The kids in my neighborhood made me proud today. They won the little league world series. This is no easy task. 7000 teams start the 45 day journey to stardom. The road to the trophy is littered with broken dreams and battered hearts.
When a team makes it to the series it is a huge accomplishment. These kids are everything that is missing in most people’s lives. I can’t help but laugh when I hear that these kids are “different” or have “tiger parents”. What these kids have is simple. They have what Napoleon Hill called a “definite chief aim”. That is it.
What makes these kids “lucky” is their families, coaches and in the case of the Huntington Beach team an entire community that supports their definite chief aim. As adults it is surprising how many people don’t have any aim point at all, let alone a definite chief aim?
The final game in the Little League World Series was a great example of why having that definite chief aim is so important to success. Early on one of the Huntington Beach pitchers was hit in the face by a nice line drive. Looking like Nolan Ryan after his famous encounter with Bo, the team kept it together and won the game.
In the final game the importance was once again illustrated with perfection. 12 year old Nick Pratto committed an error allowing the Japanese team to score a run. Most faults would lose focus and give up. Instead Nick stayed focused on his definite chief aim of winning and hit a line drive single with bases loaded to drive in the winning run.
Nick Pratto also had a game changing hit in the regionals that sent the team to the finals.
Later While talking with ESPN, Nick Pratto continued to look like a major league pro saying “Oh, that hit. That hit felt good coming off the bat. I just … I knew it was over.
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