Unity Through Diversity

Happy Thursday All,

Imagine a baseball team (St. Louis Cardinals) built out of all the same type of player.  Let's look at a couple examples....

• Adam Wainwright, a 6' 7" 235 lb pitcher.  Wow, would we have a hell of a pitching staff.  He might even make a pretty good catcher....but short stop?  How about a utility player?  Can you imagine if your team had a 2.98 era?  But what about the team striking out 1 out of every 3 at bats, or having a .198 batting average.  Not so good.
• How about a team of Matt Holidays?  Can you imagine the power in that lineup?  How about Matt Holiday playing short stop?  
• What about Matt Carpenter?  He can play most positions.  He can hit for average and for power.  He might be able to be an ok pitcher.  This player is getting closer.

For a baseball team, you need to have a team put together with players of different strengths....which also means they probably have different weaknesses.  You might be able to find a player that fits in a lot of positions, like Matt Carpenter but even a Matt Carpenter is not going to be a superstar at all positions...like pitching.

You are probably asking now, what does this have to do with PAi?  Why are you talking about the Cardinals?  I don't even like baseball.  This has a lot to do with Paramount.  Paramount, like the Cardinals, has built an awesome team.  We have players that are strong in certain areas and weak in other areas, and that is OK.

The "think different" part of this?  How about looking at the strengths of your team mates and helping them become stronger in that area.  Let's not concentrate on Adam Wainwright being a better hitter so much that he loses focus on pitching. We want Steve Wands to sell, not concentrate on how to get it all printed, even though my question to him lately is "How the hell do you think we can get all this done?"

Let's all become a stronger team by working on our own strengths and know when and how to ask for help on things that are not our strengths.  We need different personalities.  We need different players, and it is OK that everyone doesn't do just as you would do.  To quote TJ from earlier this week..."We should have unity through diversity."

Have a great Thursday,

Chris