Stregthening the Pack

You’ve heard of “thinning the herd” before, I assume. What if we look at it just a little bit differently? This week we’re going to take a quote from my favorite U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln, and apply it to life and sports.

While doing research on leadership this week I came across this simple yet profound quote from Abraham Lincoln: “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.” Just pause for a moment, reread the quote, and let it sink in. It’s simplistic yet powerful. One of the problems we have in society today is that we are too concerned with strengthening the weak and thereby forget about the strengthening the already strong. I don’t mean to sound brash when saying that, so let me explain.

First, we must stop lowering our standards. We often lower our standards to strengthen the weak. This happens throughout society. All the while we forget about the people in the middle and strengthening the ones at the top. You can’t improve the system or a culture by weakening the strong and it happens too often. It’s not intentional but it’s a byproduct of too much emphasis placed on strengthening the weak. In all facets of society—school, sports, and business, we need raised expectations. People will rise up to meet them or they will be replaced. It’s really that simple. Athletes will go wherever you set the bar. There are countless examples of underdog teams who overachieve and win because the leader set expectations high. We must stop doing tasks for our kids. We can’t help people by doing something for them which they can do for themselves.

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