Monday Motivation: Perfection Is The Enemy Of Progress In Finding Balance

Good morning, Cadre family. I'm a little bit later than my 8 and I'm a little bit earlier than my 8:15. So I thought right in the middle would be perfect. 8:07. How you like that? Good morning, everybody. Hope everybody's doing well. I always wait for the little notification to pop and then I know that we're here and we are live and the Cadre sphere is ready, willing and able to learn and grow just like me every day. That's the thing. We always want to try to be our best. And being our best means that we have to show up.

Good morning, everybody. Good morning. Good morning from wherever you are, I'm coming to you from the amazing state of Minnesota. Had a great weekend. Oh my God, it was hot. It was so hot. It was ridiculously hot here in Minnesota with humidity. It felt like a buck 10, 110 degrees. It was crazy, crazy hot. But I want to share two stories still rolling with the theme of balance. Through the theme of balance, there's this mindset of perfection versus progress, perfection versus progress. So I wanted to share two stories, one from this weekend and then one just a little bigger story in regards to.

It'll be related to sports, but I think you'll see where I'm going with it. Okay, so actually they have a. Well, one with business, one with sports. Sorry about that. So let's start actually with my, my daughter. So my daughter had a basketball tournament all weekend, right? So she had game one, game two, game three. I mean, this stuff is intense. Fourth grade girls basketball is no joke. And she's on this AAU team. I think I've told you guys about this before, but we have a game, it's like an hour drive for us.

And then we have game one, game two, game three, game four, all through this two day stretch, right? And so game one, she played okay. She played awesome on defense. Okay. Offensively, game two was amazing on defense. And she was terrible offensively, like 0 for 4. She couldn't make a shot, all the things, right? And so the next day she slept on it. The next day she slept on this. And her mind was racing and she, she was going, I just, I, I, I just shouldn't shoot. I shouldn't shoot. I'm scared to shoot.

You know, I feel like I'm gonna miss every time before the ball goes off and da da da da da. And I'm like, I'm like, honey, let me tell you a story. So Kobe Bryant was a rookie, one of the best that ever played the game. He shot six airballs his rookie year in the playoffs. You guys can Google this. Six airballs in a row. Six airballs in a row. And I'll never forget, he was interviewed about it and he was asked, you know, what are you going to do and what is this going to look like? And he's like, every one of the shots were right on.

It was just short, right? I went from high school, I went from high school straight to the NBA 30 game season, 82 game season. I don't have the legs. The shots right there, the shots right there. All I need to do is make sure that I work on my legs this summer. The shot will be right there. So like, think of that mindset. Like, think of that mindset immediately, right? So I just talked to my daughter about it. I was like, honey, it's going to be okay. It's going to be okay. Your shot is going to come.

Right now. You're playing amazing defense. You're helping this team out, you're helping this team win all these other things. Okay? But here's the kicker. The last game they're playing, the championship game, she picked up this rebound. So she got the big rebound. She kicked it out, had this amazing assist. And this gal or not gal, this girl made an unbelievable multiple shot, a three pointer. They were down two. They made it with three seconds left to go and won the game. Ada didn't make it. Ada didn't score any points, none of those things.

But she made the impactful play in order to kick it out to her teammate in order to make the big shot. So you just never know where you might fit in. But at the end of the day, like, we're gonna go back and work. We'll work on it, we'll figure it out. We'll do what we need to do. She's in fourth grade. She has so much more to go. Okay, so that was number one. Like this getting this mindset of like perfection, perfection. I, I have to make like, even at the NBA level, they're making like 40% of their shots.

Like, think about that. And we're just expect to make everyone so. Okay, before I go to the next story, I see all the names popping in. Good morning. Happy Monday to you all. South Carolina hot here too. Oh my God. Alicia, I love you. You're amazing. Heidi, so good. Amar, great to hear you from you all. This is beautiful. It's one of my favorite things to do ever is this Monday. Okay, Next in business. There's a lot of people that think you have to have it perfect, right? There's people that think you have to have it perfect.

You have to have the perfect logo, you've got to have the perfect business plan. You have to have all these different things that are just perfect. I'm going to share with you. Cadre as Cadre started there it was. I'll read them to you. So we wouldn't be here today without this business plan. Let me say that again. We would not be here today having this conversation, doing the. All these amazing things that we get to do with teammates, as friends, as contributors, as community, and all this without this.

Okay, six contributors signed up that believe in Cadre contributors on landing page with bios, videos, etc logo. You ready for this? Logo. That's all it says, logo which was made in about four minutes. Just for the record, the Cadre logo that exists today, the Cadre logo that exists today is literally made in four minutes. Just so we're on the same page. Don't ever pay somebody to do that. Mission vision values purpose value statement defined. Let me say this again, okay, six contributors signed up that understand Cadre contributors on our landing page.

Logo, Mission vision values purpose statement. Our wireframes and development was started. Our landing page. We didn't have a website. We didn't have a website, a landing page and a schedule contributor, culture builder and countdown to launch on landing page. So the next time you think about perfection and progress, this was it. This was it. This is all we started with. Can we get something together? Do we have the ability to make wireframes? You have to start small. Like everybody thinks like, you know, their, their goal is.

