Speaking up and standing out

Speaking up and standing out

My daughter played in a softball tournament for the state championship this weekend. Her team played well, finishing second.

I was proud of my daughter and her team. And, as I’m beginning to discover about almost everything, I learned a valuable lesson along the way.

Her coach asked me to keep the scorebook for the team during the tournament. I was glad to do it. It made me feel like I was contributing to the effort.

As in most tournaments there were rules that teams had to follow. One of them dealt with how many innings a pitcher could pitch. One pitcher could only pitch six innings over any two-game stretch.

In other words, if a pitcher pitched four innings the first game, she could only pitch two in the next game. In the game after that, she could pitch up to four more.

My daughter’s team eventually played seven games in the tournament. They won five, with their only two losses to the team that won the championship.

It was a double-elimination tournament, meaning that you could lose one and keep playing. Lose twice, you go home.

My daughter’s team had three pitchers, but two of them did most of the pitching. One pitcher started every game, pitching three innings in every one. Another pitcher would usually come on in the fourth inning and pitch the rest of the game. Each game was six innings so it worked out well.

But during the first game we lost, our second pitcher pitched less than two innings. The next game, we won with our first two pitchers going three innings each.

The following game, we got a big lead early, so the coach took our top pitcher out after the first inning, thinking he might be able to use her for more innings in the next game if needed. Our second pitcher threw the second, third and fourth innings. When our team was warming up for the fifth inning, I noticed that she was back on the mound.

So I walked over to the coach and told him I didn’t think the pitcher could pitch that inning. The coach immediately walked over to the official scorekeeper, then yelled out to the pitcher to switch positions with our shortstop, who was our third pitcher.

Turns out that if our second pitcher had pitched one pitch in the fifth inning, we would have had to forfeit the game. The coach thanked me numerous times. I was glad to help, and I found a lesson in the situation.

There once was a time when, even if I noticed something like the pitcher issue, I would have said to myself, “The coach knows what he’s doing. He wouldn’t want me getting in his business.” My self-confidence was so low, I would have automatically assumed that I was wrong.

If I would have done that this time, my daughter’s team would have needlessly lost a game they were comfortably winning.

So the lesson I learned is to speak up. Many times in network marketing, I hesitate to talk about my business because people have a negative feeling about the business.

Those of us in network marketing need to set an example and speak up when someone speaks ill of our profession.

Unfortunately, some people have given MLMs a bad name. It’s time we started getting out the good word about how much our profession can help people. This word will spread when our actions back up what we say.

Steve DeVane

2 thoughts on “Speaking up and standing out

  1. Steve,
    Congratulations on your daughters win! I think it is great that you learned such a great lesson. You are so right that we all need to speak up and let people know what we do. It seems to me that if we don’t, we might not be proud of what we do. Keep up the good work.

    ~Debbie Hudson

  2. Debbie,

    Yes, I’m learning that I can learn a lesson in almost any situation. I just have to be open to see it.

    Speaking up is one of the most important things that professional network marketers like us can do. Our profession has been tarnished by a few. It’s up to us to spread the good word to people who need to know.

    Thanks for the comment.

    Steve

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