Photo by David Dow/NBAE/Getty Images
I watched the NBA Finals on Sunday night like a lot of people. As a Portland Trail Blazers fan, watching the Lakers win was like watching Lex Luthor (Kobe Bryant) take down Superman (Dwight Howard): the villain won. As I watched as the Lakers celebrated and the Magic sat there with glazed over eyes, I was looking for a lesson I could share with you about HR or about organizations or about your career. Maybe I could talk about the fall and rise of Kobe. Or how Dwight catapulted himself into the national spotlight. They were stretches but not any worse than what I have done in the past. Then I decided:
Not everything in life is a lesson.
I think bloggers are particularly guilty of this but it is a very human trait. We seek explanations for everything that happens in life to us. We try to extract more meaning from every little thing. We laugh in the face of microscopic evaluations. “Please! Give me more detail!”
Can I tell you what happened in the NBA Finals this year?
The best team won. The other team was great too but it wasn’t enough. There’s no secret lesson to tell you about. No insight beyond the minutia. The most talented, skilled and experienced team won the series. It happens in life all of the time:
- You don’t get the job because the other person had more experience.
- A candidate rejects your job offer because his wife was given a big counter-offer to stay.
- You got the sale because they talked to you first and just wanted it done.
- You get a great deal because the other person just got a call to clear everythng out.
- You stumbled upon a great candidate through a chance encounter.
- You pick the slowest line at the grocery store.
We have become so programmed to look beyond routine happenings and try to replicate the good and eliminate the bad. When we can’t replicate results or eliminate negatives, we figure we just interpretted it all wrong.
Sometimes there is nothing to interpret. As my good friend Rasheed Wallace used to say, when “both teams played hard” and you still lose, there’s nothing to take from that.
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and sometimes there is nothing to learn from either one.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I think we’re programmed to believe that everything has a deeper meaning, if for no other reason but to deal with the fact that most things in life just ARE. Also, how often do we attach that pseudo-meaning to account for a personal failure, or to glorify a success?
I’ve got to offer one lesson from the finals. The East really is a weaker conference.
I agree – sometimes an event is just an event and it doesn’t offer a lesson. I think the lesson is to understand that everyday events can be extraordinary – to you. For you and me, a Trail Blazers and a Celtics fan, there was nothing special about the NBA finals. But being in the moment each day and being able to see beyond the ordinary is when you find the right candidate that you “stumble” upon. Perhaps it isn’t stumbling – but being conscious enough to spot what is special about that particular moment and that particular day – even if to many others it seems perfectly ordinary.
I suppose that may be true in some aspect, but I think there’s always a way to look at how you could have things better. For example, your bullet “You pick the slowest line at the grocery store” then you could have said look ahead next time to see how many items the customers ahead of you are holding. Or if the cashier was too slow. I’ve made this mistake plenty of times – and learned from it.
Great posting man, really enjoyed it.