Take Ownership

I learned one of my clearest lessons about ownership while watching my teammate fall into freezing cold water.

I am a firm believer that crazy wrestling coaches create quality wrestlers. My wrestling coach during school definitely fell into that category.

During one of our team trainings, Coach brought us to a military training ground where he had a connection. There were multiple stations with makeshift wooden obstacles, and many of them had red markings all over them. The red represented forbidden areas on the obstacle course. If your squad touched the red, you had to jump into the freezing cold water.

At one of the stations, each person had to cross a ladder that did not reach the other side, to get to the other side of a pool of water. That seems simple enough, unless you have the 300-plus-pound heavyweight on your team.

As our heavyweight squad member began to cross the ladder like a bridge, the rest of us held it down flat. My forearms began to tremble from the effort. Somewhere in the trembling, I thought to myself, I can take a small break. Surely, there are other people holding on to the ladder. I’ll just let go real quick and then go back to holding.

When I let go, my squad mate immediately flipped and fell into the water. Then the rest of us joined him because we had failed the challenge.

We did not win that day, but I did learn something important.

Your effort matters.

Sometimes the thing you let go of is the very thing someone else is depending on.

In a world where it is easy to avoid responsibility under the guise of “that’s not my job,” blame someone else, or think, others will carry the load, it takes ownership and initiative to say, You know what? I can do this.

When an individual begins to take initiative and embrace ownership, things begin to change. Communities become better because of someone’s effort. Sometimes that effort is seen. Many times, it is unseen.

Decide to test out ownership.

The next time you go to the grocery store, imagine that you own the store. What would it look like for you to walk through the parking lot as an owner?

Would you let that buggy roll away?

Would you let that trash just sit there?

How would you respond?

Just think about it the next time you go somewhere:

How would you exist in this space if you owned the place?

Ownership is not just about having your name on the building. Sometimes ownership starts with how you walk through the parking lot.