What’s up with Pinterest?

Can anyone give me an idea as to how GoWags might be able to use Pinterest?

I see a lot of activity on Facebook, but most activity is from women. Is this something that may benefit GoWags?

Thanks,
Bret Wagner

 

The ideological query

As an Information Technology professional, I deal with database queries all day long. You take a standard data set and filter out that which doesn’t meet your criteria. Voila! That’s the information I’m looking for. Let me use that for my analysis. Rarely does the initial data set meet my needs. I need to filter out the “junk”. It’s not that the “junk” doesn’t exist and isn’t real. It’s just that for this particular analysis, it isn’t relevant.

Why is it, that in life,  people have a hard time  filtering out the “junk”?  Your either “all-in” or you’re either “all-out”.

Take my blog yesterday, for example.

Blog here

I was amazed how many positive responses I got. I was amazed how many negative responses I got.

Look. I understand not everyone can afford to train. I understand that. This wasn’t about the poor.  Filter them out.

This was about those individuals, who are perfectly capable, but have an incentive to not train.  In my language:

SELECT firstName + ‘ ‘ + lastName AS  Lazy FROM tblAllBaseballPlayers WHERE financialcondition <> ‘Poor’ and motivated = ‘FALSE’

Sincerely,

Bret Wagner

GoWags to implement Excellence Tax

Below is the 2012 income tax brackets and rates. The more you make. The more you pay. Nothing new here. I didn’t say nothing wrong here. I said nothing new here. It’s called a progressive tax. Progressive taxes attempt to reduce the tax incidence of people with a lower ability-to-pay, as they shift the incidence increasingly to those with a higher ability-to-pay.

Year 2012 income brackets and tax rates

Marginal Tax Rate	Single	Married Filing Jointly or Qualified Widow(er)	Married Filing Separately	Head of Household
10%	$0 – $8,700	$0 – $17,400	$0 – $8,700	$0 – $12,400
15%	$8,701 – $35,350	$17,401 – $70,700	$8,701 – $35,350	$12,401 – $47,350
25%	$35,351 – $85,650	$70,701 – $142,700	$35,351 – $71,350	$47,351 – $122,300
28%	$85,651 – $178,650	$142,701 – $217,450	$71,351 – $108,725	$122,301 – $198,050
33%	$178,651 – $388,350	$217,451 – $388,350	$108,726 – $194,175	$198,051 – $388,350
35%	$388,351+	$388,351+	$194,176+	$388,351+

After looking at this table, GoWags has decided to implement an Excellence Tax on all parents whose kids hit over .300 and have an ERA of under 3.00

Look. We know that your child has shown an interest in baseball and you’ve decided to encourage it. That’s awesome. We also recognize that you are willing to make a financial commitment in your son’s development. Deliberate practice doesn’t just happen, right? Your son is becoming a better player this winter. And, the fruits of his labor will be evident as he takes the field this spring. Higher batting averages, faster pitching velocity, more power, more awareness, better body language. He’s a GoWags sponge and it’s going to show.

But, we’ve decided to tax you if your child does too well. It’s not fair to those kids who aren’t willing to make the commitment your child has. Hope you understand.

Those players not committed and thus hitting less than .300 or an ERA over 3.00 will receive a direct payout from GoWags for 96 weeks as a safety net that they don’t feel too badly about their performance.  After all, its not their fault that they are not committed.

Sincerely,

Bret Wagner

For those readers sarcastically challenged, that’s a joke.

The 50 Yr Old Basketball Genius

You’ve got to see this!

Video Here

OK. So Bob Fisher is a basketball genius. Here’s my question. What do you think basketball coaches think of his learning style?

It’s so easy to watch that video and think he’s a “genius”. But, that’s only because he’s already got the plaques and awards on the wall.

Be honest. What would you have thought about him if he didn’t have the hardware? I thought so.

Daniel Coyle describes it best

There are lots of useful takeaways here, but what I like best is Fisher’s mindset. He’s active. He doesn’t rely on any one source of wisdom; instead, he reads everything he can get his hands on, tests it ruthlessly, keeps what works. His mindset is not one you typically find in an athlete or musician (who often have passive, obedient, “whatever you say, coach” attitudes).

