“I don’t take into consideration my life by way of ‘celebrity.’ I’m only a workin’ woman. I all the time say, and it’s the reality, that I’m a workhorse that appears like a present horse.” —Dolly Parton, Could 2025
After I heard the information of Dolly Parton’s passing, this quote got here to thoughts. A lady identified to your complete world when requested to explain herself, described her work.
That distinction between present horse and workhorse (or put one other method, present canines and searching canines) is what I’ve spent the final three and a half years asking individuals about. I host a podcast referred to as No Present Canines, constructed on the premise that world-class efficiency is attainable by all of us if we’re keen to place within the work.
Over 111 episodes, I’ve interviewed coaches, athletes, executives, army leaders, and best-selling authors, and I’ve closed each dialog with the identical query. What have you ever been keen to do this others haven’t?
I collected responses from 81 individuals throughout 20 sports activities, 5 international locations, and 4 branches of the U.S. and British armed forces. Between them they’ve gained 12 World Sequence, 9 Tremendous Bowls and two Stanley Cups, introduced residence 16 Olympic medals, 9 of them gold, and competed in seven Paralympics. Three are within the Professional Soccer Corridor of Fame.
I learn via their solutions and drew my very own conclusions as to what the magic was. However as an alternative of trusting my subjective learn, I went goal. I fed each reply into a big language mannequin and requested it to group related concepts and rank them by frequency and drive.
The keys to success
The mannequin returned a listing of the highest 11 themes.
I assumed that the strongest theme that might emerge would have been doing the additional work, the drive to maintain going when everybody else had gone residence. I had guessed mistaken. It was third on the record, not first. But it surely was nonetheless an important lesson.
Brandon Crawford, three-time All-Star shortstop for baseball’s San Francisco Giants, informed me that in highschool, each Friday night time whereas his pals went to events, he went to the batting cages. You can not separate your self from the pack by operating with it.
Second on the record was humility, which isn’t the identical factor as modesty. It’s the refusal to imagine you’ve gotten arrived. Stephen Vogt gained two division titles in his first two seasons as supervisor of the Cleveland Guardians, and he informed me he has to continue learning, as a result of if he doesn’t, the sport goes to move him up.
The following eight are equally impactful. (Don’t fear—I’ll let you know what’s first on the finish of the piece!)
Play your individual sport. Tony Dungy informed me about interviewing for his first head teaching job and deciding whether or not to say what the room wished to listen to or reply as his true self. He answered as his true self and didn’t get the job. The NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers employed him later, and in 2018 he was inducted into their ring of honor as one of many workforce’s all-time greats.
Construct your workforce. It’s not simply surrounding your self with good individuals who can assist you, it’s being intentional about bringing individuals into your circle who can educate you. Kevin Corrigan, lacrosse coach at Notre Dame, watches the college’s soccer workforce observe to review how an offensive line coach teaches, after which applies what he’s realized to his squad.
Put others first. Lots of the leaders I spoke with outlined their very own success by how many individuals that they had helped. Derrick Brooks, an NFL Corridor of Fame linebacker, mentioned he used each platform and relationship to serve these round him and to make the world higher. His dedication to serve others to make them higher raised the extent of his personal efficiency. The quickest solution to advance your individual profession is to advance everybody else’s.
Obsess over mastery somewhat than outcomes. Adam Schaechterle, tennis director at Pepperdine College, as soon as stepped down from a Division I head teaching job to take an assistant function as a result of he knew he had holes in his teaching. Most individuals chase the subsequent huge factor or title or paycheck. He acknowledged he wasn’t prepared and centered on extra studying as an alternative of extra incomes.
Have the braveness to fail in public. Joe Bohringer, a former MLB scout and scouting director, mentioned he isn’t afraid to look silly. When he doesn’t perceive, he’s not afraid to name a timeout in entrance of the group and ask the query. Most of us don’t concern failure a lot as we concern what different individuals will say about it.
Be deliberately current. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama’s head soccer coach, made 9 teaching stops earlier than Tuscaloosa, and his complete clarification for the climb was that he centered absolutely on the place he was. Dominate the now, and subsequent finds you.
Push via the ache. Ryan Hamilton, psychological efficiency coach for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, described the ache of loneliness, of being overwhelmed, of going months with out validation. Then he added that in those self same stretches he loved a number of the greatest moments of his skilled life.
Play the lengthy sport. Mia Manganello, a three-time Olympic velocity skater, mentioned she was keen to sacrifice the second for the final word aim. It takes years to turn out to be an in a single day success.
Which brings me to the highest of the record. I’ll be trustworthy; I used to be upset. I anticipated one thing complicated that I had by no means heard earlier than. What got here again was easy.
Maintain displaying up.
That’s it. Exhibiting up day-after-day, able to go. Doing the basics again and again. Selecting consistency over depth.
Kyle Whittingham, head soccer coach at Michigan, described it as being the identical man day-after-day.
The keys to success are inside your management
Right here’s essentially the most empowering lesson I realized: All 11 keys to excessive success are easy. They don’t take superior genetics or distinctive expertise. They don’t require wealth. They aren’t the results of an unintended discovery or a stroke of luck. Each one in every of them is solely inside your management.
Solely those that knew her greatest can say what drove Dolly Parton to common fame, acclaim, and admiration. You understand her story, and you recognize there gained’t be one other like her.
However she informed us how she considered it herself, and it was not the rhinestones. It was the work. That half is obtainable to all of us.
