It’s early Sunday morning. November 2nd. Coffee in hand. Still buzzing.

Last night, the World Series ended in heartbreak for the Blue Jays. I’m not even a huge baseball fan, but I watched every pitch of that game. And this morning, I can’t stop thinking about what I saw. Not the stats. Not the plays. The truths.

Eight truths that matter far more than baseball.

Your Mind Is Either Your Greatest Asset or Your Worst Enemy

We spend years learning technical skills. How to do spreadsheets. How to write code. How to manage projects. But nobody teaches us how to manage our minds.

Last night, I watched players facing impossible pressure stay calm, focused, and present. They’d clearly invested in mindset training. So here’s my question: have you? Maybe 20% of us have ever worked with a mindset coach. Maybe.

Think about the mental energy you’ve burned this week alone. Worrying about things you can’t control. Replaying conversations that are over. Imagining disasters that will never happen. What if you redirected all that power toward what actually matters?

Your mindset rules everything. Everything. And most of us are leaving it untrained.

Greatness Requires More Than You Think

Remember the 10,000-hour rule? Forget it. The best players on that field last night had invested at least 25,000 hours. Twenty-five thousand.

You want excellence? There’s no shortcut. AI won’t do it for you. YouTube tutorials won’t do it. Nothing replaces the brutal, boring, monotonous work of doing the thing over and over until it becomes part of you.

We live in a world obsessed with hacks and shortcuts. But the people at the top of any field got there the same way: they did the work nobody else was willing to do.

Losing Builds What Winning Never Can

The Jays lost by an eighth of an inch. An eighth of an inch between glory and heartbreak.

Here’s what we’ve forgotten: you cannot have winners without losers. That’s not cruel. That’s honest. Somewhere along the way, we started giving ribbons for showing up. Trophies for fifth place. Gold stars for trying.

And we robbed people of something essential. Losing builds your spine. Losing teaches you what success never can. We don’t grow from our wins. We grow from falling short, getting back up, and figuring out how to do better.

We MUST stop protecting people from failure. Start preparing them for reality.

The Ego Is Always the Weakest Link

Not one Jays player was in it for themselves. Every single one was in it for the team. And you could feel it.

When egos disappear, magic happens. When everyone cares more about the mission than their own glory, the impossible becomes possible.

So why are we so terrible at this? Why do we let ego destroy teams, relationships, and companies? Why do we tolerate the person who needs to be the smartest in the room, the loudest voice, the one who gets credit?

Team always trumps me. Always. If you’re leading anything and you haven’t figured this out, you’re not leading. You’re just taking up space.

Passion Beats Money Every Single Time

Yes, these players make millions. But that’s not why they were on that field last night.

They were there for the love of the game. The rush of competition. The pure human freedom of doing something you’re great at with people you respect. You could see it in every play.

When did we lose this? When did work become only about the paycheck? When did we stop asking ourselves if we actually love what we do?

Watching people do something for passion is contagious. Watching people do it for money is soul-crushing. Choose passion. Or at least choose something you don’t hate.

Critics Never Play The Game

Everyone had an opinion about that game. Everyone. And not one person in the stands could do what those players did. Not for one inning. Not for one pitch.

Armchair critics don’t add value. They don’t improve anything. They sit above the team, pointing out flaws, never putting themselves on the line.

Here’s a rule worth living by: if you’re not willing to step onto the field, your opinion doesn’t matter. Be a player, not a critic. Or at least stay quiet.

Second Place Doesn’t Mean Loser

The Jays came in second. But they’re not losers. They showed up. They fought. They gave everything they had and fell just short.

That takes more courage than most of us show in a lifetime. Losing one game, one deal, one opportunity doesn’t make you a loser. It makes you someone brave enough to compete.

We confuse outcomes with identity. Stop doing that. The scoreboard doesn’t define you. Your effort does.

Real Leaders Take the Blame and Share the Credit

Listen to how the Jays talked after the game. “I let the team down.” “I screwed up.” “The team is incredible.”

That’s leadership. Leaders never share the faults. They absorb them. Leaders never talk about how great they are. They talk about how great the team is. Leaders take the blame and give away the credit.

Accountability is nearly extinct. Bring it back. Start with yourself.

Eight truths from one baseball game. Not bad for a Saturday night.

Maybe the real lesson is simpler: pay attention. Life teaches constantly. Most of us just aren’t watching. So here’s my question for you: What did you learn this week? Not what happened to you. What did you learn? I’d love to hear.