They Will Say No, You Will Say Yes

It’s definitely that time of year in sports.  There are NFL Playoff games happening, and NCAA College Basketball is in full swing.  So many of us watch great catches and defensive plays on the football field, and then flip the channel to amazing dunks that make us stand up and high five complete strangers.  If you take the time to read some of my past blogs, it will come as no surprise that I pull a lot of motivation and leadership philosophy from athletes, sports quotes and sports teams.

This week, I was reminded of something from playing basketball my freshman year in high school when I heard the stories of two athletes Derrick Coleman and Isaiah Austin.  I was reminded of a motivational quote our coach gave us during our first team meeting.  It stuck out to me, so I cut it out and hung it in my locker.  From then on, I would look at this quote all through high school, college, and eventually come to share it with people I supervised when I started working full time.  It’s from a Nike Ad (the ad is below) and although I love the whole thing, my favorite line is:

“They will tell you no.

A thousand times no. Until all the no’s become meaningless. 

All your life they will tell you no.

Quite firmly and very quickly.

And you will tell them yes.”

Derrick Coleman is a player for the Seattle Seahawks.  He climbed the ranks playing football through high school, at UCLA, and now will play on the greatest and biggest stage in the NFL, the Super Bowl.  I came across Derrick through, surprisingly enough, a Duracell commercial.  After reading more about Derrick I realized that he has a very inspirational story.  What you may not know about him, is that he is a legally deaf person playing in the NFL.  In a sport where snap counts, audibled plays (plays changed by the quarterback before the ball is hiked) and crowd noise play a vital role in the success of the team, Derrick has learned through his hearing aid and coping mechanisms to play at the most elite level in the sport.  From being a child trying to fit his hearing aid under his helmet, to going undrafted in the NFL, he was constantly being told ‘No’ and through perseverance and determination, he told them ‘Yes’.

The story of Isaiah Austin is also a story of triumph under difficult odds.  Isaiah Austin is a basketball player for Baylor University, a Division I Men’s Basketball Team.  Through a routine dunk in warm ups during middle school, he aggravated an injury from little league.  In basketball where eye sight and depth perception are as vital as a good jump shot, Isaiah was learning to play the game in a completely different way than most youth.  He tore his retina in one eye and despite surgery and efforts to save his sight, he eventually became blind in one eye.  He was therefore learning coping mechanisms to compensate for his sight, and how to play through his unique circumstance.  Bearing this secret until very recently, he admits to hiding his loss of vision in one eye because he was afraid people would tell him ‘No’ suggesting that he wasn’t good enough, or not take a chance on him because he only could see through one eye.  Instead he found ways to tell them ‘Yes’ before they even had a chance to say ‘No’.

I share these stories and the Nike Ad because intrinsic motivation is such a vital source of the drive we must have to succeed.  I think about my favorite line whenever I get the sense that someone thinks I’m not good enough, or when I come across an obstacle blocking me from something that I want to achieve.  Our circumstances may not be the exact same as Derrick’s or Isaiah’s, but they serve as great examples of how to overcome the odds against them to achieve their goals in life.

Most importantly I use the Nike Ad and will now think of these athletes when doubt creeps into my own mind wondering if I’m good enough, or talented enough.  I think it’s safe to say that we have all had moments of self-doubt where we have second guessed ourselves or berated ourselves in comparison to others.  We can easily get sucked into the spiral of negativity in our minds and our thoughts second guessing ourselves on whether we are capable of something.  It’s natural for those thoughts to creep in occasionally, but it’s even more crucial to put them out and stand resilient with the confidence in ourselves.  We have to eliminate those thoughts and be determined to succeed the same way Derrick and Isaiah have persevered through their challenges to succeed.  The reason this is so important is because as the Nike Ad says: “They will tell you No”, so if you’re not willing to tell them ‘Yes’, then who will?

Story from ABC about Derrick Coleman click here.

Story from Sportscenter about Isaiah Austin click here

Your Friends are Your Future

Recently I watched a documentary in the ESPN 30 for 30 series about Maurice Clarett and Jim Tressel called Youngstown Boys.  It centered primarily on Maurice’s tumultuous experience playing football at The Ohio State University and how he was tied to his coach there, Jim Tressel, both from the city of Youngstown, OH.  It was very intriguing, and in the end, inspirational documentary about never giving up.  But something he said during a clip of a speech really stuck out to me, causing me to write this week’s blog.  In response to how he stays strong and on a new path in life, he said, “Show me your friends; I’ll show you your future.”  It was a very brief statement but so very true and insightful.

Maurice’s statement was precisely yet implicitly getting at what friends and colleagues are, your support network.  A solid support network is so crucial to success because as Maurice said, it can determine your future.  I’ve talked about being your own CEO before in a previous blog and making sure you have a strong board of directors that you can depend on for constructive feedback, and directional support as you try to achieve your goals and stay motivated on the path to success.  However, now with his statement, this is getting more at the grass roots and expanding it to the ‘employees’ in that analogy. 

As we traverse on our various paths in life, it’s important that as we are surrounding ourselves with people who lift us up and help motivate us to follow our goals.  It is vital that these people that we interact with on almost an everyday basis are the kind of people that share your values, aspire to do great things, and can positively encourage you during your journey.  More importantly it’s crucial that through their actions and words they are positively influencing you to be who you want to become.  Your basic everyday interactions with your friends can work as a cumulative influential effect when it comes to even the tiniest decisions that you make in life.

We’ve all heard the cliché statement “crabs in a barrel” in regards to those we surround ourselves with pulling us down.  The same is legitimately and conversely true for helping us up out of the barrel if we are trying to be successful and change our circumstances for the better.  There is a challenge of maintaining relationships with where we have come from and not abandoning those friends that were in our lives as we were growing up.  What I would assert is that if these people are still in your life, think about how they influence you and the role that they play.  In addition to this, we all have friends of a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures and some have values that we may disagree with.  That’s the benefit of knowing diverse people who can challenge you to grow.  The danger is when those people do not align with being beneficial to who you desire to be in your own life.