OOH …Here’s One Thing
by Jim Johnsen,
Managing Director, Johnsen, Fretty & Company
“Baby, even the losers
Get lucky sometimes
Even the losers
Keep a little bit of pride
They get lucky sometimes,” Tom Petty
(Man, that song still sounds so good. Miss that guy.)
All right, the Oscars are about to begin, and I’m looking forward to jumping on the couch with my honey and fully immersing myself in it, so I will keep it short and sweet.
Me: “DFL”
You: “What Johnsen? You mean DNF?”
Me: “No, I do not mean DNF as in Did Not Finish. Nor do I mean DNQ as in Did Not Qualify. I also did not mean WD as in Withdrew.”
You: “Wow, Johnsen, you got me there. What gives?”
Me: “Joking aside, I truly meant DFL…as in Dead F___ing Last.”
Ever heard of Dead F___ing Last? Neither had I until I read an article a short while ago discussing the brutality of the Marathon time trials for the Olympics. The long short of it was, if you ran with a small field, mega elite group of athletes who spend every moment of their waking hours (and sleeping for that matter…I have a friend who is close with Roger Federer and tells me when he is competing he sleeps 14 hours a day…but I digress) trying to be the Best in the world, would you/should you be upset if you finished dead last? I quickly reacted to the article with an internal “Hell Yes!” I would be crushed if I DFL’ed and hit the trash button.
But for some reason, the article kept coming back like bad heartburn. Why is it that our society has nothing for the guy or gal who made it to the Olympic time trials but then DFL’ed? That same guy or gal was probably All-American in both high school and college and won a whole bunch of state championships. He or she might also go on to have a super positive impact on the next generation by coaching, among other things.
Ya, Johnsen, but they were still DFL. Does it get more embarrassing? Well, let me ask you this? Would you rather DFL or DNF? According to this article, many of this elite field pull the rip chord once they realize their Olympic dream has evaporated. And then let me ask you this: Would you rather work alongside the DFL or the DNF? I know what my answer is. Woo to the DFL, who can hold their head high, knowing they did not give up.
More here:
D.F.L. (Dead F***ing Last) | All About Work
And on a related note, give this a 2-minute listen. There are a couple of drops of wisdom in there:
https://youtu.be/cI-LVct8kuw?si=Jf0w9LgQKUN9bxVi
PS: I Hope Petty gets you as rev’ed as it gets me on a Monday morning.
Securities transacted through StillPoint Capital Member firm FINRA/SiPC
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