To Be Successful, Look for the Dog in the Hat
One summer, a few years ago, I spent the whole summer either riding a bike, or reading about bike racing. One of the first books I read, and the one that turned out to be my favorite is A Dog in a Hat by Joe Parkin. The full title is more exciting: A Dog in a Hat: An American Bike Racer’s Story of Mud, Drugs, Blood, Betrayal, and Beauty in Belgium. The book tells Joe Parkin’s journey from a gifted amateur cyclist, to a hard-worn pro bike racer.
For those of you not familiar with the sport of cycling, especially professional cycling, it’s hard. It’s grueling. There are a lot of professional bike racers training up to 30 hours per week making garbage money, like $4,000 per year. Joe Parkin was in a similar situation. After moving to Belgium (a mecca for pro bike racing), Parkin was hit with the reality of his choice to move there from the United States. He was bouncing around between teams and suffering for the benefit of his teammates with little recognition. While he had many opportunities to give up and move back to the states, he was patient enought to wait the right opportunity to arise. He was waiting for the dog in the hat.
What Does This Mean?
In the context of the book, a dog in a hat is a special moment in a bike race when you either sprint and chase down the guy in front of you, or you lose the race. Bike races have a series of attacks, or racers trying to sprint away from every one else and leave them behind. These rarely work, but when they do they pay off with a win.
In the context of other success in your life, a dog in a hat is the one opportunity you need to take. You’ll be presented with many opportunities, but the dog in the hat is a special one, that will be hugely beneficial if you seize it.
Parkin explains that during his racing career, the professional racing scene was filled with drugs and betrayal. His career was filled with hardships, from being forced into races even though his body was completely exhausted to having to decide to use performance enhancing drugs or not. It’s easy to get bogged down in your life or get discouraged, but when the dog in the hat pops up you have to be ready to take action.