“I don’t think about my life in terms of ‘superstar.’ I’m just a workin’ girl. I always say, and it’s the truth, that I am a workhorse that looks like a show horse.” —Dolly Parton, May 2025
When I heard the news of Dolly Parton’s passing, this quote came to mind. A woman known to the entire world when asked to describe herself, described her work.
That distinction between show horse and workhorse (or put another way, show dogs and hunting dogs) is what I have spent the last three and a half years asking people about. I host a podcast called No Show Dogs, built on the premise that world-class performance is attainable by all of us if we’re willing to put in the work.
Over 111 episodes, I have interviewed coaches, athletes, executives, military leaders, and best-selling authors, and I have closed every conversation with the same question. What have you been willing to do that others haven’t?
I collected responses from 81 people across 20 sports, five countries, and four branches of the U.S. and British armed forces. Between them they have won 12 World Series, nine Super Bowls and two Stanley Cups, brought home 16 Olympic medals, 9 of them gold, and competed in seven Paralympics. Three are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
I read through their answers and drew my own conclusions as to what the magic was. But instead of trusting my subjective read, I went objective. I fed every answer into a large language model and asked it to group similar ideas and rank them by frequency and force.
The keys to success
The model returned a list of the top 11 themes.
I assumed that the strongest theme that would emerge would have been doing the extra work, the drive to keep going when everyone else had gone home. I had guessed wrong. It was third on the list, not first. But it was still a crucial lesson.
Brandon Crawford, three-time All-Star shortstop for baseball’s San Francisco Giants, told me that in high school, every Friday night while his friends went to parties, he went to the batting cages. You cannot separate yourself from the pack by running with it.
Second on the list was humility, which is not the same thing as modesty. It is the refusal to believe you have arrived. Stephen Vogt won two division titles in his first two seasons as manager of the Cleveland Guardians, and he told me he has to keep learning, because if he doesn’t, the game is going to pass him up.
The next eight are similarly impactful. (Don’t worry—I’ll tell you what’s first at the end of the piece!)
Play your own game. Tony Dungy told me about interviewing for his first head coaching job and deciding whether to say what the room wanted to hear or answer as his true self. He answered as his true self and didn’t get the job. The NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers hired him later, and in 2018 he was inducted into their ring of honor as one of the team’s all-time greats.
Build your team. It’s not just surrounding yourself with good people who can support you, it’s being intentional about bringing people into your circle who can teach you. Kevin Corrigan, lacrosse coach at Notre Dame, watches the school’s football team practice to study how an offensive line coach teaches, and then applies what he’s learned to his squad.
Put others first. Many of the leaders I spoke with defined their own success by how many people they had helped. Derrick Brooks, an NFL Hall of Fame linebacker, said he used every platform and relationship to serve those around him and to make the world better. His commitment to serve others to make them better raised the level of his own performance. The fastest way to advance your own career is to advance everyone else’s.
Obsess over mastery rather than results. Adam Schaechterle, tennis director at Pepperdine University, once stepped down from a Division I head coaching job to take an assistant role because he knew he had holes in his coaching. Most people chase the next big thing or title or paycheck. He recognized he wasn’t ready and focused on more learning instead of more earning.
Have the courage to fail in public. Joe Bohringer, a former MLB scout and scouting director, said he is not afraid to look stupid. When he doesn’t understand, he’s not afraid to call a timeout in front of the group and ask the question. Most of us do not fear failure so much as we fear what other people will say about it.
Be intentionally present. Kalen DeBoer, Alabama’s head football coach, made nine coaching stops before Tuscaloosa, and his whole explanation for the climb was that he focused fully on where he was. Dominate the now, and next finds you.
Push through the pain. Ryan Hamilton, mental performance coach for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning, described the pain of loneliness, of being overwhelmed, of going months without validation. Then he added that in those same stretches he enjoyed some of the best moments of his professional life.
Play the long game. Mia Manganello, a three-time Olympic speed skater, said she was willing to sacrifice the moment for the ultimate goal. It takes years to become an overnight success.
Which brings me to the top of the list. I’ll be honest; I was disappointed. I expected something complex that I had never heard before. What came back was simple.
Keep showing up.
That is it. Showing up every day, ready to go. Doing the fundamentals over and over. Choosing consistency over intensity.
Kyle Whittingham, head football coach at Michigan, described it as being the same guy every day.
The keys to success are within your control
Here’s the most empowering lesson I learned: All 11 keys to extreme success are simple. They don’t take superior genetics or exceptional talent. They don’t require wealth. They aren’t the result of an accidental discovery or a stroke of luck. Every one of them is entirely within your control.
Only those who knew her best can say what drove Dolly Parton to universal fame, acclaim, and admiration. You know her story, and you know there won’t be another like her.
But she told us how she thought about it herself, and it was not the rhinestones. It was the work. That part is available to all of us.