“Impact Venture Capitalists!”
Afternoon! Team…
If you’re a NFL fan, you know who Bill Belichick is. The somewhat notorious head coach of the Super Bowl-winning New England Patriots. He also happens to be the most boring, mundane man alive, in terms of press conferences.
He never raises his voice. Never lowers his voice.
Is never animated.
Whether he won or lost, you’d never know the difference. He is that disconnected from the outcome. He is all about team. Discipline.
And fundamentals.
He answers reporters with one and two words answers. Yes. No. We could do better. He never says “I” either, unless something went wrong, in which case he is first to accept blame and take responsibility.
In the excellent book, “The Big Book of Belichick,” he was asked.
“What is your view of dropped passes from both an offensive and defensive perspective?
He answered:
“I don’t know. That’s a tough question, it’s pretty involved. Just like anything else, I think you have guys that have really good hands, really good catch skills, and there will be an occasional drop from them and that’s usually a concentration thing. Then you have other guys who maybe don’t have quite the same hand-eye coordination skill, so catching the ball is a little bit tougher for them. A number of those players that I’ve coached in the past have had exceptional concentration, so there was kind of technique drops and there is I would say concentration drops. Then sometimes it’s related…
In the end, if the player is not a dependable catcher, I don’t think he’s going to be involved much in the passing game.”
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What I admire about Belichick more than anything is his dedication and commitment to the Team concept. “Team,” unlike family, is based on performance. Not unconditional acceptance or love.
If someone doesn’t perform, then he must go. Because keeping him creates a weak link in an otherwise strong chain.
Every member of the team, has this mission to achieve a common goal. But then imagine, there’s this one player who never shows up on time. Never makes it to the gym. Doesn’t know his plays. They lack work ethic. Lack discipline. They lack character, or maybe respect for his teammates.
In a Belichick locker room, that sub-standard individual is sent hiking.
Same is true in Impact Club.
From Impact Club Frederick this past week, 27 members were booted. I assume they were good people. But terrible teammates. When it came time to follow-through on their $100 commitment, once per quarter….
They went dark.
Didn’t respond to emails or text messages.
Didn’t arrange delivery.
Didn’t provide any explanation, despite our multiple attempts to reach out to them on behalf of the winning charity. I mean, they knew they made that commitment. But then they backed-out on it.
That means:
27 members X $100 failed commitment = $2,700 that wasn’t awarded to the winning charity.
In the context of sports, of our 232 team members – 27 let us down. Didn’t show up to the gym. Didn’t know their plays. Didn’t respect the mission that we’re all trying to achieve, in impacting local communities.
So… they had to go. Gone!
Booted.
Impact Club members and Impact Venture Capitalists – WE KEEP OUR WORD.
In fact, one member of Impact Club Frederick, like Belichick, was the first to accept blame and take responsibility. I told that person. “No, this is not your fault.” You did nothing wrong.
That didn’t stop him from writing a $2,700 check to off-set the 27 members that failed Impact Club Frederick. And more specifically, Blessings in a Backpack and the low-income children they serve.
And while this person did an incredible thing. I cannot stress this enough. That was not his obligation, nor is it the obligation of any other member.
Impact Club is rooted in the premise that it’s each member’s obligation to uphold their commitment.
When that breaks down, it all breaks down.
No other member should ever feel the need to have to bail out another member. Or make up for their shortfall.
So continually, we must prune from our ranks those members whose word obviously doesn’t mean anything. And work hard, through the use of our Voice, to add new stronger teammates to our active roster.
Each quarter, that… is how our Impact continues to mount.
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Tech Update: Once the Impact Club infrastructure is complete, each member’s MCFTR: Member Commitment Follow-Through Ratio will be visible to each member of the team. That way, if someone can’t be reached to uphold their commitment, another member of the team, who may know that person, can reach out and pass word along. Knowledge and communication, make us that much stronger.