Welcome to Seeking Greatness, published by GJ Sequeira.
I’m passionate about developing myself and others, personal wellness, and lifestyle development. I’ve worked as a project manager and engineer in oil, gas, chemical, and natural gas maintenance and construction and have a passion for optimization and efficiency.
In this newsletter, I write about how I’m developing myself and passing on that hard earned wisdom to you. While personal, the applications to other aspects to your life are limitless.
Personal Updates
Took a challenge on twitter to publish my first Youtube Video - the Morning Brew Review. It’s a little rough around the edges, but let me know if this is something you want to see more of
Published my first blog post on my site - you might recognize it ;)
Interviews, interviews, interviews - I’ll write more on this later, but seems that whatever I’m doing is working
If you enjoy what you read, please subscribe and share with others
Diamond cut Lessons - a Moneyball Story
How can you not be romantic about baseball?
Billy Beane in "Moneyball" is nest known for turning the game of baseball on its head from the traditional way of scouting
Going with lesser known players with key stats that WIN games
His peers and critics railed him for it
but he changed the game by going with a way of determining how players worked together instead of single player statistics
Here’s my story of how I used it in my baseball career, and how you can use it in whatever career/company you choose.
I wasn't the biggest or fastest player on my team, but I knew my role in each hitting and fielding position.
I was an asset because:
I got on base and made things happen
I never made errors and kept runs from scoring
My coaches had a commonality with Billy. They knew what the team needed and recruited/developed players to develop that skill.
I originally wasn't a good baserunner In order to get playing time I practiced stealing off our pitchers and learned from those better than me.
I gave myself more ways to attack at the plate.
I developed my speed through training and practice and I practiced bunting (a lost art in the current state of the MLB) and situational awareness to know when to use it
I let the 3 and 4 hole hitters drive me around the bases
Developing yourself in your career and company are much the same way
You need to find the players that get on base and create opportunities and find those that fit YOUR system and not someone else’s
As a coach (manager) you continually look at these KPIs
In tee ball, my dad saw that teams didn’t have trouble hitting baseballs off a tee, but they did have trouble fielding a ball and catching it
Instead of hitting at practice, all we did was field, catch, and throw
The hitting took care of itself
Fast forward to the season, and we were the ONLY team that could shut others out and had an undefeated season
Focus on what will get you wins
as a player (employee) you need to look at what you currently do, what you want to do, and find those at the next level to mentor you
In baseball its simple
Find ways to get on base
In your career, it will be
Finding ways to build your career moat, your adjacent skills, etc
For a project manager, it might be building your scheduling skill, knowing when to capitalize on material cost, taking advantage of a certain supplier, finding an efficiency in mobilization, etc
Always look for the opportunity to improve and make moves to execute.
How I got on base
I batted near the bottom of the line up for a while. I had 6-7 mental at bats before I got to the plate I knew what was coming and had the advantage
Career mental at bats can come in the form of
lessons learned from previous projects
observing coworkers and managers and “charting” their results
practicing prediction of events and doing a post analysis ie Thinking in Bets
Leverage your environment to accelerate your learning and be a better “hitter”
Get 'Mental At-Bats' to
1. have low risk experience with your decision making
2. learn different situations to apply to future opportunities
Closing
Special thanks to the coaches and teachers in my baseball career. The game taught me more than I give it credit.
This post is inspired by them as well as this book, which I recommend to people both in and outside of baseball, as the lessons from the diamond are applicable to any field
And who doesn’t like being romantic about baseball?
Key TAKEAWAYS
- find ways to get on base
- develop the skills that complement your role
- capitalize on the 'mental at-bats'
and watch Moneyball on Netflix
Until Next Time,
GJ