Clarify Your Vision
Part 3 of Chapter 10 of The Culture Captain (Read Part 2 Here)
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Clarify Your Vision
"For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself."
—Viktor Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
A year after winning his sixth Super Bowl, Tom Brady decided to leave the New England Patriots. He made a list of 20 criteria for his next team, which included finances, weather, skill guys, and the like. But at the top of the list? The players he would play with. The coaches he would work under. The environment he would experience every day.
In reflecting on his decision to leave, he shared, “It might not be enough to just love your job. You have to want to live in the world the job creates. Working with people you like, a tribe with a common goal, would make your professional life far happier than any accolade, salary, or company’s prestige could. You need to do the work you love, at a place you love and with people you love.”[i]
Brady realized that Coach Bill Belichick’s and the Patriots’ philosophy of “winning is the only thing” no longer fit him. He wrote: “When you pack things up, you realize that some things fit perfectly, and other things don’t fit anymore.” Growth is recognizing when an old definition of success, like a favorite pair of jeans that are now too small, no longer fits who you are today.
Brady went on to win his seventh Super Bowl in his first year with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He wasn’t giving up on winning; he just wanted the experience of winning to be different.
Redefine Success
Matt Damon won an Oscar at age 27 for Good Will Hunting. He recalled taking the statue to his hotel room, looking at it, and realizing,
Oh my God, I feel exactly the same. And my heart literally broke for a second, because I imagined this other version of myself, this old man, who spent his life chasing that and finally got it in his 80s or 90s, with all of life behind him, and realizing what an unbelievable waste . . . if that’s a hole that you have, that won’t fill it.[ii]
Your vision is your definition of success—which means as you clarify your vision, you may need to redefine your definition of success. Remember, redefining success doesn’t mean giving up on your goals; it means committing to a process and creating an environment you enjoy, which will help you to do your best work.
Expand your definition of success beyond just being an athlete. As record producer Rick Rubin advises, “Success isn’t popularity, money, or critical esteem. Success occurs in the privacy of the soul.”[iii]
Heading into the Paris Olympics in 2024, Simone Biles dropped the definition of success that others had given her and crafted her own.[iv] And as you’ll see throughout this book, leaders like Brady weren’t just concerned with what he would experience, but what others around him experienced.
It might be time for you to drop an outdated definition of success and start to craft a new one focused on what truly matters most to you. A vision for your life should extend beyond a sport, job, career, or passion. It’s what you hope to experience in the pursuit of your best.
Chapter 3: Clarify Your Vision
[i] Tom Brady, "The Only Way Is Through," The Players' Tribune, April 6, 2020, https://www.theplayerstribune.com/articles/tom-brady-the-only-way-is-through.
[ii] Matt Damon, "Matt Damon Gets Emotional Talking About Winning an Oscar," The Graham Norton Show, posted September 25, 2015, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf4hSjUNInU.
[iii] Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being (Penguin, 2023).
[iv] Scott Bregman, "Full Q&A with Simone Biles As She Seeks to Make More History at World Championships," Olympics.com, October 6, 2023, https://www.olympics.com/en/news/exclusive-simone-biles-history-marriage-life-priorities-olympics.
