It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday: How Sports Retirements Can Inform an HKS Exit Strategy
by Chris Arlene, Sports Editor on April 28, 2010 in Sports
“Fans, for the past two weeks you’ve been reading about a bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” Lou Gehrig, Hall of Fame Yankees first baseman, uttered those words in the most famous farewell speech in sports history. As he slowly lost a battle with the disease that now bears his name, Gehrig did not ask for sympathy. Instead, he chose to celebrate the fans, teammates, and family who made his life special. Unfortunately, many of our sports legends don’t leave the field for the last time with such significance.
There are guys whose desire to keep playing (or realization that their window for making millions of dollars is closing faster than an HKS student stealing coffee from exec-ed as the Sodexho cart approaches) leads them to play past their prime. Muhammad Ali, the most important athlete of the 20th century, lost three of his last four fights (which included getting pummeled by a guy named Trevor Berbick). Many of them spend their final seasons with a different team than where they enjoyed their true glory years: Willie Mays retired a member of the New York Mets instead of the San Francisco Giants, and Joe Namath retired as a San Diego Charger instead of as a New York Jet. When an athlete hangs on too long, it’s just sad.
On the other hand, you’ve got the guys who walk away when they still have gas left in the tank. Andy “AZ” Zelleke (HKS’ most Obama-like character) would say these guys don’t quite understand the concept of value creation. Jim Brown and Barry Sanders, quite possibly the two greatest running backs to ever play football, are the stars of this group. Brown, then the NFL’s all-time leading rusher, retired at 30 so he could be a film star. Sanders, only 31 and on pace to become the league’s all-time leading rusher, walked away from the game because a decade of losing with the Detroit Lions robbed his competitive spirit. The shock that these retirements caused cannot be overstated. It would be like David Gergen leaving a Forum moderating gig before his guffaw shocked any unseasoned audience members.
Finally, there are the Brett Favre types that make us take part in their multiple retirements. Either they can’t make a decision, want to add to their collection of gold watches, or “there ain’t no party like a retirement party cause a retirement party don’t stop.” Michael Jordan epitomizes this group. MJ first “retired” in 1994 after leading the Chicago Bulls to three straight championships. When his baseball career flamed out, he returned to the Bulls in 1995 and then led them to three more championships. We thought he retired for good in 1998 after hitting the game winning shot in the NBA Finals, but just as someone decided to finance Speed 2: Cruise Control, MJ couldn’t let well enough alone and came back one last time in 2001. After two injury plagued lackluster seasons with the Washington Wizards, Jordan stepped off the court for good in 2003.
So, how can the examples of these sports legends inform how those of who will graduate next month leave the HKS community? First, make sure you thank the people that have shaped your time here. And this means more than just our friends, classmates, and professors. Make sure to acknowledge the folks who do the little things that your daily experience a little bit better, like Shilda and the rest of the Sodexho staff, Bob and the other members of the security team, or Sheron Russell and her colleagues in OCA. All too often, I notice students who run around campus without noticing the contribution that our support staff makes. In a school full of future public leaders, I’d suggest we start thanking the people that make this place run.
Second, accept the fact that it’s time. This second, third, or even fourth journey for some of us living the student lifestyle has been great, especially after being a working stiff. But, we all came here for some reason other than not having class on Friday or karaoke at Razzy’s. We won’t walk out of the office at 6 p.m. and stumble upon the Homeland Security Secretary doing Q and A with a bunch of our colleagues, but that’s OK. The party’s going to go on, but sometimes you’ve got to leave fashionably early.
Third, and most importantly, let’s not forget the thread that connects everyone at HKS: we want to make someone else’s life better. We can’t let the jargon of our work, the pain of paying back our loans, or our career ambition overtake this fundamental principle. When we return for our reunions, let us not compare the prestige or rank that we’ve earned, but judge ourselves based on how we’ve improved the lives of others.
There’s a much less famous line in Gehrig’s speech where he praised his teammates by asking, “Which of you wouldn’t consider it a highlight of his career to associate with them for even one day?” After spending two years at the Kennedy School, those words ring deep and true. Being in the company of so many talented and caring men and women, making lifelong friendships along the way, has been the best part of my Harvard experience. Thanks.
I’ve neglected to share my “lessons learned,” but I didn’t have enough space. Well, there is the most important lesson HKS has taught me: if you walk around a corner and see a bunch of free food staring you in the face, it’s best to act naturally while you steal…
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