Good, But Not Good Enough

In sports, all coaches want those players who will practice hard. The ones who work harder than anyone else. First-one-to-practice-last-one-to-leave kind of personality. And that's all well and good, but it's not enough.

Case in point: Ever heard of Kevin Kaesviharn?

No, you haven't. And you probably can't even pronounce his name right just by looking at it (CASE-VUH-HARN). This 34-year-old safety is probably selling real estate somewhere, hoping for a series of unfortunate events to strike the secondary of an unlucky NFL team.

After a pedestrian six-year career starting with the Cincinnati Bengals, Kaesviharn signed with the New Orleans Saints, where his stats really started to go south. Disappointing play led to fewer and fewer starts. His tenure with New Orleans was cut short by the team just two years into his four-year deal. One swan song season with the Titans later, and his career was all but over.

During his time with the Bengals, I followed this average player try to do above average things. Listed at 6'1" 200lbs, Kaesviharn only actually fit those measurements wearing long cleats and heavy pads.

He was as ordinary as professional football players get.

However he worked harder than everyone else, even the players who were more talented than him. Check that. Especially the players who were more talented. But working hard could only keep him in the league for so long. His untouchable work ethic only delayed the inevitable, allowed him to cling to his NFL life, make a living for almost a decade, and have some great stories to tell his grandchildren. Eventually the younger, faster, more talented players won out.

There's a moral to this story kids, and watch out- because it's not a happy one: You can work as hard as you want to; as hard as you can. But that's not always good enough.

I could work as hard I as I can to become an athlete, a musician; an artist. And if I put my entire heart and soul into it, I could probably be decent at the last two. But I'd never be great. The same goes for anything else. No matter how much you want something, you may not be good enough to get it.

This scares me, because I'm the type of person that just works hard at everything. I know I'm not the best at anything, so I've got to work harder than everyone else to keep up. I'm a poor man's Kevin Kaesviharn. What if my hard work alone isn't good enough in my jobs, relationships, and everyday life?

There are two ways to look at this. I could get depressed by this thought, or I could let it motivate me even more to avoid finding out sooner if my hard work will fail me.

I like the second option better.

Kevin Kaesviharn played a great career. One that he should be proud of. He shouldn't have amounted to anything. He shouldn't have played ten years in the NFL. But he did. And he did it because he made the best of his situation; he worked for it. Now look at him. He can proudly say he made 479 tackles in the National Football League. That's 479 more than you and I will ever get.

Someday, I hope to tell a story like his. I know it will take a lot of hard work, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes, and I have to be. I may never be anything special, but I'm going to make the best of whatever situation I find myself in.