"No one wins the presidency with stunts."

--Plouffe to Barack Obama on John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

If you invested either time or money (or even thought or a vote) into the Obama for President campaign, consider this book an incredible "Thank you" note from campaign manager David Plouffe. A "Thank you" note that will cost you $25, but still—it was fun to relive the stressful two years that Shar and I spent living and dying with the campaign, especially knowing that the book had a happy ending.

The joy of this book, for me (aside from the insight into the behind-the-scenes stuff), was gaining an appreciation for the discipline and intelligence of Plouffe and the rest of the campaign team. It was easy to take in the debates as they happened, but Audacity to Win makes it just as easy to take in the debate prep—in the quote above, Plouffe sums up a lot of the campaign's philosophies. Don't try to pull stunts or fast ones on the American public—craft a winning strategy, and stick to it at all costs. Put your heads down and work.

Stunts, Plouffe reminds us (and his candidate), do not win the presidency—nor do they win the job, the girl, or the attainment of any serious goal. Hard work and consistent discipline do those things (and if you don't believe that's the only way to win the girl, good luck). In trying to move towards my own goals in life, it's an important lesson to remember. There is no substitute for hard work, and for seeing your path to victory—as Plouffe writes, in one of the book's frequent and well-executed sports metaphors, you have to block and tackle to win.

If you can't master the fundamentals of whatever arena you're trying to succeed in—whether it's football or campaigning—you're going to get your butt kicked, no matter how much of a juggernaut you appear, or feel like. Dan Monson, the basketball coach at Long Beach State, has pointed out once or twice to me that, "You can't fake confidence." As his team has painfully learned a few times, you can't fake free throw shooting, either.

Along with mastering the basics, the long-view perspective ("Seeing the whole field, and not just three yards of it" as Plouffe writes) is essential. I have more than one friend who told me they wanted to write fiction for a living, but who completely melted down after receiving a rejection letter for the first story they've ever submitted somewhere. Mastering the ability to recover from setbacks—minor or significant—is a fundamental skill in every arena, and one that has to be mastered, I think, to succeed in any of them. Obama wouldn't have gotten very far if Plouffe freaked out and threw in the towel after losing New Hampshire, the second state to hold a primary.

So, from the book, comes an affirmation of a way I've tried to live, and a methodology I've used to hit most of the goals I've set for myself. Decide where you want to go; craft a plan to get there; work hard to execute that plan; and remember its length and breadth to help overcome setbacks. "Idealism kept us going, but pragmatism kept us grounded," writes Plouffe. And grinding on their goal, every single day, got them where they wanted to go.

We should all be so lucky, and so disciplined.

Labels: Generalness, quote of the week