I'm just gonna. I hate to always go to this one, but it's obvious. Like, you know, losing weight, right? Like, you know, losing 100 pounds or losing 50 pounds or doing this or doing this. Like break it down to the most minuscule next step. Like nobody just gets to the top of Everest. You go to Base Camp. Step stage one, stage two, stage three, stage four. Like, everybody thinks you have to be on stage four. You have to be all the way to the top of the Everest, right? I'll never forget one of the most famous individuals right now in leadership that's around the country.

She sent me a picture and it was from Base Camp. It was from Base Camp of Everest. And she sent me this picture and said I made it. Like that was her first step. Not to get to the top, but it was just the first step. Like we always think that. Like this, this, this top is going to be the greatest like, the best parts of Cadre, I'll tell you right now, have been in the absolute progress. Where it's hard, where it's difficult, where it's all those things. You know why? Because that's when everybody else drops off.

When it gets hard is when people, like, drop. And you can accelerate and you can go, but you've got to start with these minuscule things. So, again, I wanted to share the Cadre story because, like, we wouldn't be here today without a little, literally, Google Doc that says, this isn't that crazy. Isn't that absolutely insane? And here we are today, 5,000 people plus all the things, working with companies, working with organizations, helping individuals that we get the privilege, that we get to. That we get the privilege to work with and support on their own journey.

But it all start. Started with just a little chicken scratch. And I see there's an individual on here, Heidi, who I respect and admire. Right. I never. I'll never forget meeting with her. This would have been five years ago, whatever it was. And when we met and she was talking about going on to school and continue on her schooling, and I was just like, you. You got to start. Like, you've got to start. And she. I think she started by looking at, like, it was there programs to help pay for it was there.

Financial was there this, was there that. And before you know it, you get the progress. You get the progress. Like, you watch out. Listen to this name, Heidi. Heidi will be one of the most amazing NPs in our backyard here. Here in Minnesota. And why. She just started. She just started. Just start. Start whatever it is. Small, little chicken scratch. It works, right? Like, for me to take Cadre, I'll never forget this. Here's one last story. I promise. I'll never forget meeting with this group of people.

And it was early, early on in the Cadre era days. We were just starting with this mindset and concept. And these were the things that they said, I will not put my name behind something that doesn't look away. I will not do this. I will not do this. Like, this is not something that I can do. Like, it needs. In other words, like, the only way that I'm willing to do this, as if it's perfect. And. And I'm like, well, that's not going to happen. Like, we're not gonna have a perfect product day one, you're not gonna have a perfect product to h*** in your first year.

Or two, you know, we're in year three, and we're learning how to tweak. And iterate and talk to our customer and learn and grow. Right? So again, I highly, highly encourage you to think of what's holding you back. What's actually holding you back. Because what I think you're gonna find is it's deep rooted in fear, insecurity, something, and it's actually throwing you off on balance. It's those excuses. It's those excuses that actually halt your balance. And when you throw those excuses to the side and all those things, I think you find really quickly that you'll find yourself in total balance working on something you love, whatever that might be.

Remove fear, remove being scared, remove the fear to miss. Remove all those fears, and then you just go and you attack and you're in total balance. The whole entire time over the last three years, have I been out of balance on this journey? Of course. No doubt, no doubt. I have to check myself, too. But I tell you what, I would much rather soon check myself in progress than halting myself in perfection. What's there to be scared of? Like Kobe said. What? Get over yourself. What, am I going to be embarrassed that I missed six airballs on national TV with 10 million people watching?

What? You're going to be embarrassed that you went for and didn't work. Go after it. Maybe there's this opportunity at your organization that you want to put your name in the hat for and go after, and you want to try or an internship or something. Give it all you got and go try that. Progress is a beautiful, beautiful balance. Perfection is a disastrous stretch. I'll tell you that right now. Okay. All right. I hope this conversation sparked you in your rebalancing act and your rebalancing act to be able to find a way to say, I am not going to live.

So there's this. This road right here. And it's off to the left, and it's off to the right. Off to the left is. Hold. Hold. Scared. Halt. Halt. Halt. Scared. Perfect. Perfect. Scared. Okay. It's got to be great. If it's not great, I can't do it. On the right is just progress. I'm just taking a little bit. I'm try a little bit. I'm gonna go here. I'm gonna try this. I'm gonna laugh at myself. I'm gonna fall down. I. I'm. I'm gonna be embarrassed. I. I can't believe that I did that. I can't believe we missed.

If I could have a dollar for every mistake we had at Cadre over the last three years, that I would have thousands and thousands of dollars. So that's all I have today for you. On balance, the balancing act, in my humble opinion, in this life, is progress. Take care, you guys. Have a phenomenal week. Lift somebody up. That's all I ever ask. Lift somebody up. Do something special for someone else. Take care, you guys. Bye. Bye.