Cal Ripken's 8 tips on how to be an IT 'Iron Man'

Baseball legend shares his motivators for success with IT service management crowd.

A room full of IT professionals shared a common lament Tuesday as a keynote address delivered by Cal Ripken, Jr. had them all wondering how life would be if IT systems and processes worked as hard, long and well as the baseball legend.

The Hall of Famer, who earned the nickname Iron Man for playing 2,632 consecutive games, delivered his keynote to nearly 2,000 IT management professionals at the ITSMF USA Fusion 2007 conference in Charlotte, N.C. While Ripken didn't have IT-related anecdotes, he attributed his long and successful career in baseball to taking a handful of steps each day that anyone in IT could do. Ripken's recently published book, "Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference" served as the basis for his speech that touched on issues IT managers face.

The industry organization and its conference target IT professionals working to implement long-term IT process re-engineering and service management policies across multiple systems, domains and devices. The challenge most often cited with such IT improvement efforts is changing people's minds about how to do their jobs. Ripken, whose accomplishments are too many to list here, may have convinced a few attendees that the most important change they could make is in their attitude.

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A room full of IT professionals shared a common lament Tuesday as a keynote address delivered by Cal Ripken, Jr. had them all wondering how life would be if IT systems and processes worked as hard, long and well as the baseball legend.

The Hall of Famer, who earned the nickname Iron Man for playing 2,632 consecutive games, delivered his keynote to nearly 2,000 IT management professionals at the ITSMF USA Fusion 2007 conference in Charlotte, N.C. While Ripken didn't have IT-related anecdotes, he attributed his long and successful career in baseball to taking a handful of steps each day that anyone in IT could do. Ripken's recently published book, "Get in the Game: 8 Elements of Perseverance That Make the Difference" served as the basis for his speech that touched on issues IT managers face.

The industry organization and its conference target IT professionals working to implement long-term IT process re-engineering and service management policies across multiple systems, domains and devices. The challenge most often cited with such IT improvement efforts is changing people's minds about how to do their jobs. Ripken, whose accomplishments are too many to list here, may have convinced a few attendees that the most important change they could make is in their attitude.

Here are the key elements Ripken said helped him achieve success in baseball and beyond.

1. The right approach

For Ripken, the right approach to his job with the Baltimore Orioles was a pure and honest one. Ripken said he attacked each day and the challenges it represented head-on, despite whatever issues he may be experiencing. And he worked to meet the expectations of managers regardless of their requests.

He referred to common conditions in his industry such as Randy Johnson-itis or Pedro Martinez-itis, in which for no stated reason a player cannot play in a game because of an unspecified illness to illustrate his point. For Ripken, the illness could be easily caused by pressure to perform and fear of disappointing management, the media and most important, the public.

"My job was to come ready to play and to put myself in the hands of my manager. It was not my job to make those decisions," he said.

2. A strong will to succeed.

This element is part genetic and part learned, Ripken said, but in order to succeed he had to have a fire burning within and a strong desire to meet his goals. While he thinks this drive is hard-wired into some people, he said he learned that it's not always about having that drive, it's about putting it to use to make positive changes.

"In my early days, I would throw tantrums when the game didn't go my way," Ripken recalled for attendees. That is, until his mother asked him the point of the outbursts and advised him to turn what seemed to be a negative into a positive. "I realized it was a power source to tap into and use it to my advantage."

3. Passion

Simply put, Ripken said everyone has to love what they do for work to truly persevere and achieve the longevity he did with his career.