The Shocking Truth About Confidence That Can Turn Your Success Into Selfishness

Most of us are guilty of rushing toward the next goal without noticing the people already on the field - Imagine stealing second base... with your own teammate standing right on it. Bryan's humorous yet humbling experience reminds us that true confidence isn’t just about bold moves; it’s about respecting others and understanding when the moment is right. From this story, you'll discover how your gifts are meant to uplift others—like fruit from a tree, designed to benefit those passing by, not just yourself. He break’s down the importance of self-awareness in decision-making, the danger of selfishness disguised as confidence, and how real teamwork begins when you consider your teammates’ place on the field.

You'll also explore the power of timing, the difference between selfish ambition and shared success, and in his series; “Wanna Hear a Great Line”, you’ll hear a surprising interpretation of the phrase “In the Meantime” that changes everything about how you view setbacks and patience. Bryan connects these lessons to everyday life: the importance of humility, the value of shared growth, and how to avoid the embarrassment of rushing into the wrong moment. This isn’t just a baseball story—it’s a call to be better teammates in all areas of life.

Perfect for anyone feeling overwhelmed by their own ambitions or tempted to ignore the bigger picture, steal their next base just because they can. This episode is a reminder that confidence combined with awareness creates genuine leadership and trust. If you want to turn your gifts into something that truly benefits others—and avoid unnecessary blunders—this episode is essential listening. Bryan’s honest humor and practical wisdom will leave you inspired to check your timing and elevate your teamwork both on and off the field.

Transcript

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He's hard to label and even harder to put in a box. So we stopped trying. That's right. Welcome to the Brian Kennedy Show.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

