2020 continues to surprise me, though this time it’s in a good way! Major League Baseball announced their first female General Manager, Kim Ng. I am not a baseball fan and usually I couldn’t care less about any MLB announcement, but 
this one caught my eye. While Ng is not the first female to break into men’s sports (Manon Rheaume, Jen Welter and most recently, Kate Sours come to mind), her background in baseball is amazing in itself. She has held several high-level positions in MLB and is now the first female to become a GM, the highest-level position in a male sport. Looks to me like she put the work in.
Ng has been in baseball for 30 years, starting out as an intern for the Chicago White Sox and working her way up; she also worked for the LA Dodgers and the NY Yankees. Besides Ng getting the role of GM for the Miami Marlins, something else grabbed my attention. After an announcement of such significance, Ng made the rounds of interviews and I happened to see one. I learned she had applied for the GM role at various baseball teams over half a dozen times and after getting turned down repeatedly she nearly quit the sport. Despite the rejection, she couldn’t bring herself to truly give up on her goal, so she stayed with it and dug in harder.
Sanjay and I started J2 in 2002 and have overcome a couple of downturns in the economy. We’ve worked through low unemployment, a challenge when you look for talent to service clients. We have also endured the opposite, high unemployment, a challenge because companies are not hiring. The two of us have also had to navigate clients not paying on time and a myriad of other issues that come with running a business. And let’s not forget the obstacles that 2020 has brought on.
What does J2 have in common with Ng’s story? Perseverance. Neither of us gave up, and we put the work in. Have you ever wanted something so badly that nothing would get in your way? Reaching a goal is hard work, and it takes a lot of effort. “Overnight success” takes a long time; in fact, when you get close to reaching your goals, it is time to lean into it and become motivated to work even harder to get there. When you want something bad enough you keep putting in the work, because one day you know your goal will come true ?
What are you chasing that hard?
“If you put in the work, put in the time, put in the effort, you’re going to reap the benefits.”– Richard Sherman
Put the work in this weekend.
V-