A youth sports poem: The more money parents pay, the more invested they feel, the crazier they get, the more likely their kids burn out. Youth sports in America are a disaster. 70% of kids drop out by age 13. There’s crying. There’s yelling. There’s thousands of dollars spent. Private equity (PE) firms buying up youth sport’s leagues sucks. Their incentive isn’t to build skills; it’s not the physical or emotional health of kids or the community. It is to make money. Fees go up. Parents get FOMO. Many of the same kids who would have been playing for $100 bucks in a community league now must pay a fortune. But it doesn't have t be this way. Youth sports can also be excellent. The best. You get to teach character. You get to teach winning. You get to teach losing. You get to teach effort. You get to teach teamwork. You get to face adversity. Kids learn they take on challenges, struggle, and improve. These are crucial life skills. So much of it comes down to coaching and parents. Are the coaches doing it for their own egos or because they love the game and they love the kids? Do all the parents think their kids are going to get D1 scholarships, or are they hoping their kids make friends, gain confidence, and build character? The goal of youth sports is not to win a 10-U championship. The goals are for kids to have fun, learn, develop growth mindsets, build friendships, and want to come back and play again next year. Regularly check whatever you are doing against these goals. Youth sports rules: •Make sure the kid wants to play, not you (the parent). •If you are going to travel, set constraints. •Do not specialize in a single sport before high school. •Make sure the coaching is about developing not just good athletes but also good people. Doing it right is not easy, at least given the system we have in America. My work has been profiled in The Athletic. I’ve worked with NBA, NHL, MLB, and NFL teams. And yet, one of my biggest challenges is trying to get youth sports right—as a coach and as a parent. Most of us can’t change structural forces or outbid PE firms. But we can do our best to parent and coach in the right way. And when executed right, youth sports are so much better for kids than being inside peering into screens all day. Set a good example. Be about a growth mindset. Be about trying hard. Be about having fun.

The best performers in the world aren't fearless. They're curious. When you're standing at the edge of something hard—a big project, a difficult conversation, a new challenge—the default is to tense up. But if you can shift from What if I fail? to I wonder what will happen next? everything changes. Watch how young kids move through the world. They tinker, stumble, and get right back to exploring. Nobody taught them this. It's in their nature, which means it's in our nature, too. The problem is that somewhere along the way our focus shifts from exploring to safeguarding our egos. Research shows that curiosity and fear compete for the same neural networks. You literally cannot be curious and scared at the same time. Next time you feel the fear creeping in, try replacing How am I going to do this? with It’s a new day, let’s find out.