I don’t like trophies and I don’t care about awards.
Not one person in my family does.
No one should see the goal as being boosted up on someone’s shoulders.
Some hunk of metal.

The REAL GOAL,
is when you Win so often,
so regularly,
so convincingly,
that No One wants to do it anymore.

When the conversation about the competition starts with talking about who is going to be #2….
The only CHAMP that hat matters is the PEOPLE’S.
The people that support every lemonade stand they encounter. The people that do things and ask not to be named. The grumpy old bastards that are secretly kind and do what needs doing when no one is looking.

I keep my father’s secrets, my brothers, my mothers, my wife’s, and my children’s. I even keep my own.
I’m pretty proud of those secrets.
Those secrets are embers in a lump of coal that never seem to go out, or ever cool.

Someone I respect used this term with me a few months ago in a conversation that I will never forget.
It was kind, it was unexpected, it was unnecessary.
It stuck in my head like a splinter.
I made this hat just to send him one.
I made another (in reflection) for myself.
I’ve been wearing it for 2 weeks.

I HAVE NEVER RECEIVED MORE COMPLIMENTS ON A HAT.

It’s been a reminder.
A reminder to do better,
To BE better.
To live up, to the only title that matters.
One that kills the ego, and reformulates the priorities.
To put we before, The me.

When you grab the glory all for yourself seems pretty selfish.

To Earn it, and Give it away,
To never take credit,
but feel that hot glow in your guts,
That’s its own reward.

To do your best,
To know what you have done,
To earn it, for someplace deep inside,
And not give a shit if anyone ever knows,

That’s a Champion
That is when you have won, so convincingly to just yourself,
That a Trophy
would be an insult.

Wear it with PRIDE
EARN IT EVERY CHANCE YOU GET.

Let everyone else compete for 2nd place.
YOU ARE THE CHAMP.