Learn to be happy wherever you are...

I like that. Let me say it again: learn to be happy wherever you are. 

Back in 1968 the book "The Peter Principle" was published. Its authors, Dr. Laurence J. Peter and Raymond Hull, suggested that oftentimes people are... 

1. Promoted to a next-highest position (or a higher position) based on their competent performance in the position they currently hold, but 
2. Once in the higher position, they are unable to perform competently, so 
3. They have reached their greatest level of incompetence in the higher position, and
4. "Real work" is done by those who have not yet reached their greatest level of incompetence. 

Others have contributed to Dr. Peter's development of his "principle," and his work owes much to them, but it all leads to the same fundamental conclusions: 

• Upon reaching a certain position, formerly competent people will oftentimes have reached their greatest level of incompetence, and 
• Almost every position is eventually held by someone who is incompetent to fill it, but who might have been entirely competent at their previously held position, so
• To prevent this, maybe competent employees should be rewarded in ways that don't include promotion, but that instead involve other reward mechanisms that can assure their satisfaction at their current, positions of competence.

Among other examples of The Peter Principle, Dr. Peter and Mr. Hull put forward the case of Adolph Hitler. Although he was a completely capable and competent politician who was able to inspire and unite people under his political banner, he was thoroughly incompetent (read "bat-shit crazy") as a commander-in-chief of the German military. He might have been happier had he remained simply a politician, and it's almost certain the rest of the world would have been happier as well. 

But I'd like to suggest another commonly occurring, albeit far more mundane, case of The Peter Principle in practice today: football-related promotions among players, coaches, and coordinators. 

How often do we see a quarterback or a running back who has a thrilling career in college enter the NFL draft, go to a team, and crash and burn as a pro. Even today we see college coaches, who are winning with their respective teams, aspiring, either privately or publicly, to "take it to the next level" and coach a pro team. We even see this in non-player, non-coaching positions, such as offensive and defensive coordinators who are exceptionally qualified (beyond merely competent) as coordinators, but who fail miserably as head coaches. 

These promotions can occur from college-level to college-level, from college-level to pro-level, and from pro-level to pro-level. The similarity among them all is in the quality of the work currently being done, the desire to be promoted, and the resulting (and relative level of) success in the promoted position. And this speaks to the larger point: if only people could be happy wherever they're currently doing well, how much better off would they be? how much better off would their families be? how much better off would their teams be, and how much better off would the organizations that hire them be? 

One such example is Norv Turner, coach of the San Diego Chargers. Prior to being San Diego's head coach, Mr. Turner was the offensive coordinator for the San Francisco 49ers. He excelled at this. San Diego saw Norv's work with the Niners offense, which did very well during the year he was OC, and hired him away from the Niners, promoted him to head coach, and put him into a position that certainly seems to represent his greatest level of incompetence. The Niners' problem at the time was that Norv's boss, Mike Nolan, had reached his greatest level of incompetence as a head coach. Mr. Nolan is now a defensive coordinator for the Atlanta Falcons, who are doing very, very well, possibly in part to Mr. Nolan's competence.

Another potential example is the coach of the Oregon Ducks, Chip Kelly. Kelly was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach and, with him at the helm, The Ducks are doing amazing things. They've scored hundreds of points every year (and it's a good thing too,  because their defenses have been terrible), amazed everyone, and have won their conference title three of the last four years, winning the conference division title in that fourth year. Kelly is doing an excellent job. He's obviously perfectly situated and entirely competent as Oregon's head coach. 

But would he succeed at the pro level? Is he happy where he is? Would he find happiness in the NFL? Obviously no one will know that unless and until such a promotion actually happens for him. Time will tell.

I'm sure the NFL is replete with other examples of The Peter Principle. I'm sure other sports, baseball, basketball, have examples as well.  But I'm even more sure that this is all easy to say, easy to suggest, easy to speculate. I'm pretty sure most everyone wants to excel and to succeed, to make more money than they're currently making, to make better lives for themselves and for their families. I'm definitely naïve, but I'm definitely not stupid.

However, in thinking about this, in saying it out loud here, I'm almost certainly projecting. Maybe it's because I've reached a point in my life where I've done the "big things" that I'm going to do, and I know (or fear, frankly) that trying to move to a next level in whatever area with which I have experience, have competence, brings with it the possibility of reaching my greatest level of incompetence, brings me closer to the possibility of failure. 

This all may be true, but what's definitely true is that right now in my life, given what I've done, and given how I've done it, I'm sanguine, I'm happy where I am, and... I'm competent.