Don Yaeger, Experts - Tuesday, June 11, 2013 9:30 - 91690 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.success.com%2Fdon-yaeger-greatness-made-special%2FDon+Yaeger%3A+Greatness+Made+Special2013-06-11+14%3A30%3A50Don+Yaegerhttp%3A%2F%2Fblog.success.com%2F%3Fp%3D9169

Don Yaeger: Greatness Made Special

Many of my best days these days, at least professionally, involve getting the chance to talk about the 16 consistent Characteristics of Greatness I’ve witnessed in great winners.  This past month alone, my speaking engagements included travel to Los Angeles, Louisville, Costa Rica, and Puerto Vallarta.  However, there’s one date on the calendar that ranked higher than all else.  A tiny adjustment to my schedule allowed for a coast-to-coast flight, a dynamic lesson about Greatness, and a memory that will resonate with me for the rest of my life.  I was able to make it to my four-year-old son Will’s final T-ball game of the season.  There was no way I was going to miss that!

This is a team with so many young characters and concepts of baseball that the only thing uniform about it might actually be the black and orange team uniform.  When the season began, there were kids who would make contact with the ball and cheer instead of running to first base.  There were kids who knew to run after hitting the baseball, but didn’t realize that third base wasn’t the desired option.  My son Will—normally dressed in his team jersey with his cap pulled down over his eyes –soaked in all the antics of his teammates.

He also witnessed a remarkable head coach by the name of J.R. Long. Coach Long is actually a Tallahassee real estate guy who took up the challenge of teaching young four- and five-year-olds how to play baseball.  I was impressed, but it went deeper than his patience and ability to deal with the challenges of a baseball team rich with young emotions.  At the end of every game, Coach Long gathered the team together in a circle. Sometimes it was on the infield dirt; other times it was near the benches.  It was during this postgame circle that Will’s T-ball experience went from good to Great.  Continue…