How To Stand Out – My Kickball Story

Gary Taylor Sep 28, 2013 · 3 min read

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Have you ever wondered how you to stand out in a crowd? Your “crowd” may be an office, a team environment, maybe just a group of friends. I’m pretty sure we’ve all been there. There has been a constant them in my life that I think will help you with this and teach you the secret sauce of how to stand out, wherever you are.

See, I played kickball today. If I was still in school, that would be normal. However, I have been a grown man for a couple of decades now so, it is somewhat weird, I suppose. I consult with a Fortune 500 company on some matters that would bore you to tears if I tried to explain it. Suffice it to say, I do some consulting work for them (yay, multiple streams of income!!)

Anyhoo, I was invited to play kickball by the CFO for his annual corporate picnic. Here’s where the lesson starts. Every time I get near some kind of competition, I can hear my dad saying “If you’re gonna play, play”. So I did. (Gross kickball injury photo below…)

Anyone know how to stand out when your knee looks like this?

First off, I am not clumsy. I got those strawberries from playing. Hard. I dove for balls that I didn’t really have to. I slid into a couple of bases, one head first, at a friendly corporate event. It may sound crazy to you but that’s the magic. Want to know how to stand out? Play all out in whatever you do.

See, after the game, I had lots of folks coming up to me. Most were complimentary, saying things like “way to play, man” or stuff like that. Cool. Then there were those that said “You know this is just a company picnic, right? You didn’t have to get all dirty and stuff.” And I will bet you, dollars to doughnuts, those are the mediocre people. They don’t stand out, they don’t even try, they are OK sucking at whatever they do. I’m not. It doesn’t really matter whether anyone thinks I’m crazy because, I do my best in whatever I do. We lost the game yesterday, 5-0. I was the only guy out of 20 people that was dirty and sweaty, but I didn’t care. I caught 5 balls and got 6 people out and most importantly, I had a blast. The people that play all out usually do.

You want to know how to stand out?

If you want to know how to stand out, all you have to do is try. The vast zombie majority never does anything of note because they are paralyzed by fear or laziness or both. It is staggering easy to stand out. Hanging around after the game chatting with the CFO, he commented on my effort and I told him about my dad and that I do everything that way. It’s who I am. He smiled in appreciation. Now, who do you think he will remember the next time he needs someone to do a special project? The guy that didn’t want to get dirty or the guy that did even when he didn’t have to?

Now that you know how to stand out, its time to do it! If you need some help in which direction to take, hook up with me here and I’ll help you get started.