Masonry Magazine July 2006 Page. 48
Full Contact Project Management
Taking Nolan's Best Pitch
FULL CONTACT
Gary Micheloni
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Bottom of the ninth, two men on, two outs. Our team was down by two runs. I'm sitting on the bench. My coach looked over at me and said, "We need a hit. Heck, we need a home run. I know this is your first game with us - heck, your first game in the Bigs- and I hate to do this to you, but go see what you can do. Just try and meet the ball."
I stand up, rookie jitters from head to toe. Then coach said to me, "Hey, kid, forget about who he is you can do it. Even Nolan Ryan doesn't strike out everybody."
As I grab my bat and take a few practice swings, the reality of who I'm going up against finally hits me. "Oh, my gosh! It's Nolan Ryan! Do I really need to do this against a guy who can throw a 94-mph ball, right under my chin?"
How did I do against Nolan Ryan? How did Joe Namath and his AFC Jets do in their first Super Bowl game against an NFL team? How did David do against Goliath? We'll come back to all that in a moment.
Let me tell you what one of my coaches taught me. And I'll tell you, it is something you should take to heart.
First, this coach has a name: Tim Christenson. He has seen it all, so he can teach it all, and he meters it out a little at a time, as much as we can handle. One of the things Tim taught us was something that I think is really appropriate to share here - particularly for newer PMs. It's this truism: In order for a ball player to succeed at a very high level let's say, Major League - he has to be willing and able to climb into the batter's box and stand up to a "Nolan Ryan fastball."
This industry we're in is very competitive; it can be intimidating. Sometimes the other team looks bigger, acts smarter, or wears better uniforms. They have bigger checkbooks and they are the ones who wrote the contract documents. Their bonding capacity is bigger than ours and their attorney appears to have three rows of teeth!
How about you? Did you attend a great college and earn a degree in construction management, or did you sim-
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46 Masonry
July 2006
www.masoncontractors.org