Top of the heap

I am sitting here watching the Patriots play tonight. I watch them every chance I get, which is not every week since I do not live in New England. I watch them for the same reason I watch the Lakers in basketball. I like the coach and the main player. Nobody is better than Bill Bellicek and Tom Brady. Both are at the very top of their game. They just win - not every game, but most of the time. They are competent.

I am attracted to people who are competent. They study hard, work hard, and most of the time you can place a winning bet on their outcomes. I have been around both competent and incompetent people at work and in other categories of life. What I really despise is the person who has swagger and a high opinion of himself/herself but who has little to offer except bluster. It doesn't take long for the bluster to become a thin veil for the incompetence that lies behind it.

Everyone has an area or two of incompetence, but generally people know what those areas are and try to compensate through friends who can help or through avoidance of situations that might show their flaws. Just in the last week I have come across several such incompetent people - an attorney who has given bad advice to jeopardize the custody of a couple's children, a detective that refuses to advance a case that clearly begs for something to be done, a person at work who cannot be organized on any kind of long or medium term basis and who proffers opinions not based on evidence or research, and a speaker who gave out inaccurate information because of lack of preparation.

So, when I see competence, especially in people I like to surround myself with or to relax in watching as a form of entertainment, I want to shout and jump and let them know that I do so appreciate the beauty of their level of performance. Few have it. It's why they are the top rock on the heap.