Living with Quiggles: Life Lessons from Baseball

Eventually, he was hired by the Chicago Bulls.  Bob Love was probably the quietest superstar any sport has ever seen.  Not even the sports journalists knew his secret, that although constantly in the public limelight he was "passing" -- hiding his Quiggle so that no one could stigmatize him for being a stutterer.  In case you are interested, it took a Michael Jordan to finally beat many of the stats that Love established while playing for the Bulls in the late 1960s, and those in the know may even debate this statement because by the time of the "Air Jordan" era, 3 point baskets existed.

It's the man, not his stats however, which makes Mr. Love a true champion.  One of my mentor's at the University of Chicago's Business School often used the management of sports teams as a metaphor for real life business management (for instance, how to hold a sales team together when there is a stand-out producer on a sales force -- i.e. the Michael Jordan team challenge).  Although this outstanding professor couldn't convert me to a sports fan (nor for that matter make an exceptional businesswoman out of me), what he did do was teach me to pay attention to the superstars and showed me what we can learn, both good and bad, from their stories.  

What we can learn from Bob Love's story would fill a book.  We can learn that all work, done to the best of one's ability, is an accomplishment (and just might lead upwards).  We can learn that bad things happen to good people. When Mr. Love was injured and could no longer play basketball his wife left him, taking everything.  She stated that she just couldn't take his speech impediment and now his inability to walk without aid of crutches. We can learn to fight back and train just like athletes do, even if it isn't to win a trophy or Super Bowl ring, but rather to regain function after an illness, an accident, or a major medical event such as a debilitating stroke.  And most importantly, we can learn to accept help when offered and not let pride or embarrassment about our Quiggles get in the way, because you never know where that help might lead.

In Mr. Love's case a little help for his Quiggle led back to the Bulls.  Love's good job in the "mailroom" caught the attention of the owner of the store, Mr. Nordstrom himself, who stepped in and located one of the nation's best speech therapists.  Then he hired Bob as a spokesperson for Nordstroms.   But this isn't the end of the story -- today Mr. Love is a motivational speaker and the spokesperson for none other than the Chicago Bulls.  He works with students who, like himself, never stood a chance, and shows them with the story of his life that everyone stands a chance, Quiggle-holder or not.

Recently I read a statement which asked the question whether a life event was going to cause the person to be bitter or better.   Isn't it interesting to note that the letter which changed was an "I"?