You probably haven’t been behind the closed doors of a professional locker room. Me neither.
Too bad, because I bet we’d learn a lot.
Even if you aren’t a sportsball fan, this story of Rickey Henderson is inspiring. And could help you engage more developers.
Rickey is best known for the most stolen bases in baseball history. Not exactly generous, stealing. After his death, one story of his selflessness caught my attention.
It came from a Mets teammate’s autobiography:
“Rickey was the most generous guy I ever played with, and whenever the discussion came around to what we should give one of the fringe people — whether it was a minor leaguer who came up for a few days or the parking lot attendant — Rickey would shout out ‘Full share!’ We’d argue for a while and he’d say, ‘F*** that! You can change somebody’s life!’”
Mike Piazza in Longshot
The “share” of playoff bonus money could easily be multiple hundred thousands of dollars. Even for guys making salaries in the millions, it’s a significant amount of money.
And Rickey was ready to give some of it to the team’s unsung heroes.
Developers aren’t typically handing out cash, but they are generous in their own way. With their own currency. And they’ll value any of that tender you send their way.
Just as Matthew McConaughey discovered Hollywood’s currency, you need to embrace the developer currency of knowledge.
Some ways this might show up for your company:
- Contribute to open-source projects related to your product
- Create educational resources to simplify complex technical challenges
- Foster supportive communities for collaboration and shared growth
- Offer mentorship to nurture the next generation of developers
Look for how you can share knowledge.
You do it because it’s good marketing. But it’s also the right thing to do for developers.
And when you share that knowledge, steal a bit from Rickey and make it a FULL SHARE.