WIN SOME; LOSE SOME!
GO IN WITH A PLAN!
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown December 12, 2024

“Practice does not make perfect.
ONLY perfect practice makes perfect.”

Vince Lombardi

HEADS UP! I got carried away with “story telling” on this Nugget so it is a bit longer than most but I think the message is valid and applies to everyone on the planet! Read on…

In the early 1970s I was introduced to the game of Darts. There are many different types of games within the game of darts that people play but the primary game was known as 301. You begin with 301 points. The dart board pictured below shows the various rings on the board, some very narrow, some much wider and then there is the Bulls Eye consisting of a very small ring and a center which is the actual Bulls Eye.

The outer narrow ring is DOUBLE the number of points indicated by the numbers surrounding the board. The small red box below “20” means you would have scored 40 points. The larger two black areas are SINGLES of the number “20” meaning you would score 20 points when your dart falls into one of these two areas. The very small RED box below the number “20” means you would sore THREE times the number or 60 points. In the very center, you see a green circle and a red center. The green represents 25 points, the red center 50 points. The most points any player can score with three darts would be placing the three darts in the very center of the board for a total of 150 points. Because of the small space, it is difficult to squeeze three darts into the Bulls Eye on the board. Being so difficult, most players aim for the triple 20 slot giving them 60 points. If you notice, the larger numbers like 20 have smaller numbers to either side. If you aim for the 20, you stand a much greater chance of hitting a lower number and that is what make shooting darts difficult. You need to know how to quickly add and subtract in your mind to play

In the game of 301, each player starts with 301 points and the object of the game is to score enough points that are DEDUCTED from 301 until you get to ZERO. The first person to reach ZERO is the winner of the game. To begin, each of two players can throw one dart and the one with the highest point total goes first. It is up to each player to throw one of three darts into any number on the DOUBLE RING to begin. For a lot of players, they aim for the DOUBLE 11 THROUGH 16 on the left side of the board. I don’t know why the left side but the reason they try a number on the side is because when you shoot darts, the dart typically goes higher or lower (as compared to wider and wider) than what you aim to hit. Therefore, to begin YOUR game, throwing for either side of the board to hit a double number makes sense. It is possible that you may never hit a double to start deducting from YOUR score while your opponent may have already hit a double number. Your competitor can be deducting from his or her score while you are still attempting to start by hitting a DOUBLE. This is called DOUBLING IN. As a player reduces his or her number, they must get their score down to an even number like 40, 32, 14 (any even number) because you MUST DOUBLE OUT to win. This simply means that if you got your number down to 40, you must hit a DOUBLE 20 to DOUBLE OUT and WIN the match. It really is a fun game to play.

If anyone had told me that while assigned to Coast Guard duty on Governors Island, New York, that I would venture into Manhattan at least once a week to go to a different bar to shoot darts, I would have told them that they were crazy. Yet that is what I did. I, and up to 5 more Coast Guardsmen formed a Coast Guard Dart Team. We entered a Dart League in New York City where we played at a different bar every week against a team from each bar where

Looking back or being a Monday Morning Quarterback as some would say, it is much easier to see what should have taken place as compared to seeing something as it WAS taking place. Looking back to something that happened in 1977 is now very easy for me to see and it has become the purpose of this Nugget. Shooting Darts is no different than bowling, playing golf, tennis or any sport you can think of. The sport usually involves some level of skill and therein lies the very essence of this Nugget – developing a skill level in sports, business and/or life.

I don’t know who originally said it but it is nonetheless, true! If you want to play better tennis (golf, carts, bowling, etc.), play with better tennis players. When you do, you very quickly learn more about the sport/event. You also tend to play to the level of your competition. If you are an experienced golfer, you really do not improve your game by playing with beginners to the game. Shooting darts is no different.

I adapted to most of the sports I have ever tried. At the risk of sounding immodest, I think I was an average to better than average player in all of the sports I played. Was I exceptional at any sport? No. I have since learned that in the 1970s through the 2000s, if you had a golf handicap of 10 or less, you were actually within the top 10% of all of the golfers in the country. Most golfers with a 10 or higher handicap would shoot scores in the 90 and above range. A ten handicapper or less typically shot scores in the 70s and 80s. My handicap at one point was actually a ZERO but not for long. My handicap usually averaged between 5 to 8; golf is a difficult sport.

Some people (me) play sports for the fun of playing and spending time with friends. I took golf and darts a little more seriously because I actually practiced both as much as I could while still holding down a job and spending time with my family.

