Pride Can Inspire a City
Do you bleed purple? With a 3-0 start to the season, The Baltimore Ravens can reignite a fan base that was left down and out at the end of last year’s disastrous season.
Meanwhile, across the street, the Orioles are fighting hard to be a Wild Card contender after one of their best seasons in a long while.
And you don’t have to be a fan in the stands, to feel the boost one gets from living in a city with two professional sports teams competitively striving to be champions.
When all eyes are on your town, it brings out the pride and unites a city that is in need of a little (okay, a lot of) unity. It demonstrates, even if for a brief duration, how players from all backgrounds can work and collaborate together as a team. While it may sound a little corny, it’s a message that clearly still needs to be broadcast above and taught down on the ground – from the youngest on up.
Pride lifts. It can inspire a city, a school and an individual to achieve things they never thought possible. Until they saw that great accomplishment, they didn’t think it could be done. Now they know. And now they are out to prove they can do it too.
Whether or not there’s a Super Bowl in the Ravens future and even if the Orioles wind up out of the playoffs, they’re fighting hard.
It’s no different for businesses that have to compete in the rough and tumble every day. You keep your eye on the year-end tally, but you also have to roll your sleeves up each and every day and battle through whatever challenges you’re hit with. How are you going to get through to the end of the quarter? What’s the year going to look like? That question, that quest is what keeps you going.
So while you’re watching the games, take a look at Buck Showalter and John Harbaugh’s faces. Try to imagine the end-of-year image they’re aiming for in their minds. See it? It’s there. Sure it might not come to pass. It may just be a dream. But if you and your business don’t imagine it, will it ever be a reality? So watch, get inspired and make it happen.
