One of the greatest college football coaches of all time is also one of the greatest motivational speakers of all time.
He won football games and he still electrifies audiences.
His name? Lou Holtz.
The following is from his book Wins, Losses, and Lessons . . .
Every athlete who has ever played for me has heard me preach against the pitfalls of entering anything halfway. In my mind, a half-hearted commitment is worse than no commitment at all.
If you decide to take a class, you should give the professor and yourself the full benefit of your undivided attention. If you don’t, you’re wasting your time and taking up a valuable seat in the classroom.
If you’re on a team, you owe your coaches and teammates your total commitment. If you don’t – if you’re unhappy because the coach doesn’t start you, or because you aren’t getting as many touches as you think you should – you are hurting yourself and the entire organization. You and the team would be better off if you played somewhere else.
If you take a job thinking you can coast along until you find another job, you are, in essence, stealing resources from your employer, no less than if you had broken in and robbed the place.
Commitment is the most crucial component in any relationship.
A marriage based on the premise “Well, let’s give this a shot, and if it doesn’t work out, or if we ‘grow apart,’ we can always get divorced,” is doomed before the vows are complete.
If you accept admission to a college and say to yourself, “Well, this wasn’t my first choice, but I’ll see how things pan out,” you aren’t going to perform very well.
And if you say, “This job is a good stepping-stone, but I’m not thrilled about what I’ll be doing,” you might as well quit today.
In sports, it’s become axiomatic:
Commitment
beats
talent
every time.
