselves are simple but kudos to the campus for telling the story. Too many times we forget about all the dreaming, cajoling, meetings, patience, luck, and perseverance that goes into making something like a new building happen. Especially on a college campus, it may inspire a future entrepreneur to stick with it.

I was reminded of a quote that has stuck with me: “As you become an adult, you realize that things around you weren’t just always there; people made them happen. But only recently have I started to internalize how much tenacity *everything* requires. That hotel, that park, that railway. The world is a museum of passion projects.”

Clearly, the campus recreation building was a passion project for many people. It can also serve as a reminder that dreams are realized, even if they take many years. Stick with it.

Quote by John Collison @collision
Displays at St. Norbert College, DePere, WI

leadership dot #800a: buzz

April 6, 2023March 26, 2023by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

When a colleague and I were both new at another institution, we found ourselves in the position of making a lot of changes. Some of these were not popular with the staff or students, and we had the suspicion that we were being called a certain name behind our backs. The name started with the letter B.

As a symbol of solidarity, one of us gave the other something in the shape of a bee. Then there was another exchange. And another. And another. Now more than a decade has passed and I still think of her every time I see items with a bee — and let me tell you, there are A LOT of them. We have exchanged slippers, dishwashing sponges, sandwich bread cutters, jewelry, wind chimes, sunglasses, and numerous toys. Once you start paying attention to “bee items”, you will be amazed at how pervasive the image is.

We continued the bee exchange for years after the initial rumble was long forgotten. We ended up being well-liked by most and the nickname faded, but the camaraderie that it engendered did not.

Do you know someone who could use a little extra strength to pursue an unpopular but necessary course of action? Perhaps a little bee could buzz into their lives and give them the fortitude they need to stick with it, even if it stings for awhile.

Originally published in modified form on August 10, 2014

leadership dot #3769: overnight

November 11, 2022November 9, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

I have a friend who wanted to book the concerts for the county fair so he volunteered to work the shows and do the behind-the-scenes, day-of-show grunt work — for 15 years. He was finally hired to do the booking.

Another friend wanted to write a book so she started writing. It involved one hour at a time, early mornings, restarting, and lots of edits, but she kept at it, and is now a published author — 10 years after she wrote her first page. I

A community member had a vision for how a recreational space could become much more than that and be turned into a regional tourist destination — and her dream will be realized 10 or 11 years after she laid out her “crazy” plan.

If you have a big dream for what you can achieve tomorrow, the only way to get there is with little steps in that direction today — and every day for literally years. There is no overnight success story, even if it feels like it happens to others.

leadership dot #3717: belief

September 20, 2022September 19, 2022by leadership dots by dr. beth triplettLeave a comment

Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team, has a display that should be in every locker room and office in the country. It depicts the unlikely ascent of the Rays to make the MLB Playoffs in 2011. As late as mid-September, ranking services gave the Rays less than a 10% chance of reaching the playoffs and the Boston Red Sox over 90% chance of doing so, a trend that tracked for the whole second half of the season. The Rays were 9 games behind in September so the rankings made sense — until they didn’t.

The Rays beat the Red Sox in six out of seven games in September, then won a Wild Card berth with a walk-off homer in the bottom of the 12th in the final regular season game.

It wasn’t a complete fairy tale, as the Rays did not make the Series, but it shows that on “any given Sunday (or Monday, Tuesday, etc.)” anyone has a chance to be a winner. Believing in yourself is more important than focusing on what others have to say about you.