First, it goes on and on with the Transport challenge and the current transporter is down with 2 blown tires. Another day nets a new challenge with transport. BUT there is a transporter that just ran animals west and I have to tell you: He got them there in good condition, for reasonable pay, got them ALL their paperwork AND their feed. I am so surprised - very very pleasantly surprised.
I will not be here next week for pickup, there will be no staff available to do the proper paperwork for animals leaving. I will be delivering a few animals, one of which will be delivered at Nationals. Add to that trip I also have a family member in the hospital that is going to keep me on speed dial and thus potentially leaving wherever I am at, and going there. Hope Blown Tire Transporter can get here today or tomorrow or he is going to have to wait until the following week.
There are so many surprises in a Herd Dispersal. Yes, transport challenge is one of them, but it turns out there are human surprises too.
One of these is some folks I am friends with because of goats. Which is actually kind of rare in goat program life anyways - to have genuine friends. Here’s why, I initially assumed livestock was like every other career where people understand and practice Team Mentality. That doesn’t apply here. Many people are not Team Mentality - they live in Competitive Mentality. To be fair, for Show Folks this is their entire focus: beating or being better than someone else. They are the very definition of competitive mindset, even when they think they are not.
My first exposure to this widespread attitude was an embryologist that had come to the farm to flush (get embryos from, more on this later) a half dozen does. This was years and years ago so I was still very green to the concept that serious boer people (Show People in this instance) were any different than the white collar professionals I had spent my younger years amongst. He said, and I’ll quote it directly, “No. You can’t be like that (like I am).You have to want to win at any cost. I wanted them to dread seeing my trailer in the lot, I want them to hate me and hate me being there, because they know they’re not winning that day. I want them to want to turn around, pack up, and go home.”
Dumbfounded, I said “No. Really? And how does that work?” He answered something to the effect of the only thing that matters is winning. Then he regaled me with interesting, amusing, and sometimes shocking stories of things people do to win.
To my mind, and given I am from the business sector, this is not logical.
I am educated, I paid my dues in my climb upwards in multiple competitive worlds, worked in environments for years where serious money is in play. I know humans fight tooth and nail when there are big dollars at stake; I know that the more money that’s on the table, the harder they fight, the less moral north they have, the slimier things they will do, and they talk themselves into being okay with those things.
But I also watch lawyers who were at each other's throat in discovery last week, eat lunch and play golf together the following week. Doctors who need recommendations and the support of other professionals whom they don’t even like, work together to further their own individual paths. And photographers vying and clawing with each other, for the right magazine cover that will launch them into a 6 figure raise the following year, laugh and share jokes at a trendy spot in West Hollywood the same week they were consumed with jealousy and fear about that person.
The equivalent in Boer is to get along with everyone cheerfully so that you can purchase outcross blood from your peers with the same quality stock. But with show goats, people “clique up” and don’t play well with others. I’m not naive, I know some of that cliquing up is because they do the same kind of things other people would find detestable, and it is more comradery than actual friendship, but regardless of whatever it is: it is so freaking weird. It limits your reach, limits your market, and therefore puts limits on what you can actually achieve. I find myself wondering if that behavior is just a lack of business skill or is it ego?
So through a business lense at show, there are many people who: if you beat them in the show ring they’re angry and won’t sell or buy anything from you = cross those people out. There are also people who won’t deal with you if you don’t finish well in the show ring, which is logical because they are there for show type = cross those people out. It doesn’t really take a full 7 brain cells to see: you can’t win, you can’t lose and the goats finishing middle might as well be invisible. So perhaps the effort put into showing goats is more ego driven? I would love to explore this much more deeply in a psychology sense if I had the time.
From the ego lense - obviously they want only to win.
Those people who do win maintain a level of niceness to everyone whose stock is not quite the same quality level yet for 2 reasons.
1) They believe those people they’re being nice to are future customers IF they’re nice.
2) They want those animals who are not as competitive to show up in the ring so they get more points and have someone to beat. Let me say that 2nd part again for all the naturally competitive people who are trying to comprehend this version of competitiveness. In this scenario (Goat World) they are only nice to you, because you are the reason they win - and you are there to lose. If you were a person buying stock in Goat World, the very next realization you would have would be to understand: you will never ever be able to purchase something from a person with that “competitive mindset” that can actually win widely, they won’t sell it to you. Because then they won’t win. See it?
There is a similar thought in sales, competitive sale driven breeders want to sell the very high quality animals to a different region so they are not competing with their own genetics the following year.
So competitiveness in show goats is very different from business world competitiveness.
All this to give you an understanding about exactly how the Competitive Mentality is. And how for people on that road, it is everything. I recognized early on, that mentality is not the mentality of a person I can work with in achieving my specific goal - their psychological makeup will always get in the way of a larger goal and their goal is not the same as mine. That being understood, I looked for “hidden gems” in smaller, less known herds. Because my eye is formally trained in both light and dimension (thank you photography background) that part was fairly easy. It led me to working friendships with smaller breeders, some even really just goat owners more than they were breeders. We aligned better for many reasons.
Imagine my surprise when it's these people who have been the least “in my corner” as of late.
I am disappointed. Of course, my feelings are hurt - but in equal measure, I am mad. And worse, I was shocked. It's pretty hard to shock me - I can identify a human behavior pattern in minutes from a casual conversation (thank you psychology degree), so it's hard to shock me when it comes to human makeup or predicted behavior.
In fact I was so shocked, I had to ask another psych friend if I was reading the interaction pattern correctly. She gently reminded me that I err often on the side of believing in people a good bit more than I should.
Duly noted.
I am grumbling now of course (but that’s what you’re here for, to live vicariously through these ups and downs) so take it with a grain of salt, but yes, this is what I’m in right now. Disappointment. But I’ve worked through it.
I give. A lot. Therefore I expect it to be matched, because I am healthy, and I intend to remain that way. A smart person reads the writing on the wall and adjusts their own behavior accordingly - my wise daughter calls this “Matching Energy”.
My future goal with people is to “match energy”.
That being said - there has been one more thing I didn’t expect: I have also been wildly surprised at a few people I really wish I would have met earlier in my time in Goat World. I mean shocked. In the very best of ways. There are some really great people in this business. Some people who really, really, care about their animals and really want to build a great herd. There are also some hidden gems out here, people who are extremely wise, people who would be good at anything they do, people who have integrity, people with serious work ethic, and are already refusing to lower their own bar just because others do. A few of these people I would have loved to know in any career path - no offense to all of you not from Goat World, but I have to tell you there are some really cool people who own goats, people I wish you could know. Everybody knows I am a total sucker for a good laugh and there are some folks out here that get me snorting my drink when I talk to them. Salt of the earth kind of stuff. Maybe yet another lesson from Goat World is to discover souls that make you laugh, find a chuckle in some of the everyday stupidity because it's just too ridiculous to believe, and shake your head with someone else who knows the craziness.
I hope I can gravitate to these types of personalities on my next path too. I fearfully sense it is often so serious (because there is so much money on the table) that there isn’t much of that. But I hope not, a great sense of humor will carry you a long way in tough situations. A really long way.
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