the job of a coach, a manager, a boss, a friend

is to push.

there are mean ways and nice ways to push.

not everyone responds with negative reinforcement, some people will bloom when they’re told how great they are because some people have never been told how great they are.

or they just need it so badly. you can be that sunlight.

other people have been stroked for so long that they might not know how dull their edge is. those people need prodding, sometimes even shoving.

the great jockey Willie Shoemaker used to talk about “showing the whip”. his theory was any jockey can whip the crap out of a horse on the home stretch, but a wise jockey knows that the whip will only work a few times and then the horse either wont respond or it will slow down as a fuck you.

so what Willie would do is he would show the whip by moving his whip hand really close to the horse’s eye and then giving him a quick snap where he can feel it. then through out the race, any time he wants a little more from the steed he will simply

show the whip and see what happens.

if the horse speeds up, perfect. thats what he wanted. that was the message and the message was received.

when the home stretch happens, old Willie would show the whip and if the horse ignored it he would show again and smack him to remind him what the whip was all about. sometimes he would do it on the other side of the horse after showing it on that eye.

willie won a lot of horse races.

my favorite manager of all time was Billy Martin. he was all whip. he burned out pitching staffs, he burned bridges, he got fired 4 times from the same boss, but he won and won and won

with style. and excitement.

some people forget that part of some jobs is to provide a bit of a show.

ask hunter s thompson. writers have a great opportunity to also be showmen.

anyways because Billy didn’t understand the nuance of showing the whip, his effectiveness was only about 2-3 years and the players would realize oh this guy really isnt gonna punch me in the face, so fuck him, i wanna be traded anyways.

my problem with many so called leaders is they’re just there for the ride. they don’t want to even show the whip. they wanna hang on for dear life and coast.

the horse is not going to win if you just let it coast. which means you’re not going to win and the audience is ripped off from the show they paid good money for.

the coach, the manager, and in some rare instances, the fans, are there to motivate the star to shine its brightest

and often that comes from explosive friction.

if you can’t handle the heat, get used to mediocrity.