You never know where the train of thought will lead you.

This one began when I read a quote attributed to Whitney Houston, presumably about a time and place when her gift revealed itself to those around her.

“I was aware of people staring at me,” goes the quote. “No one moved. They seemed almost in a trance. I just stared at the clock in the center of the church. When I finished, everyone clapped and started crying.”

Such a moment, when a sense of awe fills the air and you realize that things will never be the same, happened to a baseball scout named Paul Kritchell. He worked for the New York Yankees, and one day he was scouting a college game in New Jersey.

That’s when he saw Lou Gehrig.

“The first time I saw him,” Krichell is said to have recalled years later, “I knew I would never have another moment like that for the rest of my life.”

This memory of Krichell led me to do some research on him. That’s where I found the best advice I’ve ever seen on scouting players. Krichell usually ignored the obvious hints such as size, speed and power, saying that “any dope” could see those. Instead, Krichell tried to learn whether the player could handle the pressure of playing in the big leagues.

It’s a question that puzzles almost every scout. It’s easy to see what’s on the outside. But what’s on the inside?

To learn the answer, some scouts actually prefer to see a prospect at their worst, rather than at their best. That lets them see how the prospect handles adversity.

Once there was a CEO who interviewed all his sales applicants himself. He would take them out to dinner and watch when they salted their food. If they did it before tasting the meal, the CEO would never hire them. He reasoned that salting food before tasting it was like trying to sell before listening to the customer.

So the most successful scouts, recruiters and leaders are those who can see what’s inside a person as well as what’s outside.
Gehrig and Houston both had their moment when they inspired awe in those around them.

Gehrig proved to be someone who could more than handle pressure and fame. As for Houston, the beauty she left and the love she inspired must be her legacy.

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