Winning the Charlie Sheen Way
"Winning." That's my new catch phrase. Of course, I copied it from Charlie Sheen. Up until Tuesday morning, I thought he was a crazed lunatic. I'd been hearing sound bites from all the interviews he's been doing over the past few days. Before I get into the meat of this post, here are a couple of my favorites:
- On whether he was on drugs: "I'm on a drug. It's called Charlie Sheen. It's not available because if you try it you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body."
- On why AA didn't work for him: "AA was written for normal people. People that don't have tiger blood and Adonis DNA."
- On whether he has an addiction problem: "The only thing I'm addicted to right now is winning."
- On whether his lifestyle creates a problem for his show: "That's how I roll. And, if it's too gnarly for people, then buh-bye."
- And then there were these two in which he describes what he's all about: "Winning, anyone?" "Duh, winning."
These sound bites make him seem like a nut. But, earlier this week I saw him on the Today show for an extended interview. Then, as I drove down to northern Virginia for a meeting, I caught him as he called into the Howard Stern show. As I listened to him talk, he explained -- pretty clearly -- a philosophy of life that made sense. Let me try to sum up what I heard from Charlie:
- I'm all about winning.
- In order to win, I need to show up at work and do my job.
- I'm doing that job well and I've got evidence to support that (the ratings for his show).
- Because of how well I'm doing my job, other people are succeeding.
- Given that, don't tell me what to do outside of work and let me live my life.
OK, I get that there are two sides to every story and there may be people at CBS who say Charlie isn't doing a good job. And, I get that there's more to life than work and Charlie's got a home life that's got to be pretty messed up as he has 3 ex-wives, several kids, and 2 live-in "goddesses." But, when I just focus in on his philosophy, I have to say it has a certain appeal. It's simple. It's about doing a good job. It's about helping others succeed. And, it's about drawing a line between work and the rest of your life. Not bad.
