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(Be sure and read the comments at the end of this post.)
Noah St. John is an author of self-help books. Following the Masters (golf tournament), he published a blog entry on the Huffington Post titled Why Did Kenny Perry Choke on the Masters? In this post, Mr. St. John claimed that Kenny Perry, who was two shots ahead with two holes to play, might have won the tournament had he only given himself permission to succeed, a topic Mr. St. John writes about.
I found that suggestion to be a bit shameless, as Mr. St. John was simply using Mr. Perry's loss as an opportunity to sell product. I posted a comment on Monday saying as much, however, comments are moderated and my effort was rejected. But on Tuesday morning, the original blog post had been rewritten, giving more sympathy to Kenny Perry and explaining what Perry could have done to be successful rather than offering him a book.
Did I cause a Huffington Post article to be rewritten? Did Mr. St. John choke on his first attempt and take a mulligan (golfing term for a do over)?
Upon seeing the rewrite, I posted this comment, which may also be rejected.
Yesterday I posted a comment that was critical of Mr. St. John for using Kenny Perry's loss as an opportunity to hawk his book. That comment was not published, however, the original article has been rewritten, making it more favorable to Kenny Perry and giving more advice on how to be successful. Also, Mr. St. John no longer offers Mr. Perry a free copy.In fairness to Mr. St. John, the "he suddenly could not hit shots" reference was misattributed. St. John actually said "he let it slip away like so much fairway bunker sand." If you are curious about what a real sports writer says about Kenny Perry, try Perry is the master of class by Dan Wetzel.
I still think Mr. St. John knows nothing about golf. He says "he suddenly could not hit shots that any pro can hit on a Thursday." The facts are that Tiger also finished bogey-bogey. Why not claim that Tiger choked? The winner, Angel Cabrera hit his first drive of the playoff behind a tree. His second shot bounced off another tree before landing back in the fairway. So why don't we say that Angel choked? Kenny Perry's final put of the Masters made it to the hole. If it had been a half-inch to the right, he and Angel would have gone to the third playoff hole, for the first time in Masters history. That is not the putt of one who chokes.
Update: I was thrilled to get a comment (see below) from Nina of www.successclinic.com. Here is the email reply I sent her.
Dear Nina,I checked the St. John post just now and saw that my second comment has been rejected, as was my first. Normally, the Huffington Post is a place for exchange of ideas and different points of view. Not in this case, which suggests that criticism is not welcomed. On the other hand, I received a very nice email reply from Nina, which I appreciated.
Thanks for answering my question about the rewrite. I really didn't think I had anything to do with it, but one never knows. When I read the first article, there was already one comment up and it was favorable to Kenny Perry.
What annoyed me and motivated me to comment and blog was that the first version of the article appeared to be an ad for a book. I have no problems with ads for books (I love books) but I thought I was reading a sports article. Never before have I encountered "product placement" in a Huffington Post article. You may disagree that the article was an ad, but that was my perception.
As to Kenny Perry, everyone saw that he lost a lead on the last two holes and lost a 3-way playoff, however, it was very close. To claim to understand the cause of a bad golf shot (after so many excellent ones) is going out on a limb. If Mr. Perry had turned in a miserable fourth round or had three putted from three feet (as others have done), you might have had more of a case to say that he choked. What is wonderful about Mr. Perry's story is the big picture, the fact that he does not live or die by what happens in a golf tournament, which is not really that important in the scheme of things. By many accounts, he is an excellent golf-pro, a wonderful father and husband, and a strong contributor to his community.
Thanks again for commenting on my blog.
Regards,
David Renaud
More update: Noah St. John has also provided a second comment to this post, which I also appreciate.
No, you did not cause the HuffPo article by Noah St. John to be rewritten, I did.
ReplyDeleteYour assertions that Noah St. John wrote the post to sell books and rewrote his post based upon your complaint are wrong. In fact, the edited version was posted within a few hours of the first version. There were no comments when that work was done.
Noah works with a great deal of people who struggle with that first win and getting themselves mentally prepared to handle both the struggle and the victory. Using relevant current examples is very helpful to provide both context and inspiration.
We talked about the merits of the post shortly after it was done and agreed to make some changes after we found some critical elements missing from what he was trying to say.
Your references to choking or "failure to cross the finish line" as I like to say show that you don't truly understand the behavioral phenomenon. Or perhaps haven't done the extensive research that Noah has done to try to help people overcome this issue.
Permission to succeed has proven to be elemental in that process.
So let's be fair... Noah did not choke although he may have had an early release on his swing. You have to credit him for his follow through though.
Hi David, Noah St. John here. First of all, thank you for pointing out the flaws in my original blog post.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little embarrassed that my original Huffington Post article came out the way it did.
Frankly, I'd have to agree that it did come across as too self-promotional, which was not my intention at all.
My intention was simply to show how common it is for people, no matter who they are, to "choke" when they are out of their Familiar Zone. That is what happened to Kenny Perry, which he admitted (though not using those precise words) in his post-tournament interview.
As Nina (and anyone close to me) will tell you, I do tend to get excited when a big news story hits that corresponds to my teaching. Because you see, I've been teaching people that there's a massive, fundamental difference between how to succeed and how to LET yourself succeed, since 1997.
So I was attempting to use the Kenny Perry example to illustrate some parts of my teaching, and hopefully help people realize what they could do if they face a similar situation in their own lives.
Did I "take advantage" of the situation? I would say, yes, I did. And my first blog post didn't accurately convey either the message or the intent (to be honest, I dashed it off in about 12 minutes).
That's why, after I had some time to think about it, I made the changes to hopefully better reflect my original intention, and (I hope) convey a more helpful, relevant message for people.
Again, I appreciate you pointing out the flaws in what I was trying to present, and welcome your feedback, which I think was both fair and accurate.
All good wishes,
~Noah St. John