Avoid Being A One-Trick Pony

Find ways to branch out and give back

By Ron Ciancutti

As parks administrators—and parents—know all too well, children are plugged into electronic devices and tuned out of “live” action for too many hours in the day. The quintessential childhood experience of running out the back door and spending the day outside has largely disappeared, as have other critical developmental processes: group socialization, physical fitness, competition, and just plain play.

© Can Stock Photo / dolgachov

Should we promote Johnson? He’s done great spreadsheets in the past.

Yeah, but he’s a one-trick pony. Those spreadsheets are his only strength.

Or:

Well, we’re down to the final cut. Do we keep Hennings or Fletcher?

I like them both, but Hennings is sort of a one-trick pony. Great jump shot, but he has no defense at all.

Or:

Did you hear Halloren’s speech last night? He had the whole place cheering.

Yeah, the speech he can do, but it’s backing it up where he lacks, sort of a one-trick pony.

Now I’ll admit I’ve been fooled before. I’ll meet someone who seems only one-dimensional and think I’ve got such a pony before me, but then I come to find this individual is quietly active in his church or in charity work. I find that I am the pony comparatively. I recall having a horrible opinion about a guy who was always late to meetings and company events, and then I learned that he and his wife were raising half a dozen foster children. That capacity to love and still navigate a professional life was off the charts, and I was too quick to judge.

I therefore find it admirable to seek activities that ensure I don’t let myself become so complacent that I can be labeled as such.

Multiple Irons In The Fire 

In the same vein, there are some very famous people who have succeeded in one arena but wanted to be sure all of their accomplishment eggs were not in one basket.

Francis Ford Coppola—arguably one of the greatest film directors of all time—invested in a winery. In 2006, the Coppola family purchased the historic Chateau Souverain property in Sonoma County and never looked back. Current investments include wineries that are laid out like amusement parks with rides, lodgings, and daily events all centered around the wine industry. Their charitable donations resulting from those profits are significant.

Look at the great Italian singer Tony Bennett (currently 96 years old). His musical career is decades old, and he was still selling out concerts only a few years back before dementia set in. Still, Bennett also paints and has no fewer than three pieces in the Smithsonian Museum. His oils and watercolors are so appreciated that he was commissioned to create artwork commemorating the United Nations 50th anniversary in 2001.

Did you know the famous actor and director Kevin Costner has poured millions of dollars into the creation of non-chemical, water-skimming solutions to reduce the impact of oil spills in oceans? Costner’s “Big Gulp” machines have had an immediate impact on polluted waters and can minimize the spill in 24 hours, as opposed to weeks of chemical alternatives.

Now, these three examples are of people with the means to do big things in a big way, and I don’t mean to infer that any endeavor you may seek for enjoyment needs to benefit others to be significant or meaningful, but it seems the added bonus of doing something for others is a great motivator.

One year, on a particularly bleak Christmas, my wife and I were lamenting our empty nest while folding old blankets to give to a local charity when I had the idea to take the donation a step further and personalize the whole affair. We bought a couple loaves of bread, a few pounds of baloney, and a jar or two of peanut butter and jelly and secured a stack of dollar bills. In each blanket we rolled two or three sandwiches in a plastic bag and a few dollars in another bag. We drove into a part of town where some folks regularly slept under a bridge. We parked, opened the trunk, and walked around with a few thermoses of soup and coffee, as well as some thermal Styrofoam cups. Some of the curious folks came forward, and we offered a hot cup, and as conversation ensued, we offered a blanket and indicated what was rolled inside. Within minutes we had distributed all 23 of the blankets, and our thermoses were dry. Never did we experience such holiday cheer. Maybe I didn’t have anything to fulfill the other side of my life, like an ability to paint or sing or accomplish something tangible or significant, but I found my career accomplishments weren’t the only things that identified me. I had many tricks in my basket and could follow my heart to find them.

Life After Work 

In retirement, not a day goes by that someone doesn’t ask what I have been doing with all my free time. I used to say, “Nothing much, just relaxing.”

Now, when I respond to that question, I smile and say, “Everything!” I reflect on how much time I spend with my 16 grandchildren. How I take my wife to a different coffee shop every week, usually in a city we’ve not visited before. I think about taking Mom (now 86) to dinner and lunch, and how sometimes I just go over to hang a flower basket, fix the garbage disposal, or share one of my fan-appreciated stories. I visit the gravestones of family long past and bring equipment to clean and polish those memorable places of honor. I help members of the church with their challenges, especially the seniors, and I take the time to pray every day.

See my bag of many tricks make it 
Look so easy,

Look so clean
I humbly move like God's immaculate machine
I think about all these extra moves I've made
And all this good fortune I’ve been blessed with
And the gratitude it takes
To realize how important it is
To fight the urge to be lazy and be a one-trick pony.

Ron Ciancutti worked in the parks and recreation industry since he was 16 years old, covering everything from maintenance, operations, engineering, surveying, park management, design, planning, recreation, and finance. He is now retired. He holds a B.S. in Business from Bowling Green State University and an M.B.A. from Baldwin Wallace University. He is not on Facebook, but he can be reached at ron@northstarpubs.com.

He’s a one-trick pony,

One trick is all that horse can do

He does one trick only
It's the principal source of his revenue
But when he steps into the spotlight
You can feel the heat of his heart
Come rising through

See how he dances
See how he loops from side to side
See how he prances
The way his hooves just seem to glide
He's just a one-trick pony, that's all he is,
But he turns that trick with pride

He makes it
Look so easy, it looks so clean
He moves like God's immaculate machine
He makes me
Think about all these extra moves I've made
And all this herky-jerky motion
And the bag of tricks it takes
To get me through my working day
One-trick pony

He's a one-trick pony
He either fails or he succeeds
He gives his testimony
Then he relaxes in the weeds
He's got one trick to last a lifetime
But that's all a pony needs.

--One-Trick Pony, Paul Simon 1980