Last week I spoke to a couple of groups with Mark Merrill, the president of Family First. We went to Atlanta for the Catalyst leadership event for young people, where we talked about how important it is for young people to have good role models, starting with parents, but going beyond that; and how we all can help by mentoring in our communities.
Mark and I also addressed the management team of The Melting Pot Restaurants. We talked about leadership and navigating your business through tough economic times. I likened that task to a football season where very seldom do you go undefeated, but more often you have to make adjustments and bounce back from losses. I gave the managers some quotes that had helped me over the years.
I highlighted many of those quotes in my two books, Quiet Strength and UnCommon, but I think I’ll periodically include some in this blog as different situations bring them to memory.
“Success is uncommon, therefore not to be enjoyed by the common man.”
That is from my college coach, Cal Stoll. Coach Stoll told us that there were two ways you could be uncommon; you could have a talent so rare that others couldn’t do the things you could do (having talent like that can certainly help you succeed, but it only includes about 1% of the population), or for the other 99% of us, you can have an attitude and a desire that lets you do things that others could do, but won’t. That is what I’ve always relied on.
“Expectations and execution. No excuses, no explanations.”
This was from Denny Green, my boss when I was with the Minnesota Vikings. I picked it up from him in 1992 and I’ve used it ever since. It stresses that you have to think and act; those are much more important than what you say.
“Champions are champions, not because they do extraordinary things, but because they do the ordinary things better than everyone else.”
Coach Noll was my first NFL coach. He led the Pittsburgh Steelers to four Super Bowl wins in the 1970’s. We had a lot of great players on those teams, including nine who are now in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. But coach Noll always emphasized that it wasn’t the great players or the highlight film type plays that would win for us, it was the practice, the fundamentals and paying attention to the little details that would make the difference in the long run.
“”Success that feels it has to be proclaimed, by the mere fact of its proclamation, admits the doubt of its existence.”
This one is from my mom, CleoMae Dungy. She was big on humility and just doing your job. She always felt if you did your job well enough, you wouldn’t have to say anything about it – other people would do the talking for you. The bible puts it another way – “Pride goes before destruction,” which is another one of her favorites I’ve quoted to my teams many times over the years.
Those are four quotes that I shared last week, and I’d like to leave you with one more that I got from my high school football coach, Dave Driscoll, when I was 14 years old. If there’s any one thought that I’ve carried with me through all my years of playing and coaching it’s this:
“Talent is God-given. Be Thankful.
Praise is man-given. Be humble.
Conceit is self-given. Be careful!”
Good words to live by from people who were great role models for me.
