Your Formula for Success by Pat Williams

Author:Pat Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Self-Help;SEL021000
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2021-09-21T00:00:00+00:00

A Passion to Be the Best

In 1999, I wrote my autobiography, published by Revell (which published an updated and expanded version in 2014). My editors suggested the title for the book: Ahead of the Game: The Pat Williams Story. I liked the title and still do. My original title was A Passion for Distinction. The publisher’s title was undoubtedly a more marketable title, but I think my original title summed up the theme of my life in four words. From my boyhood, through my college years, throughout my career, and to this very day, I have been driven and motivated by a passion for distinction, a passion for excellence in everything I do. In my early years, I had a passion for distinction in sports. Over time, I developed new interests—sports broadcasting, sports management, leadership, speaking, and writing—but dominating and uniting all these interests is a passion for excellence, for distinction. My life has been blessed, and I truly do feel that, by God’s grace, I’m “ahead of the game”—yet I still believe it’s my passion for distinction that captures the essence of my life.

Another author whose book title summed up his life was the late Kirby Puckett, who played his entire twelve-year major league baseball career as a center fielder for the Minnesota Twins. His book, published in 1993, was called I Love This Game!—and yes, the exclamation point was part of the title. Kirby Puckett always talked in exclamation points.

In Confessions of a Baseball Purist, sportscaster Jon Miller talked about Kirby Puckett’s passion for living each day to the fullest, and for playing the game he loved so much:

When Kirby was playing for the Twins and I’d run into him at the ballpark, we’d trade smiles, shake hands, and invariably would begin a conversation that went something like this:

Me: “Kirby, how’re you doing, man?”

Kirby: “Fantastic, Mill.” . . .

Me: “Fantastic again? You were fantastic last month. You were fantastic last year. Kirby, how can you always be fantastic?”

Kirby: “C’mon Mill, you know that every day I put on this uniform is a fantastic day!”

Every time. And every time, I knew that Kirby meant it.7

Another baseball star with a genuine passion for the game is Cal Ripken Jr., who played twenty-one seasons with the Baltimore Orioles, 1981 to 2001. Playing shortstop and third base, Ripken—nicknamed “the Iron Man”—compiled a career record of 3,184 hits, 431 home runs, and 1,695 runs batted in. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2007, his first year of eligibility. On September 6, 1995, he broke the record for consecutive games played when he started his 2,131st consecutive game. He ended his seventeen-year streak at 2,632 games in 1998.

Cal Jr.’s passion for the game has driven him to do all the little things on a daily basis that add up to a long and distinguished athletic career—taking care of his health and conditioning, making sure he’s ready to play at every game, and making sure he is serious about competing hard and winning.

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