All right, welcome back to the episode two. I'm excited. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and I thought, you know, what do I want to share in the second episode here that'll kind of uh get people more familiar with what we're doing? Remember, I talked about um the different rooms the locker room, the dressing room, green rooms, living room. This is gonna be more of a locker room thing. So let me ask you this question right off the bat. Think about this. What is something that you can steal, and if you're safe stealing it, you get rewarded for it. What's something you can steal? And if you're safe and you're stealing it, you get rewarded for it. Well, the answer is second base, third base, and home plate, right? It's kind of a baseball deal. So I was thinking about that the other day, and I I wanted to share something. Um I don't know if I want to share it, but I'm gonna share it. But I stole second base with so much confidence one time in my life, I think I was 12 or 13. I'm talking about with all the confidence I could muster up. I stole second base, but failed to notice one little detail. And that was I had uh my own teammate standing on second base. Yeah. I stole second base with my own teammate on it. Not a very good thing. I see, I I come from a remember I said football, basketball. Well, I I guess I'm I'm more um inclined to play a contact type sport. Baseball players, uh, golfers are so good at at their sport. They're I mean, they're tremendous at what they do. It just never really was my thing. Um I came from kind of a background of uh, I guess more being more active. So when it came to baseball, I found myself standing around a lot, um, sitting on the bench, uh, you know, warming up the bat, or you know, I just it just wasn't very active to me. So it really wasn't my thing, and I really wasn't that good at it, to be honest with you. So I found myself on the baseball team and uh still in second base with my own man on it. Well, you say, well, well, Brian, why'd you play? Well, I played because I love my coach. I had the same football coach, basketball coach, baseball coach from fourth grade to sixth grade, okay? And Carter Brown was his name, his brother Jerry uh were our coaches, and I was just so blessed to have them. Uh uh Carter's still a great friend of mine today. Uh he's kept up with me, and I've kept up with him all these years. He's been a great friend and advocate for my family. Love him to death. So he's the reason that I played baseball. But again, it just wasn't my thing. So here's what happened that day. I I've somehow got on first base. I would like to say I got a single, but most likely I got walked. I just I wasn't very good at baseball. It wasn't wasn't my thing. But I get on first base and and here I am, you know, got all my teammates, and I mean I'm I'm on first base and I'm watching this pitcher, and I'm watching the wind up and I'm watching him throw the ball, and I'm I'm thinking, man, I'm watching his timing. I'm thinking, you know, I'm pretty fast. I think I could steal, I can steal second base. So I'm looking over at the third base coach, which was Jerry, and he's not giving me the steal sign. And I'm I'm getting my lead off, and I'm watching the pitcher, and I'm like, I can do this. I'm I'm gonna easily steal this base. I look over there again, pitcher throws. Jerry's not giving me he's he's doing this stuff, but he's not giving me the steal sign. Well, I'm like, I can do this. I know I'm fast, and so I'm I'm gonna steal second base. So the pitcher winds up, throws the ball. As soon as he releases the ball, I take off running. I mean, I'm flying. I know I'm fast. I got all the confidence in the world. I'm fast, and I'm flying. I look over and I'm watching the catcher. He doesn't even try to throw me out. He stands up, he doesn't flip his mask off, he doesn't do anything. He just stands up and just watches me. He's just watching me. And I'm thinking, man, they're not even trying to throw me out. So I thought I'd do a little, you know, slide, pop up, stand on second base, and there on second base is one of my teammates doing this. And I'm doing this, like, oh my gosh. So I look, catcher throws the ball to the pitcher, pitcher throws the ball to the second baseman, tags me out, third out of the inning. I gotta walk back to the dugout. I had some great uh teammates that were great athletes on that team. Went on to play, some of them played college basketball, so um, just really good, really good guys, good friends, good athletes, went on to be great coaches, um, really good guys. And to this day, none of them had said anything to me about it. Carter or Jerry didn't say anything to me about it. I guess when it comes down to it, what could you say? That wasn't pretty ugly. So yeah, that was my deal. Stole second basis because I thought I'm fast, and I got inside my own head thinking I can do this. I I got this. And I wasn't thinking about I wasn't really thinking about anything other than I can do this because I'm fast. It's an embarrassment. Um not not a good thing, not something you really want to be known for. So confidence, I guess what I'm I'm my one of my points I wanted to make is confidence is a great thing. Like we we can teach our children to have confidence. Uh it's good for us to have confidence ourselves, right? But if you're if your confidence is just selfishness wearing a uniform like I was that day, it's not a good thing. It's not a good thing. It's it's like if if every every day that we're doing something and we're focused on getting to that next base, like we're we're in such a hurry that we just want to get to the next base. Um, we're not thinking about timing other than our timing. We're not thinking about, is this the right moment? We're not maybe we're not praying about it, maybe we don't get a good, solid feeling that we're supposed to do it. We just know that it's time, like I want to do it. I want to get there. How often do we try to reach that base and forget that there's other people on the field? There's somebody already on that base, right? That can happen. It can happen a lot. All right, before I finish this story, I want to get to the segment that we call Wanna Hear a Great Song, Wanna Hear a Great Line. Even though I'm a songwriter, every now and then I'll hear a song, and one line will just jump out and stop me. And I think to myself, what a great line. I'm Brian Kennedy. Welcome to Wanna Hear a Great Line. Wanna Hear a Great Line. I found this song not too long ago, and it really it really impressed me beyond belief. I couldn't believe how well written this song was, top to bottom, not just the line that we're going to talk about or the lines we're going to talk about, but just top to bottom, what a great song. An artist called named Hayes Carl, C-A-R-L-L, on an album. Um and uh and this particular track on the album is a duet with Brandy Clark, and I think Hayes and Brandy both are songwriters on this song. The song is called In the Meantime. So when a songwriter, it's one of those ones I just wish I would have written. When I heard this song, I'm like, I wish I would have written that. But I'm so glad that these guys did because it's so good. So when we say that phrase, you know, a songwriter will hear a phrase that everybody uses in a normal way. Like you would say, um, I want to come over and let you look at this dog that I have for sale. But in the meantime, sit here and have a Pepsi or Coke or something, or sit here and read a magazine in the meantime. So we say that all the time. But a songwriter like Hayes and uh Brandy, when they heard that, evidently, they thought of a different way to say it. So here's here's the setup for the song. The beginning of the song, they talk about the good times we've had, the smiles and the laughs are the pictures that fill their frames. They're talking about really positive, really good things. Uh it says of of the home where we spend our days. Most of the times, those are good times, and the times we're in, even the tough times, we walk through those times again. So they're they're talking about good life, and then the chorus. But in the meantime, the holler and the scream time, the crush all your dreams time, the can't hardly breathe time. There's a line. Oh my gosh. I mean, they took a normal phrase in the meantime and turned it into in the mean, the mean time. So good, so crafty, so brilliant, and the melody's just as good. So you guys can check out uh Hayes Carl's record uh with uh Brandy Clark on the duet on that track. It is so good. What I mean, you want to hear a great line, but in the meantime, the holler and scream time, the crush all your dreams time, the can't hardly breathe time. So good. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, let's get back to the uh the saga of stealing the bass with somebody on it. That I've I wrote not too long ago something about a fruit tree that um that doesn't grow fruit for itself. So, what is the purpose of a fruit tree? Well, it's the fruit is for whoever passes by. So think about it like this: your abilities, your experiences, your encouragement, even your failures can benefit somebody else. Maybe not so much fun for me stealing second base from my own player, but it can benefit somebody else. Whatever God's thrown in your life, or let's put it to you this way the fruit that you have in your life that God has allowed you to grow, the blessings that you have, in this case, and this is really, you know, I I was fast. I was on a baseball team, and I was fast, thought I could steal second base. But but those gifts that I have they're they're not intended for me. Okay. Those gifts were intended for me to participate to help somebody else, to further, in this case, my team. This was this was those gifts were given to me to to be a part of a team, to be a part of a goal with other people that wasn't me. I've said this a a thousand times. Our purpose in life is not ourselves. So the gifts that we have, the fruit that God's given us, they're for other people. There's nothing good about stealing a base with somebody else on it. That's that's there's nothing good about that. So before you steal second base, make sure somebody you love isn't already standing on it. Okay? I think that's that's the that's what I want to say. Before you go do something that you get all wrapped up in selfishly for yourself, just make sure somebody you love, your teammate. I just noticed I was wearing this, Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids. That's cool. Um, for those of you that can't see, um, I have on a shirt, I just noticed it says Garth Brooks Teammates for kids. Um, yeah, so if you want to be a good teammate, then you you can't think about yourself. You've got to you've got to share your fruit um with your teammates because that way they can grow, you can feed them, and they can grow. And they can feed you and you can grow. All right, remember this website, Brian'swebsite.com. Follow me, uh, like, share, do all those things. I really do appreciate it. It really matters. Email me, message me, whatever. I'll try to get back to every single one of you, I promise. And and I want you to know I'll I'll be wherever I am on my website. I can't think of the next dates that I'm doing, but um all the places where I play will be on there. All my books are on there and email address, okay? So thank you guys, and I appreciate your time, and I'll see you next time, or you'll hear me next time.