Several years ago my oldest daughter, Mattison, and I made the trek down to Liberty, North Carolina for her to have a day of skeet shooting instruction from Craig Kirkman. For those of you who do not know Craig , he is an 11 time world skeet shooting champion and one of the finest people you will ever meet. At the time, Mattison had just started shooting skeet and was having limited success breaking clay targets. Shotgun sports was new to both of us even though we had a little experience with duck and bird hunting. Clay targets flying through the air from different angles brought questions of hold point, look point, break points and foot position. We needed constructive guidance as skeet was a sport Mattison wanted to pursue.
We met Craig and his father, Tommy, at their private club within a stone’s throw of their residences. After the formal introductions, Craig and Mattison proceeded to shoot a few rounds of skeet together. Working back and forth on various stations while I sat at the picnic table talking to Tommy and writing notes on things Craig was saying.
At the end of the day and after shooting ten boxes of 28 gauge ammunition, Craig and Mattison walked over to the clubhouse where Tommy and I were sitting. The last round Mattison shot was a 23 out of 25 targets and I was a proud father. I was expecting Craig to be as impressed as I was. So as Craig approached the picnic table, I asked “so what do you think?”. His reply was “she is coachable”.
Craig’s response caused me to pause. I think I may have said “ok”. Later, as we drove home and I was able to process what Craig had said, it dawned on me he paid her the ultimate compliment.
My point to this is, in life, we all need to try and allow ourselves to be coachable on whatever the topic. Being open minded is the key to innovation. None of us know it all or have all the answers.