“You don't have tender skin!” The guy mumbled under his breath as I walked away … after decking him hard on a cold Sunday afternoon football game many years ago. He had been giving me a hard time because I was wearing forearm guards. When he asked me why, I had told him that I had tender skin. It's important in football, and it's important in life, to have skin in the game. Nike has a slogan these days similar to this.
Are you invested enough in your work, your life, your family, your passion, your calling to have skinned knees and elbows? Have you wrestled to the point where you have left skin behind? Have you competed, struggled, stretched, reached, discovered, thought, inspired, mobilized, empowered, and settled for nothing less than your best in your fields of responsibilities? In your areas of opportunities? In building your core competences or products? Have you sweated and toiled and been diligent? Do you have skinned knees and elbows to show your commitment, your resolution, to produce something beautiful and unique and of high quality?
Most people think following your passion is simply about doing what you want, or what comes easy, or what requires the least from you. I believe it means quite the opposite. It means caring enough about the outcome that you leave skin behind. Everyone considers my wife a great linguist, and it's true that she actually enjoys language learning (shudder!). But what no one but me sees, day after day, year after year, and now decade after decade, is how hard and diligently she works at it. She has got skin in the game. What about you?
