Pat Riley, talking about what causes great teams to no longer be great, coined the phrase The Disease of More.
There’s a famous concept in sports known as the “Disease of More.” It was originally coined by Pat Riley, a hall of fame coach who has led six teams to NBA championships (and won one as a player himself).
Riley said that the Disease of More explains why teams who win championships are often ultimately dethroned, not by other, better teams, but by forces from within the organization itself.
The players, like most people, want more. At first, that “more” was winning the championship. But once players have that championship, it’s no longer enough. The “more” becomes other things — more money, more TV commercials, more endorsements and accolades, more playing time, more plays called for them, more media attention, etc.
As a result, what was once a cohesive group of hardworking men begins to fray. Egos get involved. Gatorade bottles are thrown. And the psychological composition of the team changes — what was once a perfect chemistry of bodies and minds becomes a toxic, atomized mess. Players feel entitled to ignore the small, unsexy tasks that actually win championships, believing that they’ve earned the right to not do it anymore. And as a result, what was the most talented team, ends up failing.
Mark Maron, https://markmanson.net/do-we-ever-feel-we-have-enough
When a team is working well, the focus is on the team’s results above individual results. Each individual trusts that the success of the team will lead to success for them personally.
Most successful teams have talented individuals who buy into the role they have to play for the team to succeed. It’s common to see people do this in the short term, but then the “disease of more” gets in the way. People expect a raise, praise, or certain treatment and then want out when they don’t get it.
Almost all of us are subject to the disease of more. We are convinced that certain things once acquired, addressed, or removed will allow us to live the life we want to live. Once we have that thing, we will be happy or relaxed or fulfilled. But life tends to not work that way. The things that are getting in the way of you being happy with your life today will take a different shape in the future.
The cure for the disease of more is personal, not organizational. At the bottom of it is a feeling of unworthiness. Of not being fit for… whatever it is.
It’s a belief that if you had more money, more status, more recognition, then you’d be okay. But if you are tying your opinion of yourself to any of those things, they’ll you’ll never get over it. More will always look like something different.
I’ve written about something similar, calling it the “I deserve a raise mentality”:
Every time you do something you don’t want to do (without accepting you are ultimately responsible for that decision) you are adding to a resentment savings account. When you don’t take responsibility for your work choices you are adding to that balance.
The healthy resolution to this feeling is to look at it and accept the decisions you are making. To accept reality. That everything you do, you want to do on some level, or else you wouldn’t do it.
But most people don’t take the healthy resolution. Most people don’t take personal responsibility. Instead, that balance of resentment is projected onto others. It is turned into the disempowered “they owe me” mentality.
People convince themselves they deserve a raise or a promotion because of sacrifices the are choosing but denying responsibility for.
If they get a raise they get a temporary reprieve but find out quickly that it doesn’t change anything about the dynamic. That they just find new reasons to project that resentment.
If they don’t get a raise they quit. They clear the board and go start somewhere new. But without any reflection or understanding the dynamic that got them there in the first place they will simply end up where they were before.
As humans, we only accomplish great things when working with others. Even great solo artists learned from teachers, bounced ideas off friends, got feedback from mentors, and were financed by patrons.
Becoming the best version of ourselves means contributing the most we can to our team, whether that team is small or big.
The rewards of team success are never evenly distributed. If you ask everyone how much of a % they contributed to a team’s results you’d be at 150%. But the spoils of winning are not just money and recognition. Those are the easy things to see, and they are not unimportant, but the things that last are the memories, learnings, and relationships.
So if you find yourself afflicted by the disease or more, or the “I deserve a raise” mentality, the correct response, before demanding anything of anyone else, is to look inside. To figure out where you’re not taking responsibility, what you feel like you are sacrificing, and whether the “more” you want is really that important to you.
In basketball, there are countless examples of good players leaving good situations so they can be stars on a bad team. For normal people, it’s more and more common for people to change jobs quickly and frequently chasing a higher income, a better title, or more recognition. There is nothing wrong with that if that additional income is in line with a greater vision you have for your life, but money and recognition tend not to be the things that feed our soul in the long term.
Knowing that you contributed to something great, to something that had an impact, that you played a key role over years to create something that makes the world a better place, that is something that lasts. As are the relationships you build in the process of working towards that goal.
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