From Chapter 14 “Integrity” in Ingredients of Outliers. “Because that’s what we do.” Over the years, the one sport that has seemed to avoid most of the scandals, which have plagued other sports, is golf. Now, I’m not talking about the personal lives of prominent golfers, but about how the sport itself is played. For example, golf is the only popular sport in which there are no referees overseeing the action on the course; the players themselves are responsible for playing by the rules and for penalizing themselves for any sort of violations of those rules, whether those violations are … [Read more...]
Change Your Perspective, Change Your Life
From Chapter 11 “Perspective” in Ingredients of Outliers. Life is simply about perspective. If ranked, this is the most important of all the lessons I’ve learned. Simply changing your perspective changes everything. For example, I recently had a patient who was in moderate respiratory distress from the pulmonary embolism we diagnosed in the emergency department. He was also dying of colon cancer. When I told him about this latest diagnosis, he said, “Whew, at least I’m still on the right side of the turf.” For most of us—me included—the thought of a pulmonary embolism would be … [Read more...]
Young Outliers: A Middle School Football Team’s Life Changing Play
Being an Outlier is not distinguished by an individual’s age or life experience, it is distinguished by an individual’s ability to think outside the group and generate positive change, creating a ripple effect for the better. Here’s a story of how one small group of eighth grade students changed the life and perspective of many from the football field. Kieth Orr was born with behavioral and learning disabilities, which is cause in part for his extra-compassionate temperament. During a football game in October, Orr’s teammates created a heroic scheme, without the knowledge of their coach … [Read more...]