One of the greatest opportunities I was able to experience was playing competitive golf in college. The experience is something I’ll treasure forever.
The biggest blessing I pulled away from being part of Malone University’s golf program was the friendships. I come from an extremely close family, and I always tell people that my teammates were the closest thing I had to family. One of those teammates—Scotty Jones—is a friend that I’ll be forever grateful for. If I had to summarize Scotty’s golf game in one word, it would be CONSISTENCY.
Scotty’s biggest accomplishment was that he never missed a single tournament. While our team typically had an average of 12-14 members, only 5 men made the line-up. Our fall and spring seasons were constantly spent playing in qualifiers to see who would be traveling on the weekends. The team would rarely ever be the same from weekend to weekend. There were always one, two, or three new guys rotating in, which meant someone was losing their spot. However, Scotty never lost his spot…in four years!! His golf game was the definition of CONSISTENCY, and it’s what caused him to have so much success.
In Part 1 of “How to be a Successful Protege – Have a Plan,” I wrote about the protégé who took initiative with creating an agenda for each meeting with his mentor. This same protégé experienced a huge amount of success because of CONSISTENCY.
“Not only do I create an agenda, but my mentor and I know when and where we’re meeting for the rest of the year. We meet at the same place, on the same day, and at the same time. There’s no guessing. We just know.”
I sat on the other end of the phone in amazement. The protégé went on to explain how he and his mentor met at his office every other Friday morning at 5 AM.
“We both have families and full-time jobs, but we’re not busy at 5 AM. It’s a time and place that works for both of us, and it’s on the calendar for the rest of the year.”
Creating an agenda helped this protégé understand what he wanted, and it put a plan in place for him to accomplish his objectives. However, having CONSISTENCY proved what price he was willing to pay to get to where he wanted to be. This man and his mentor rolled out of bed at 4:00 AM with a purpose. They both had 5:00 AM penciled in on their calendars every other Friday. There was agenda with a purpose and plan for each of those meetings. Men, this is the definition of CONSISTENCY.
Whether we are on the golf course or are part of a mentorship—we need to be striving for CONSISTENCY in our lives.
My challenge to each of you is to evaluate your own relationship with your mentor or protégé. Is the characteristic of CONSISTENCY evident in your journey together?
Garret Barbush, Executive Director
Follow @garretbarbush