I watched my daughter Ellie sign to play basketball at Michigan Tech during National Signing Day at Wauwatosa East. Six of the team's nine seniors were continuing their athletic careers in college, which was pretty incredible.
There were pictures, smiles, families, teammates, coaches, signatures, and all the things that make a day like that special. It's also the kind of moment that's easy to point to and think, There it is. That's the accomplishment.
But the scholarship wasn't earned that day.
The signing was simply the visible result of work that had been happening for years.
Rachel and I have watched Ellie play since her Jr. Raiders days. When you've had a front-row seat for the entire journey, you know how misleading the finish line can be.
The work happened in gyms when there wasn't an audience. It happened through practices, games, strength sessions, travel, coaching, disappointments, missed shots, adjustments, good days, bad days, and a whole lot of ordinary days that didn't seem particularly significant while they were happening.
That's one of the things I love about sports. They make visible something that's true about almost every kind of growth.
We tend to notice the promotion, the successful presentation, the big client win, or the team that suddenly seems to be performing at another level. We see the leader confidently navigating a difficult conversation and assume confidence simply showed up.
What we don't see are all the repetitions that came first.
We don't see the conversation that went badly before the one that went well. We don't see the feedback someone didn't want to hear, the presentation they practiced twice, the habit they kept working on, or the decision to show up again when nobody was applauding.
We love outcomes because outcomes are easy to photograph. Growth usually isn't.
That's one reason execution matters so much. Goals give us direction, but our habits and choices determine whether we actually move.
Nobody becomes a stronger leader because they wrote “become a stronger leader” on a goal sheet. You become one through what you repeatedly do: asking the question, having the conversation, preparing, practicing, reflecting, adjusting, and showing up again.
National Signing Day was absolutely worth celebrating. I was one proud dad.
But I also knew the signature on the paper wasn't where the achievement happened. It represented thousands of decisions that came before it.
Whatever you're working toward right now, there probably won't be applause for most of the work required to get there. There may not be pictures, announcements, awards, or anybody watching at all.
Do the work anyway.
The signature may happen in a moment. The achievement is usually built long before it.