It took all of the above to get to the point. Coach Vince Lombardi was spot on with his statement above. Yes, I practiced both golf and darts or at least I thought I was practicing. What I was really doing, was going through the “motions” of practicing golf and darts. I had a dart board at home and I would throw darts until the muscles in my forearms hurt. That may be hard to believe but trust me, try it for yourself and you will see exactly what I mean. The darts I threw were just throwing darts, there was no specific goal to my throwing. For example, did I actually track where I stood on the line (left side/right side/center) that I could not cross to throw a dart? No. Did I track the number of times it took me to hit a specific spot on the board? No. Did I try changing the way I gripped the dart? No. Did I experiment and write down the results of changing the arm angle at which I threw the dart? No. Did I experiment with different types of darts? Yes, I actually did. Did I ever read anything written on the game of darts as to how to acquire better results; books written by people who achieved success in dart competitions? No. Not even sure there were such books.

The same was true with practicing golf. Did I first take any golf lessons? No, I learned by watching my father play. Did I read any books on how to become a better golfer? No. Did I go to the practice range to hit practice shots? Yes, but… This is where the real BUT comes into this Nugget. I hit a lot of practice golf balls BUT I did not practice hitting golf shots. What do I mean by this? You can take any golf club in a golf bag and hit very different types of shots ON PURPOSE. High, low, right to left, left to right, straight, etc. Did I try to do this? On occasion yes, but on a regular basis, no. I just hit ball after ball after ball because I enjoyed hitting golf balls. What I enjoyed most was seeing how FAR I could hit them. I cared more about distance than I ever did about accuracy. In golf, accuracy far outweighs the distance for most if not all golfers.

It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about darts, about golf, about selling real estate, about being an accountant, lawyer, doctor, bus driver, or whatever profession you are in, “Practice does not make perfect. ONLY perfect practice makes perfect.” Therefore, you have ONLY ONE JOB to do IF you want to become the best at WHAT you do and that is to learn how to PRACTICE PERFECTLY!

I experienced this first hand in 1977. A member of my Dart Team suggested that he and I sign up to play in the United States Open for Darts. Every sport has its premiere event such as the Super Bowl, World Series, The Masters, etc. Darts were no exception. In the United States the U. S. Open for Darts was the premiere event. Unlike other sporting events, you did NOT have to be a “professional” to enter. We were definitely NOT professionals; we had NEVER received any money for shooting darts. We signed up to play!

When we arrived at the hotel in New York City, we were both shocked to discover that almost 600 people had signed up to play in the event. The massive hotel ballroom had 52 dart boards set up and measured for accuracy. Everyone started at the same place, 1 of 576 entries. You drew an opponent to play and they created a playoff chart with YOUR name on it. You discovered who you were going to play and then waited for your turn. If you won your match, you advanced to the next round. It was a case of win or go home for every match you played. Both of us won our first matches. That meant that we were now 2 of the 288 people who were still in the tournament. Then surprises of all surprises, we both won our second matches for the day. That meant two things, first we had to go home and come back the next day for round three and that both of us were now among the remaining 144 participants in the Open.

That night, I could not sleep. My stomach was in knots if you know what I mean. I knew I was in over my head. I was not properly prepared for what was happening. The next morning. we were off to the hotel but this day was different. There were a lot fewer entrants, after all, we were down to just 144. People seemed more nervous and anxious, especially me. We found our names and event times and off to boards we went. I was blown away when I got to my assigned board. There were hundreds of people around one particular board which was right next to the board I was to play on. What was going on? It turned out that the player on the next board was the U. S. Champion from previous years and people wanted to see him shoot darts. They also saw me shooting darts. If you have never had an audience around you while you are engaged in a sporting event, you have no idea how that makes you feel. What I failed to realize at the time was that my opponent had never played before an audience either so in effect, we were both on the same very unfamiliar stage. Our match exposed our nerves. It took us both a long time to DOUBLE IN to begin the count down of points. You were required you to win two of three matches to win the match. We each won one match. When we each got down to an even number in the third and final game, it took us both many attempts to DOUBLE OUT to win.

Now for the icing on the cake. The event paid out money to entrants who finished in the top 72 places. Think about that. On Saturday morning I was 1 of 576 entrants. On Sunday morning I was 1 of 144 entrants. If I had won the first match on Sunday, I would have made the top 72 and would have earned money for having played. The payout would have been considerably MORE than what I paid to enter and then some. I don’t remember as I write this how much I could have earned, what I earned was ZERO because not only did I lose the first match on Sunday, so did my buddy. We were both out but what an experience. We both ventured “outside the box” or our “comfort zones.” That is always a good thing when you expand your horizons, win or lose!

