Aug. 4 - The visit to Japan of a Notre Dame University Football Alumni Team to play a Japanese All-Star American Football team recently provided the American players with a wonderful opportunity to meet Japanese who also love the game of football. The Notre Dame University alumni enjoyed a week in Japan where they were impressed by the friendly reception they received everywhere they went. The Japanese players said they elevated their game by playing some of the best American Football players in the world.

I learned something too when I met Notre Dame’s former coach Lou Holtz. Coach Holtz was recently inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame for his success at Notre Dame. He told me, however, that his career coaching college football began poorly. He was discouraged by the performance of his first year team at William and Mary College. So he sat down to analyze why some players had succeeded when many others had failed.

In his attempt to discover the personality characteristics that separate the successful from the unsuccessful, he discovered that there was no correlation with intelligence, economic background, ethnicity or race. He told me that he did see three characteristics of successful players. They were: trust, diligence, and teamwork. Players who said what they meant and gained the trust of their teammates were successful. Players who worked hard and did not cut corners in practice were successful. And finally, players who put the success of the team above their individual success were successful. Coach Holtz applied this insight to develop the leadership skills of future team players with great success.

A few of these Notre Dame Football team alumni went on to play professional football, but most chose other careers as teachers, coaches, businessmen, lawyers, and doctors. These former players told me that the lessons they learned on the football field from Coach Holtz helped prepare them for life after college. Even today they continue to apply these leadership skills – trustworthiness, diligence, and teamwork – in their professional lives.

Have you had any great coaches in your life? I’d love to hear about them.

Until next time,

Jim