Sports coaches are hired to be fired.
It happened yesterday again when the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team parted ways with their coach of almost 5 years Peter Laviolette after just three games into the season (all losses). And that is after a vote of confidence a few weeks earlier from the owner AND general manager – that dreaded vote of confidence.
Some of the most successful people have been fired.
Yet we fear being fired for all sorts of reasons from needing the income to the debilitating effects on the ego. No one wants to be fired.
But it is a fear worth thinking about in a new way.
Scotty Bowman, one of the two most successful hockey coaches ever with 9 Stanley Cup rings was fired – an NHL record. Hey the Beatles were rejected initially by their record label, too. We all make mistakes.
Time for a little attitude adjustment.
1. Whether you’re flying high or fearing termination, work for pride. Pride in what we do makes people successful.
2. Even certainty is uncertain – Coach Laviolette won a two-year contract extension only a year ago. In life we never know and we shouldn’t be concerned.
3. Disruption in an industry usually means success so think of it this way: disruption of your career most certainly will bring good things because it will force positive change that might not ordinarily occur in the same job.
4. My motto: suffering is transformational. Firing can’t hurt us. The fear of being no one or having nothing could. And in reality those fears are without merit.
Put this quote on your wall:
“I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life”.
That’s Steve Jobs!
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