We all tend to live a life of “if only.” If only I had known then what I know now, I could have been a champion, not only in Darts but in Golf, Bowling, Tennis and real estate sales. If only I had learned to engage in PERFECT PRACTICE, “I could have been a champion” a line made famous by the actor Marlon Brando. I didn’t learn to PRACTICE PERFECTLY and I ended up 1 of 144 dart shooters in the 1977 U. S. Open of Darts instead of making the “money list” or even its Champion!

Ass Paul Harvey would say, “And now, for the rest of the story.” The Dart Champion who was shooting on the board next to mine was Conrad Daniels. Years later I attended a real estate convention in Arizona and signed up to play in a golf tournament at the convention. The starter pointed to a group of players waiting for me to join them. I went down to the waiting players and introduced myself and stuck out my hand to shake theirs and said. “Hi, I’m Jim Brown” and waited for a response. “Hi, I’m Conrad Daniels” the man said. I was shocked and I remember saying, “You got to be sh#$%ing me. Did you by any chance shoot darts in the 1977 U. S. Open of Darts in New York City?” He said “Yes, in fact I did.” That is when everyone else in the group chimed in and I remember one man say, “You mean that the stories I heard about you shooting darts and winning are true?” We all laughed and had a great day; what a coincidence we would actually meet playing a different sport years later. What are the odds?

Successful people leave clues and they are all around you. They write books, now they make videos, they want to share what has worked for them. There are many ways to do the same things, some techniques work better than others. Some techniques work for one person but not another. The key is to keep learning, never stop learning, never stop experimenting, never stop engaging in PERFECT PRACTICE to make what YOU do, to do it better! If you want to see how this really works, watch the video, The Fosbury Flop about how ONE MAN, Dick Fosbury changed one sporting event, FOREVER! Initially they called him crazy for what he was doing. What he did made him a champion! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZsH46Ek2ao

Dick Fosbury no only perfectly practiced the sport of high jumping, he excelled in the sport and then he created a new way to perfect his skills, His new technique then became the norm rather than the exception.

REAL LIFE. A lot of people, certainly not you, NEVER practice what they will say, how they will act, what they will do during a job interview. The same could be said about real estate agents going out to list a property to be sold. People simply do not understand the importance of PRACTICING PERFECTION before they engage! Think about a job interview. You will be asked a lot of questions and some may even be inappropriate. Will you REACT or will you RESPOND? There is a difference. If you are unprepared, you will REACT far more often than you will ever RESPOND. Do not be caught off guard. Do your research! What kind of questions will the job interviewer ask you? Will the questions be limited to what you put on a resume? You do have an up-to-date resume, right? Or will the questions come out of “left field” so to speak. I have conducted a lot of job interviews and I can assure you that most of my questions you would not expect to be asked. For example, I would ask a candidate, “What book are you reading now or what was the last book you have read?” What does that have to do with performing the job at hand? On the surface, nothing. But I was searching for people who wanted to learn and who were willing to go the extra mile to learn a profession. Or, “Tell me the funniest thing that has ever happened to you?” Again, why would I ask this? Do you want a robot on the job that has issues teaming up with other employees or do you want someone who has a sense of humor and doesn’t have to think very deep to come up with an answer. Maybe one of the best questions was, “What do YOU consider your weakest point or points?” If you are not prepared for that question, you will have no right answer. What is the right answer? Take something positive in your life, like self-education, then turn it into a weakness such as, “I know how important continued learning is and if I have one weakness, it is not reading more books than I already read.” That’s turning a positive into a negative and then back into a positive in the mind of the interviewer.

Learn to be as prepared as you can possibly be at all times. I take this to an extreme whenever I have a doctor’s visit. I know how busy doctors are. I also know that they see and hear a great many patients and it would be extremely easy to get them all confused when considering the number being seen. Before I visit any doctor, I first think about the visit. What do I want the doctor to know? What questions will he or she ask as follow up questions to my comments? What do I want to happen as a result of my visit. I have actually typed out notes I want to discuss so I would not forget even the lesser important things I want the doctor to know. Never is this more important than when I visit my Dermatologist. I have skin issues. Before I go, I do a body scan and I make a typed list of areas I want him to look at. He has said on multiple visits how important he thinks my notes are to both him and me. None of his other patients do this and they often schedule a return visit because they forgot to draw attention to something they are concerned about.

My advice to everyone is to:

Thursday, December 12, 2024