On Saturday, January 9, 2016 the front page of the Seattle Times had a banner about Ken Griffey Jr.’s election to the baseball hall of fame main story while picture and main story was about the Seahawks playoff game, and the fact star running back Marshawn Lynch decided not to play on Sunday.
These stories were even more prominent on the front page of the sports section. As always over the last 6-8 weeks the Lynch story mentioned he did his injury rehab away from the team, in Oakland. And that as of Friday morning coach Pete Carroll was saying Lynch would play on Sunday.
What struck me was the difference between these two prominent athletes. Griffey was (and is) nicknamed The Kid because when playing a kids game he always appeared to be letting his inner kid show. He smiled, interacted with fans and reporters, and just came across as someone very appreciate he was able to earn a great income playing a game, i.e. having tons of fun.
All while avoiding the steroid scandals prevalent during his time. In fact, if you saw the video of him getting the hall of fame call or heard his interviews about being elected with a record percentage of votes, you realized how humbled he was by it.
Isn’t that the kind of person you want working with you or for you? Isn’t this the type of person to whom you’d like to refer business (and get referrals from)?