[Ian Curtis]

There is a common sentiment on these boards that if you get up early, eat your Wheaties, work really hard, and go to bed late there is no limit to what you can accomplish. Another school of thought that may be more prevalent in FIRST but rarely expressed on CD is that, "Well those teams are just good because Acme Corp sends a crack team of genius engineers and managers and a robot bag filled with money to help them out every year", and I'm sure the majority of teams are some shade of grey in between those extremes.

If you've been through the transformation from "indifference" to "excellence"*, are on the way, or maybe just thinking about it (get off the couch!), what started it? Before you started being awesome, what did you or others do to motivate everyone else? I am curious to see if it is basically the same story one hundred times over, or if every team has it differently.

I've never been in the position to start the ball rolling, I've just helped to push it along and I'd love to hear people's stories.

*In case this isn't clear, I am not talking just about the robot.