Most of the really good people, you know, the guys who are brilliant at something, just kept turning up. They definitely weren't brilliant to start with, but they just kept coming.
They didn't just say yes to everything; they said yes to some things, and when they said yes to those things, they turned up, and then they turned up again and then on and on and on.
I'm watching a fascinating thing happen with my son Callum in relation to his football. Callum loves his football, but he's never really managed to connect the work and reward thing (probably because he was too young) but now people are falling away and falling away, and he's keeping going.
And so he's 17 now, and he wants to play football at the best level that he can until he's 30 or 32, and very few of the people around him have any aspiration to do that.
Let's be clear: Callum's never going to be a professional footballer, but he now has a possibility of a track towards semi-professional football.
It's tough, it's hard, and he may well not make it, but in the end, going forward in the future, someone might pay him 50 quid to play football, just once, and that will be priceless to him.
The guys that I respect the most, it turns out, just turn up and say yes to the things that they're able to do, and if they find that they have said yes to too much, then they're honest about the fact that they won't be able to turn up as people think and that is a joy.
There are times when I'm asked to do things outside of my work or in different places, and I'll say to them, "I'm really, really sorry, but the only thing I can give you is this", and they say "no thanks, we need more than that" or "yes, that will be fine and thanks for setting the expectations".
It's fine to say yes; it's much, much more important to turn up.
Blog Post Number - 4101