"Keep your heads up"

Wow, there is nothing like a string of challenges and disappointments to test your resolve.  We all face our share of disappointments and challenges.  The important thing is that we keep our chin up and continue to forge ahead.  There are going to be days when it seems that nothing goes right and everything goes wrong.  The important thing is that we stay in the game.  That is the true test of leadership.

Everyone knows, or should know, that I am a die-hard Cubs fan.  Those of us who follow the "Lovable Losers" have had our share of disappointments - they are too numerous to catalog here.  However, our long string of disappointment finally ended last year, when the Cubs fought back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to win the World Series for the first time in 108 years.  Theo Epstein, President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs gave a speech (it's not really a commencement address, but he delivered it at an event called "Class Day" at Yale University).  It really is a good speech, even if you are not a Cubs fan. 

For those of you who don't follow baseball or remember the game, the Cubs seemed to take a commanding lead over the Cleveland Indians in the pivotal game 7 of the best of seven World Series.  Then everything fell apart.  The Indians tied the game, and the game went into extra innings.  A perfect storybook ending - for the Cleveland Indians!  The rain started falling, and the game went into a rain delay.  Theo Epstein talks about how he went back to the locker room and saw that the players were having their own meeting.  The players were all trying to cheer up the pitcher who gave up the lead, Aroldis Chapman.  What is important to know is that Chapman had started the year playing for the Yankees - he didn't join the Cubs (and therefore was not part of the team from the beginning) until the second half of the season.  But the Cubs players embraced him anyway.  They told him that "we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you." 

And then Jason Heyward spoke.  Jason Heyward was a superstar having a sub-par year.  Theo Epstein talks about Heyward in particular - he says that Heyward could have just put his head down and attended to his own personal business, trying to struggle through his poor statistical year.  Instead, he emerged as a team leader and "rallied the team" in one of its darkest moments.  True leaders emerge in some of the most difficult times.  True leaders are resilient.

The rain delay ended, and the Cubs won the game and the Series.  It was a great moment for me, and it was a great moment for Cubs fans everywhere.  I will remember that game for the rest of my life.  But the lessons from that game hold an even deeper meaning for me personally - when times are tough, when things are not going right, the true leaders are the ones that emerge.  As Epstein closed his speech, "And finally, when things go really, really wrong - and when it rains on top of everything else - I ask you to choose to keep your heads up and come together, to connect, and to rally around one another, especially those who need it the most."  Keep your heads up.  Be resilient.  Be like Young.