The great questions most of us face in life are obvious: Could
I be making more money if I had started my own business? Why do the pockets on my shorts always come
out of the wash inside out if I don’t put them in that way? Is three kids too
many? If the best parts of any talent show on TV are the discoveries of weird
people with amazing voices, why does the show need to be anything other than
just a series of auditions? And how the
hell is Survivor still a show?
For a general manager of a major sports franchise, these are
easily answered (no, I don’t wear shorts, with my first wife, I think we can
all agree this is the case, and because seeing people starve and fight at the
same time is some sort of weird human-impulse turn-on). The real question is: Do I build a team to
have success in the future (potentially sacrificing success in the present), or
do I do what I can to put my team in a position to succeed every single year?
(Perhaps the actual question is: Is my fan base willing to
let me build a franchise that will succeed in the future – and not fire me
before it gets there?)
