Competing for a Name

[Nick Rasines]

A businessman on the outside but an athlete at heart: I want to be the best and make a name for myself. That’s it, I can’t help but look behind me and see who is standing there; see who is waiting to take my spot. So for that, I need to always be better and get better. I need to be better than the person behind me and get better than whosever is in front of me. It never stops until I’m the best. And even then, it doesn’t stop. I have to work to get to the top and continue to work to stay there. I remember standing on the baseball field, the feel of the ball in my hand or the sound of the crack of the bat. Standing on the mound, I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, every eye was on me. But I loved it, the confidence, the power, the competition. I felt it as I released the last fastball in the final inning, or as I stepped to the plate with the game on the line. It was always a challenge, me against the other guy. Plain and simple, I had to beat him and prove to everyone, and even myself, that I was better than he was. I loved it. Coming from a small town, I was always the star athlete. I could walk into the store and people would talk to me about last night’s game. I’d see the accolades and they would make all the long days in the cages worth it. As baseball came to a close, days, months, years too soon, I needed somewhere else to compete. On a campus of 40,000, in a city of 3,000,000, I needed somewhere else to prove my worth. I needed somewhere else to stand out. That’s where business has come in. At work, I’m on a team, but I want to be the best analyst, the smartest thinker, the most gifted speaker. I want to be the face, the name, the ONE person everyone remembers.