db: The ceiling rises

This is performance art with the mortgage, with the groceries on the line. If you think this is just fishing, then NASCAR is just driving.

“Don't stop thinking…”

Dateline: The Classic 2015

“Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.”
Stephen King

I hate that “Happy Face” thing.

To be honest, I think the commies invented it. Commies want everyone to be happy, everyone happy is how commies make money. 

When commies make money they are not “happy,” they are “happier,” than you the happy guy.

Happy, is a communist plot.

Grumpy, is democracy.

Our entire country, our entire way of being was founded on the principal of being upset.

If I was a founding father and I was in charge of writing that Declaration thing to the King of England I would have written it in my style, short, sweet, to the point:

“Dear King, take a hike.”

Same point, less words.

Now that I think about it, I bet it was some King who drew up that stupid happy face.

Note to yerself…if you are looking at a Happy Face, you are not king of anything.

I’m a miserable happy. Whenever I get happy there’s this little voice inside of me that keeps saying, “Dude, what are you missing, something ain’t right here.”

Smiles are suspicious.

Why are you smiling at me, what are you really thinking, quit that smirking, have a great day, what the hell does that mean, come back here let me punch you in the face.

Any boss that I have ever had in life who jerked me around, smiled a lot. “Mr. Barone, I’m sorry but your story hits by goat herders in Turkey has dropped off significantly so we have to let you go.”

Smile.

If you are wearing a suit and tie and you smile at me I automatically file for unemployment.

I had a boss one time tell me, “db being there is the secret of job success, showing up is job security.” I was in fact not there as he was telling me to be there since he was a boss in a suit and tie smiling at me, in my mind I went to my special place which involves sand, margaritas and my wife.

That boss took to wearing a Happy Face lapel pin to work.

I put an American Flag sticker on my desk, so much for the being there commie king.

“db, I remember my first Bassmaster Classic, I was just so awful happy to be here, just so happy, and you know what, that was the absolute wrong attitude.”

Cliff Crochet and his newlywed wife, Sara, are sitting across from me in a booth in some small local brewery that will happily serve you a $20 beer they made in the basement, which ironically is the same thing my grandfather did during prohibition but which landed him in the slammer and not on the cover of the local newspaper for best boutique beer.

Hooch is hooch my friends.

Throughout the next year, when I can I’m going to take you closer, going to take you deeper into the lives of some of these Elite Anglers.

Take you so far into their lives that you will see a parallel between what they do for a living, and what you do for a living.

Not job for job, but attitude, but desire, but devotion to their craft. I’m doing it because I think it will help you, in life, I know it will help me in life.

At the very basis of sports we must be able to take something away from the competition that will help us in the real world.

I’m beginning with Cliff for a number of reasons, he’s a good guy, an honorable competitor, happy, but not real happy, he is working on being happier.

In the outside, non-professional bass fishing world, Cliff Crochet is the equivalent of an Assistant Manager Trainee about to move up the corporate ladder:

“It’s about time now db, for me to raise the ceiling on my career.”

“…about tomorrow…”

Cliff is going into his 6th year as an Elite Angler.  I know for a fact that he is an accepted and well liked angler by the old guard Elites.

Cliff, is a clutch .500 hitter. He has made 3 out of 6 Classics that he has been eligible for, this year he is going to back-to-back Classics, having finished in the money 4 out of 8 events last year, coming in 24 place in AOY points.

He is one of the few out here making a living doing this, “My sponsorship money is the foundation, that gets me going, keeps me going, the money I win on the tour, the cuts I make, that’s what we live on, that’s my salary so to speak.”

Cliff, 31, and Sara, 26, have been dating for the last 7 years, they grew up 3 miles from each other in the small Louisiana town of Pierre Part, last November they were wed, and in this upcoming September, “we are expecting Baby C.”

Sara:  “I think he is doing well, he has the drive needed…”

Cliff:  “…I have the drive, but db, but db, you know I don’t want to be the 6th man coming off the bench, I want to be on the floor all the time, my goal is to not just stay an Elite, but to make my mark.”

