Secretariat Lesson #2

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I am a sucker.

I know certain things to be true, yet I fall for the same mistakes time after time. I feel like Charlie Brown with Lucy, trying to kick the ball.

For example, I know that nobody has it easy. People who “have it made” don’t just fall into their current situation. They had to work hard, to gamble, to risk it all in order to be where they are. You don’t get extraordinary results by doing the ordinary.

You have to be obstinate. You can’t do only what’s expected of you, what everybody else is doing. You have to do the unexpected, the unasked for. You have to act up. The key word being “up.”

How in the heck does this relate to Secretariat? When I first heard that there was a movie about the famous horse and his owner, I thought what challenges could a rich horse owner face? What obstacles did a spoiled, wealthy brat have to overcome? Poor little rich girl.

As I’ve had to admit so many times in my life, “Boy, was I wrong?”

Penny Chenery, the owner of Secretariat, was put into an uncomfortable position and had to risk everything – her father’s farm, her time with her kids, her relationship with her brother and sister, and her marriage – in order to succeed.

She was on the spot even before the horse was born, losing a coin flip but winning the horse she wanted, the one she believed in before his hooves hit the earth.

Even after Secretariat was named horse of the year, Penny didn’t have enough money to keep the farm and pay off the huge estate taxes. Everyone, including her husband and her brother, demanded that she sell Secretariat before he became Secretariat.

Yet, she didn’t. She stuck to her guns. She didn’t win it all by stubbornly refusing to change the way she did anything. She couldn’t win the game the way it has always been played. She didn’t have the money. So she adapted. She changed the game.

With help and expertise from a longtime family friend, Penny syndicated shares in the horse for breeding purposes. At first, they didn’t sell. They stuck with it. For the syndication to pay off, Secretariat would have to win the Triple Crown, which hadn’t been done in twenty-five years. Penny believed. She hustled. She sold the shares in the horse.

I was the sucker. Penny was not. She was not a spoiled rich kid at all. Penny was resourceful. And determined. And persistent. And tough. And she had faith. And in the end, she won.

The movie “Secretariat” is not perfect. Like any movie, some facts have been “Hollywooded” in the name of the story. That didn’t stop it from reeling me in like a huge chub.

Secretariat Lesson #2: Keep an open mind. Do your homework. Be resourceful. Be persistent. Have faith in what you believe and in yourself. Do all of this and you just might win.

Be the Secretariat of Offense.

This is Lesson #1 from a seven year-old movie.

Last night, I caught up in “Secretariat” a movie that I had already seen twice. It was on, egads, the Lifetime channel – don’t tell anyone. With the commercials (thank God for commercials), it was three hours long, which is much more time than I had to spend.

Yet I was sucked right in. The movie featured an attractive cast and had an uplifting soundtrack, but so do many overproduced box office bombs.

What “Secretariat” had was a story to which we can all relate. To win anything that matters, you have to risk something, usually more than something. Usually, you have to put yourself out there and risk everything. Everyone who loves you, and cares about you, tells you not to do it.

They look at you sadly and say, “ We love you, but …” You fill in the blank:

“but it’s too crazy.”

“but we can’t afford it.”

“but you’ll lose everything.”

“but this has never been done.”

I have news for you – you can’t afford to not do it. Eventually, you will wither away and lose everything anyway.

“But,” you say, “if everyone I know and trust is telling me it’s crazy, how will I know it’s the right thing?”

The answer is right out of the movie. The brilliant John Malkovich, who plays the trainer, asks Penny Chenery (Diane Lane), Secretariat’s owner, “How will we know if we’ve pushed him too hard?”

Penny answers, “He (Secretariat] will know.”

So will you. Only you. Here’s the catch – just like Penny and Secretariat in the movie, you will never know how far or how fast you are capable of going until you’ve been pushed past the limit of pain and endurance and risk that you thought were unconquerable.

You will only do it if you are forced so far past your comfort zone that it will be a disappearing blip in your rear-view mirror. You will find things inside of yourself that you never knew existed. And you never would have known unless they were squeezed out of you by the force of your belief and ideas.

There is no other way. It’s terrible, terrifying and beautiful.

Once I had the opportunity to ask the late Jim Harrison, my favorite author/hero, to write some words of inspiration into my copy of his latest book at a book signing. His eloquent words of encouragement?

“To Jack Write your ownself” Jim Harrison

In honor of Secretariat, I say, “To you – Race your Ownself.”

Good luck.

If you would like to discuss, please drop me an email at jhenke@henkeinc.com.

Next time, Secretariat Lesson #2