We all know the admonition immortalized by Tom Hanks' character,Jimmy Dugan, in the 1992 film A League of Their Own. Butthere's another great scene I'd like to point to as we approachthis year's World Series.

Dottie, his team leader, is struggling and decides to quietlyleave the team. Jimmy catches her and tries to convince her tostay:

Jimmy: “…Sneaking out like this, quitting, you'll regret it forthe rest of your life.”

Dottie: “It just got too hard.”

Jimmy: “It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyonewould do it. The hard… is what makes it great.”

You ever wanted to sneak out because it got too hard? It's funnyabout sneaking away, though. There's something inside you thatknows you're better than that; you try to sneak out before anyonecan talk you out of it.

I've seen struggling agents do it. They simply disappear. And ifyou were to catch them, as Jimmy did Dottie, they'd tell you it gottoo hard. And it frustrates me.

Tell me you're in over your head. Tell me you don't have thesmarts to pull it off. But don't tell me it got too hard. If yourchild pulled that, you'd tell them to “stop being such a cry babyand get back out there!”

It amazes me when people are disturbed by the tough days. Theyalways talk about them like they didn't see them coming. How isthat? Anything of significance is going to be difficult. Andworking in this industry at this time is creating something ofsignificance.

We should expect tough days.

We teach our sales teams, “It's going to suck. It's supposed tosuck. It's called work.” And work, by definition, is noteasy. Sometimes your goal for today is simply to suck less thanyesterday. Setting a high bar, aren't we?

We continue to hold to this mythical notion that successfulpeople don't have to work hard; that they're successful becausetheir chosen path “just came easy” for them. Please hear me out onthis: Their passion for what they do may keep them interested, butthe new wears off of everything pretty quickly in life. And whenthe new wears off, they had a choice to make.

So do you. What will you choose? I hope you'll choose to stayand that you'll do it fully expecting more tough days. And whenthey come, celebrate them. Don't whine about them. Remember,there's no crying in baseball.