Sara is sitting there listening, she is pouring homemade ketchup on her French Fries, the waitress comes over and fills her glass of water, she takes a drink, looks at Cliff, then back across the table to me and says in a short, direct statement, “Don’t show up to play if you don’t think you’re going to win.”

Then both Mr. & Mrs. Crochet, just smile.

“…don't stop…”

Moving on up to Management Level, one cast at a time. This is performance art with the mortgage, with the groceries on the line.

If you think this is just fishing, then NASCAR is just driving.

“You have to approach this as a career, if you are hoping to just last out here for as long as you can, you won’t last long. It takes momentum to turn this from a dream to a career.”

Chasing, “Mo.” Momentum, you had a good first quarter sales report, great, but that makes the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter even harder. Expectations rise, performance goals rise, scrutiny, numbers, numbers, numbers, corporate watching, judging.

“As I’m trying to go deeper into my career the one thing that happens is that my focus narrows, I know what’s in play more now, sure there may be glory out there on the edges of my thought process, the what if’s, but the money shot is right down the middle to my strengths.”

I’m eating chicken wings, sauce on the side so I can dip when I don’t need to write anything, I take a bite, no dip, “Are you talented enough to do this Cliff, to move that ceiling up a level.”

I reach over, pick up a leg, and dip.  The dip gives Cliff time to think.

Cliff looks to his left to Sara, she is just sitting there, listening, will the ceiling move up, or collapse.

“To be honest db, I don’t know about the talent but I do know that I have the drive and that I have the work ethic, my parents are hard working people, I grew up in a home that if you wanted something, that was fine but you had to work for it, I may not be as talented as some of the guys out here but I will damn sure outwork them. I’m not afraid to work for what I get.”

And as I dip a stalk of celery into the blue cheese I look Cliff right in the eyes and say, “right answer.”

“…it'll soon…

Cliff admits to me, his biggest weakness is, “the business side of this, not managing the money, I get that, the tough part for me is asking for the money, meeting with and trying to get sponsors, that’s tough for me.”

Of course it is, it is for me, and I’m sure it is for you too, asking people for money was not something that happened in my house while I was growing up, we would rather go without than ask another working stiff to give up his money.

Sara: “We are all in on this db, all cards on the table, and I mean BOTH of us are in, can’t be one in and one half in, sure this is a dream, but it is also our chosen career, the ups, the downs, the victories, the losses, all part of the ride.”

Cliff: “db, you need to be real with yourself out here, real with yourself in whatever career you choose. Being real with your expectations, being real with your progress, with your goals. Mamma and dad taught me to be real in life, be respectful, be caring, be real with yourself.  Be real with yourself, be true to yourself, do that, and your ceiling will be raised.”

“…be here…”

To boil life down to an Emoticon, is to cheapen the human spirit.

The only smiley face I want to see, is the one that can smile back at me on its own.

Never be content, content is a career killer. If you look up and you don’t have a clear view of the heavens, bust through the ceiling above you.

The best job interview I ever had was for a job I never got, and I’m thankful on both accounts.

A guy in a blue suit, red tie, white shirt, sat behind a clean desk with no mess, no family photos of kids or pets.

Behind him, on a big bulletin board was a big yellow smiley face holding a sign with its smiley face hands.

I took the guy to be a commie.

I took the guy to be a commie because the smiley face behind him held a sign that said exactly this: THINK!

I myself don’t need a sign to remind me to THINK!

“Mr. Barone is it, so Mr. Barone what exactly is it that you would like to be.”

As I sat there looking at the probable commie, as if sitting on the top of his head was the smiley face sign THINK!

So I thunk some.

And as I was sitting there thinking about that THINK! sign the perfect man in the perfect suit behind the perfect desk under the czarist sign asked me this again, “So, Mr. Barone what exactly would you like to be.”

“I THINK! I would like to be…extraordinary.”

“Thank you, we’ll get in touch.”

They never did.

We don’t need signs to tell us to smile, signs to tell us to THINK!, because within us, lies extraordinary.

Be extraordinary.

Smile when you want, think what you want, and bust through whatever ceiling is in your way.

“…it'll be better than before.”
Don’t Stop
Fleetwood Mac

db

“It ain’t what they call you, it’s what you answer to.”
W.C. Fields