Who's on your Bus?

A while ago I had the privilege of listening to coach Mike Krzyzewski "Coach K" speak and an opportunity to meet and chat with him afterward. For those of you who don't know who Coach K is, just stop what you're doing and google him once you've climbed out of the bunker you've been hiding in for the last 30 years, the Russians are not coming (yet?)! But I digress, let's just say he's pretty good at what he does! (Duke University's head basketball coach, five NCAA championships, three gold Olympic medals, and the list goes on).

During his talk, he shared stories about the highs and lows of his career, stories about losing Michael Jordan to UNC and how perfect of a player he thought Michael was (this conversation was pre-LeBron btw). He also talked about winning and what it takes to have a winning team.  The analogy he gave is the best I've heard about basketball as it is about life and has stuck with me to this day!

Winning has a lot to do with talent, hard work, and drive, but what really makes championship teams and legendary players is who they surround themselves with…in other words "who's on their bus" as coach K put it!  Sport teams travel on buses to play against the competition, the players/coaches/staff on that bus are the embodiment of the culture, hard work, and dedication being sent to represent that university. He said it was essential to have a winning attitude that everyone on the bus subscribes to and supports; this is as vital to the development of each individual person as it is the team collectively.

At some point in life, you want to create your own bus concept, it's part of what I call living intentionally, having more awareness and purpose in life. Who do I spend most of my time with? Who/what do I follow on social media?  Who am I allowing on my bus?! Whether you know it or not, you subconsciously start thinking and acting like the people you spend the most time with.

Once you make a commitment to living intentionally, you want to be intentional with who you allow on your bus. For me, I'm drawn to goal oriented, happy, positive people, I'll let these people on my bus all day every day!  Who I avoid like the plague are chronically negative or jealous people, it just takes one to rain on my parade. Negativity and jealousy are two very powerful contagious emotions that can permeate everything if you allow them to seep in. 

What ends up happening when you have a bus full of people you aspire to be like or who see life as you do is that you start feeding off of each other's energy, you lift each other up, you support each other and celebrate wins together….because in my bus, a win for one is a win for all regardless of whether there is a direct benefit or not!

You cultivate and immerse yourself in a culture that you create and collectively nurture....essentially creating a "family" that you've handpicked.

I intentionally spend time and interact with positive people who are excited about life and who feel empowered to make a difference in the world; let alone their own fate to the degree they can!

Every morning, I either send or get inspirational videos/messages from people (from all over the world) that are "on my bus". We celebrate wins together and lift each other up when inevitably one of us stumbles. Not to mention the advice we share since we have the same values and priorities.

A few months ago, I was interviewed by a bright OSU honor student (Ellen Zuercher) for an assignment about grit and what it takes to be successful, we talked about a lot (nothing related to my work, instead my thoughts about goals, attitude,  etc.), the point that resonated with her the most was this concept of who's on your bus, which she made as the title for her paper, and with her permission I'm stealing to make the title of this blog, 'Who's on your bus'.