Hi everyone,
So far, after each season that we’ve participated in, I have tried to write something that I believe that I’ve learned over the past year. I hope that what I write will inspire someone.
One of the questions that I have been pondering as of late is how often we as FIRST Robotics teams spend more time being defined by what we do rather than who we are. Our awards are geared to extrinsic ideals, our success measured by visible standards, and our determination fixed by ideals that are often formed by those who have gone before.
Over the last year I have tried to change this concept in Panthrobotics. Instead of defining ourselves by what we are doing, I am trying to instill in my members that it is who we are becoming that should be the focus of our organization. This is a hard task to do.
It is easy to want to look at other great teams, see what they have done, emulate those teams, and hopefully catch the spark that they have. I have often frustrated myself because I want my team to be the next 1114 or 256 or 2468 . . . the list goes on and on. The problem is that, by doing this, I lose sight of my own team. I’ll be honest - it can be frustrating to be one of those teams at events that are forgotten. It is hard to be the team that is not mentioned in any of the posts or seen in any of the commentary. Our team is not alone in this. There are many that are the ‘regulars’ - out in the crowd looking for the autograph instead of autographing. There is part of me that wants to find the biggest spotlight and shine it directly at the spot in the stands where our team sits. So we start to think of awesome ways. . . to win.
“We should make this app because it could help us win Chairman’s Award.”
“We should start doing this outreach because it could give us Engineering Design Inspiration.”
“How can we do what this team is doing so we can get where they are?”
I figure I’m not the only one that thinks this way. But in the end, being motivated by these things causes burnout and stress. It leads to hopelessness because as I strive to be some other team, that other team continues to run and get farther away than nearer. Their funding is greater, or their mentoring staff is bigger, and we cannot keep up.
So another idea hit me. Google did not become Google because they ran after Yahoo. Facebook did not try to become the next MySpace and Amazon did not want to be the next Walmart. They all became great because they strived to become who they were instead of who someone else was.
I cannot strive to push our team to become someone else. What makes the sauce that is Panthrobotics? What is the intricacies that form a team made up of the leftovers of what the Magnet programs left behind? While we work to define our Core Values, we are also working to define ourselves. Not that we stop striving for greatness, because that is part of us. But we have to strive for greatness on our own terms.
We had our first Dean’s List finalist this year. She asked me a question one night as I stressed on how to improve our robot prior to Bayou Regional. She asked me what I defined as victory. For me, victory has always been labeled by the win. She said something in reply along these words; “I believe that if we do all we can with what we have, then we are victorious.”
To you, all my CDers, perhaps this is my greatest wish. At the end of this season do not be disheartened. If you have done all that you can with all that you have then you have been victorious this season.
So - some of our team’s victories?
- We cheered louder than any other team during the Bayou Regional. Our MC even stopped announcing at one point because of our cheers. We cheered for ourselves and when not playing chose the alliance that was the weakest in any game and cheered for them.
- Our Chairman’s Award team worked together to create a presentation that earned a five out of five at the Alamo regional.
- I got to watch one of my first members, in many ways my adopted daughter, walk across the field to get her Dean’s List Finalist Certificate.
- We made it to alliance captain for the first time ever in a regional.
- . . . .
My list could go on forever. But whats amusing is that none of these things included awards. Most of what I am most proud of is seeing each of my members become who they were supposed to be. I saw my team start reaching a point where our identity began to assert itself.
I hope your victories were as sweet. And for those of you who have not been called out among the rest and for those of you who at times feel forgotten remember that it is not so much what you are doing that is important. It is what you are becoming.
Thank you.
good luck to all teams
