Who's On Your Team?

Sometimes we get sucker punched. Sometimes we get our asses kicked. Sometimes we need a little help from a teammate. So who is on your team? As I read the daily headlines, I can't help but wonder how many people don't have anyone on their teams. I immediately think about Anna Nicole Smith and the autopsy results that were released this week. The coroner indicated that she had taken a bunch of over-the-counter cold medication in addition to a boatload of other stuff including antibiotics for an infection in her leg. It is this part that gets me. Her friends put her in an ice bath to bring down her temperature of 105, but they didn't get her to a hospital. They said she refused.

This is where your teammates come in. When you are too stupid, stubborn, or drunk to help yourself, your teammates take over. When you have a temp of 105 and some weird infection in your leg, your teammates call 911 even though you tell them not to. Anna's wasn't some suicide that took place in a remote mountain cabin, this was a slow overdose at the Hardrock Hotel with lots of friends around. Anna may have had friends around, but she sure as hell didn't have any teammates.

If you have been following Alberto Gonzalez, the soon to be ousted Attorney General of the United States, you will see a similar scenario unfolding. Alberto has clearly abused some of his power, but none of his teammates are coming in to tell him how to diffuse the situation. He thought the President was on his team, but he is quickly figuring out that the President has the luxury of switching teams at will. Alberto has got the ball and is ready for the pass, but has realized all of his teammates are gone. He'll be holding the ball until the day his office is packed up and shipped out.

On a daily basis we don't usually stop to assess who is on our team. Probably because on a daily basis we don't need to. It is when we hit a rough spot - a break up, a financial hiccup, an indictment - that we start looking around to see who is still on the court with us. The ones that will be there are the ones that have shown up because of years of relationship cultivation and some inexplicable universal design. We expect those we have known forever to be there, but sometimes people are strategically placed in our lives for a critical moment. In that brief minute, they become that team member that saves your assets, your job, or maybe your life.

Take a look around. Who's on Your Team?