We used the messaging in this book throughout the 2012-13 season and words can’t even describe the feelings of how this ‘mantra’ became a reality for us during the 2013 playoffs.
Clutch: It is an unfortunate truth that years of patient success can so easily be undone. Paul Sullivan, a journalist, and Sian Beilock, a psychology professor, have taken different approaches to the same subject: What is it that allows some people to succeed under pressure and forces others to fail? Both authors have produced readable explanations for why we choke and valuable suggestions for what we can do to get through a make-or-break moment with a better chance of success.
Mr. Sullivan takes his examples from sports, business, the military and the stage. He explains right away that there are five traits that help people pull off a clutch performance: focus; discipline, adaptability, presence (i.e., actual involvement in the task at hand), and fear and desire. At one point he contrasts the performances of Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, and Kenneth Lewis, the former head of Bank of America, during the financial crisis of 2008. Both men went into the crisis with their firms in good health. By the end of it, Mr. Dimon had acquired Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual and handsomely increased his company’s share price. Mr. Lewis had acquired the teetering Merrill Lynch and seen Bank of America lose $90 billion in shareholder value.