Bo Eason - Theres No Plan B for Your A-Game: Be the Best in the World at What You Do

The first time I ever played tackle football, the very first day of practice, they weighed and measured us for the game program. I was a freshman in high school, five feet tall, one hundred pounds, and by the look on the coachs face, it was clear I was not football material.

My dad picked me up after practice, and I told him, Dad, they weighed and measured us, and the coach thinks Im too small to play.

Without skipping a beat, he said, Did they measure your heart, goddammit?

I told him, My school doesnt even have one of those heart-measuring things.

Then my dad told me a story about a little puppy. He was a ranch hand on his uncles cattle ranch, and they used a dog to help them herd the cattle. This dog was amazing. It could do the work of ten men, and it was always one step ahead of the herd. The ranch literally could not survive without this dog. When the ranch dog gets too old and loses a step, they breed it with another ranchers dog, my dad said. And then when the puppies are born, the rancher takes the smallest puppy, the runt of the litter, and ties a little piece of yarn around its neck. Then he watches that puppy very carefully. After about twelve weeks, the rancher takes all the puppies except for the runt and gives them away. The runt of the litter is the new working dog on the ranch.

Bo, the runt always has to work harder to survive against its bigger brothers and sisters. Always. The runt becomes the smartest, the fastest, the most determined. Of all the puppies, the runts heart is the biggest. The rancher stakes his whole livelihood on that fact.

Bet on the runt every time, goddammit.

I knew what my dad was telling me. Im the youngest of six kids, so I knew my place. I was the runt. I had to work harder than anyone else. And thats exactly what I did. I made that dogs story my story. And Ive been telling myself that story ever since. It helped me develop the stamina to keep going after what I wanted most in life, and it led to every success Ive ever had.

Story. Stamina. Success. Its that simple.

That doesnt mean its easy. It can be hard as hell to keep repeating your story and to follow through with the actions that will make the story come true. But I know you can do it. Because if I did it, anyone can do it.

Now, I dont pretend I know your story. But I do know this:

You will succeed or fail based on the stories you tell yourself and others.

My dad was a cowboya real-life, working cowboy. Youve probably got a picture already of what sort of person that would be: gruff, no-nonsense, practical. Finished every sentence with a cussword as if it were punctuation.

Yet every morning, my dad woke my brother, Tony, and me saying, Keep moving, partner. Youre the best in there, goddammit. Youre the best.

Youre the best. He massaged that message into our brains everywhere we went, from the Little League baseball field, to getting on the school bus, to the time we went on a double date with the Tomasini sisters in high school. Every morning, every evening, for twenty years, he continued. He saw greatness in us that we just couldnt see for ourselves. My brother and I were embarrassed that he would say it right in front of our friends and teammates and dates. And then one day, years later, we thought, Well, maybe hes right. Maybe we are the best. My brother and I surrendered to what he saw in us, and we lived into our own greatness. He spoke us into existence.

Ever since my childhood, Ive been obsessed with what makes people great, what makes them the best. And because of that obsession, I inherited my dads best quality: the ability to see greatness in people and speak it into existence. I can show anyone who has the guts to commitanyone who will choose the pain of discipline over the pain of regrethow to become a top performer. It takes commitment, and it takes focus, and it takes the willingness to drop anything that does not serve your mission.

If you fully commit yourself, you can be the best in the world at what you do. Dont believe me? Well, think about this: You were born the best. Do you remember the day of your conception? If you dont, let me remind you of what happened on that day. On the day you were conceived, three hundred million sperm were released. The sperm that would help create you was one of those. Three hundred million sperm backed by millions of years of evolution, designed to accomplish one thingpenetrate an egg. All three hundred million have one job. And one of those sperm got the job done.

So you tell me, who won the first race you ever entered? You. You, Iwe won that race with three-hundred-million-to-one odds against us. We come into this world with greatness already sewn into the fabric of our DNA. We just need to acknowledge our potential and remember and surrender to who we already are.

Im proof that this attitude can succeed.

At the age of nine, I declared I wanted to play pro football. I took a crayon and a piece of school paper, and I drew up a twenty-year plan. And this plan wasnt just about getting into the NFL. This plan was going to make me into the best safety in the world.

That plan ruled my life. For the next nine years, I woke up every morning at 5:00 to run drills (which in this case meant running backward, because safeties do a lot of that). Everything