Fisher’s mindset is like one you’d find in a hacker: searching, resourceful, always willing to invent and re-invent. He’s living proof that talent isn’t about obedience to authority — it’s about being entrepreneurial, about taking charge, seeking out good information, and hacking until you get where you want to go. As Fisher so beautifully puts it, “Anybody could do what I do, if they know what I know.”

C.S. Lewis to the rescue

It never fails. Every time I’m struggling to articulate how I’m feeling, C.S. Lewis seems to capture it perfectly. We had our 9 yr. old travel team practice last night and I wasn’t particularly happy with the “effort” given.  I rarely get upset with results. But effort.. now that’s a different story.  Isn’t it funny how results usually follow effort?

Back to Lewis.  Here’s a gem from his book Mere Christianity.

“People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed. The real job of every great moral teacher is to keep on bringing us back, time after time, to the old simple principles which we are all so anxious not to see;  like  bringing a horse  back and back to a fence it has refused to jump or  bringing a child back and back to the bit in its lesson that it wants to shirk..”

I don’t think Lewis would mind me substituting the word baseball for moral in the quote above.

Sometimes our players don’t need new stuff. They simply need to be reminded of the importance of doing the same stuff correctly.  Focus and do it right. Focus and do it right.  Focus and do it right. Maybe that’s my new mantra.

Or….maybe I need to remind everyone what Full Reps really means!

Bret Wagner

Are you an early adopter?

Are you familiar with the innovation adoption lifecycle or technology adoption lifecycle? Simply put, it states that no matter how good an idea or a certain technology is, it will go through a bell curve life cycle similar to the one below.  The innovators and early adopters jump on board first followed by the early majority. The late majority and the laggards are the last to adopt the technology. Think about Facebook and where you fall on this bell curve.

Anyway…GoWags is using a brand new service that allows customers to pay for sevices or get discounts on services by allowing their customers to post favorable messages to Facebook. It’s called Pay Me With A Post. You can visit our page here http://www.paymewithapost.com/GoWags

Are you an innovator or an early adopter? If so, you may want to check it out for yourself. It’s pretty interesting.

www.PayMeWithaPost.com

Innovation Adoption Lifecycle

Bret Wagner

Who gets the credit?

My mom was always fond of saying, “You can accomplish great things if you don’t care who gets the credit.”  I googled it.  Turns out that quote came from Harry Truman.  It’s so true.

When it comes to your own children, it’s usually not an issue. Most parents will do whatever it takes to help their child.  Kyle, Billy, Teed, and I have given countless individual lessons to the children of accomplished coaches and accomplished players.  It’s all about the kid.  No ego.

But…Let’s talk about the random coach and HIS team. That’s a different story.  Call it pride. Call it ego. Call it whatever you want.  We can feel it. We can see it.  I think some of it stems from not wanting his players to see him in a vulnerable position. Not knowing or having all the answers.  I get that.

I’m reminded of the old saying, “a team will take on the personality of their head coach”.  Something to think about if  he finds himself complaining that his kids “aren’t coachable”.

Full Reps!

Bret Wagner

 

 

A tough question

GoWags Striking Out Cancer

Tonight’s the night.  Twelve 9 yr old boys will play baseball “all night long” to help strike out cancer.  We’re donating 50% of our proceeds to a local mother recently diagnosed with stage 4 Colon Cancer.  Thanks to some amazing support within the community we’ve raised over $3,000.

It’s not too late to help out. If you’d like to contribute to our cause, you can contribute online by clicking the link below.

Click Here to donate

And if you aren’t able to contribute, please consider sharing this message with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers.

Thank you,

Bret Wagner

When a KISS isn’t enough

Ever use the acronym K-I-S-S? It stands for keep it simple, stupid.

I had a pitching coach with the Cardinals who would use that. It’s pretty good advice when your competing. Nothing paralyzes an athlete more than thinking too much.

But what about when your practicing? Deliberately practicing. Working on your known weaknesses.

Keeping it simple isn’t going to help you adjust to the inside pitch any better than you currently do. You need to focus. You need to be aware of how your lead shoulder literally acts as a hinge and allows your scapula to pinch. That pinch shortens your moment arm and allows you to stay inside the ball in a leveraged position.

Being able to adjust to a good inside fastball isn’t easy. Sure, you could K-I-S-S and try to be “quicker” but that only sets you up for failure on the outside pitch.

Don’t fool yourself. When it comes to becoming a good hitter. A very good hitter. Sometimes a K-I-S-S isn’t enough.

Bret Wagner