K.I.S.S.

Blog #5 (Only 1071 to go!) K.I.S.S.     Attention, class! (Sound of ruler hitting desk top to silence students). Today's lesson is about K.I.S.S...ing.
     As an outsider looking in, I've been around many very smart people, and I've tried to discover their secret. How was Pat O'Mara so effective at controlling and teaching a class or Bob Gabric able to get so much from his players. How has Frank Raispis been so successful in virtually everything that he's attempted. Intelligence? yes! But there are many who could match their knowledge. However, I witnessed one common thread that that emerged with each of them...SIMPLICITY. They saw the simple solution.
     At a tennis workshop quite a few years ago, I heard for the first time, but not the last, the expression "K.I.S.S." KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID encouraged coaches not to complicate their instructions or the strategies given to their players. Looking both forward and back from that point, I can see the wisdom in that short phrase as it applies to most of life.
     My brother, an architect, helped me hang a sign on the outside of the Ignatius gym. I had figured that we’d have to drill holes into the wall and use huge bolts to secure it. John simply tied a rope to the top of the sign and weighted the rope down on top of the roof. It worked quite well. Then John suggested, “Always start with the simplest solution.”
     A friend of mine, who was a high school all-state football player, and I were playing in a pick-up touch football game. Suddenly, a fight broke out between the players on the two teams. My friend was a pretty tough guy, but, when I looked up, I saw him walking away. I approached him, and told him that the other guys thought that he was "chickening out". He said, "I don't care. I came to play football. If they're not going to play, I'm going home." My friend had the ability to keep things simple.
     Pat O'Mara, Bob Gabric, Frank Raispis. They all seemed to have that common component in their approach ...K.I.S.S. Was it their intelligence that allowed them to see the simple solution or on some intuitive level, they saw the simplest solution? Probably both.

     When I look around at people who are dealing with some difficult situation in their lives, often...not always...it was the result of not abiding by that principle. K.I.S.S.