What Makes Shaun White Great?

Shaun White is the World’s #1 Action Sports Star

He dominates both the Winter AND Summer X-Games. He earns over $9 million per year. He has consistently won everywhere he’s competed, even the Winter Olympics! What makes him so special? There are tens of thousands of young incredibly talented athletes competing in these events. Not only popular in North America, these sports are popular world wide. At competitions it’s normal to find top competitors from every continent, all over Europe, Japan, Korea, Australia...you name it. In spite of this, if there is a big event, anywhere, more likely than not, Shaun White walks away with the Gold.

We just met him at breakfast at the Little Nell in Aspen
You could tell he was a fun guy, enjoying life, even though he was frustrated and nursing a bad ankle at the time. When we talked I told him I appreciated him being such a good role model for the young kids and he was grateful for the compliment since he agreed it is important to set a great example for the upcoming generation. It was clearly an obligation he took seriously, since it’s well known he does tons of volunteer work with charitable foundations. [see: Shaun White's personal website]

But that’s not what makes him great
Lots of young people have great values, work hard and donate their time to those less fortunate. Lots of have great personalities. You can’t discover who the special ones are by just talking to them, you have to see them in action. You have to see how they perform over a period of time, in a variety of situations. You have to see how they perform in pressure situations. That’s when the Greatness comes out.

We saw it at the Olympics
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics he was competing on the his snowboard in the half-pipe competition. It was a nervous time for him because his reputation was on the line. He had been on top for a long time and his competition was catching up. He knew he was vulnerable. 

So he did what champions do. He went into intensive training. He cancelled a lot of his outside obligations. He started to work on new tricks, ones that would keep him ahead of the game, keep him on top. The trick he came up with seemed impossible. I won’t even try to describe it except to say he named it the 1260 Double McTwist. [scroll down for a video of the McTwist]

Going into the Olympics there was lots of anticipation. Would he do it? Could he pull it off? Was it worth the gamble? Strategy dictates that you only pull out your biggest, toughest trick at then end of competition, probably on your last run, when you absolutely need it to win. 

As it turned out, by the time his last run came he already had enough points to win. He could just coast down in a victory lap and wave at the crowd, saving his big trick for another day. But that’s not who Shaun is. He knew the crowd had come to not only see him compete, but to see the exciting new trick! Also he had worked hard to master it and he wanted to do it. He didn’t want to disappoint the crowd, he didn’t want to disappoint himself. So he talked with his coach and decided to go for it. 

His coach told him “If you are going to do it, DO IT, give it all you have”! So he did and pulled it off - the first time anyone had ever done anything like it—the crowd went wild! It didn’t matter that it was unnecessary for scoring, what was necessary was for him to give it everything he had and to hold nothing back. That’s what he did and that’s what makes him Great.

We just saw the same thing this weekend in Aspen at the 2012 X-Games
He injured his ankle Thursday and re-injured his ankle Friday. He had to withdraw from the slope side competition on Saturday. He was crushed. There was a lot of doubt that he could compete in his signature event, the half-pipe, on Sunday. He had to rest up and hope for the best. We were surprised how definite he was when he told us Saturday morning he would be ready on Sunday. That was his moment and he wasn’t going to be denied.

On Sunday warm-ups he was his usual spectacular self. In fact he was so smooth and strong that he locked up first place just doing the same runs he had done the year before, scoring a fantastic 94 out of a possible 100 points. Once again he didn’t even need to show his best stuff. He had won! But there was one run left. 

The crowd and the announcers wondered what he would do. His ankle was injured. He was the star. He had nothing to prove. What would he decide to do on his last run? 

The answer came fast. He jumped in and “threw down” what the announcers said was the greatest run anyone had done in history. Everyone wondered how the judges would react, would they appreciate it and improve on his already huge score or not. The verdict soon came, his score 100! The first perfect score in history! Shaun was ecstatic! The crowd was ecstatic! And for sure ESPN and all his sponsors were ecstatic! He had delivered once again above and beyond what anyone could have reasonably expected.

Once again he showed what makes him the best…

He ALWAYS gives his ultimate best effort, EVERY time, he just can’t hold back!

6 Lessons On Winning From The Knicks Jeremy Lin

There’s nothing like a live example

You can read all the books, blogs and articles you want on winning but never make the impact of seeing a real live example.

Last week Jeremy Lin provided just such a stunning example. 
The NY Knicks were in big trouble. Their season has had a disastrous start. Their coach has been under attack by the fans and media…a lot of suggestions he should be fired. Their desperately needed but injured point guard Baron Davis wasn’t going to be available for quite a while. On top of all this, last week they lost their 2 biggest stars, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire out of action. It was crisis time in New York. Things now could only get worse!

Turned out to be a perfect situation for a miracle.
Only because he had no other choice, last week Coach Mike D’Antoni put in the seldom used point guard, from Harvard of all places, Jeremy Lin, into the starting line up. The team was decimated and they were slumping even with their stars. Now they had no stars and an unproven back up player running the team. Everyone expected the worst but what happened next is the stuff of legend. If you want the whole amazing story check this out.

Here’s the Summary
After 1 week and 4 games, this young star pulled off one of the most electrifying performances in the history of the NBA. He led the Knicks to 4 straight wins, scoring over 20 points in each game. In fact in the last game he scored 38 points as they beat, on national television in front of 20,000 screaming fans, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers! In one week his story has spread around the world. (Update: he's now won 5 games, and has scored 108 points, the most points of any first time starter in 5 games since 1976, and the biggest name worldwide in sports right now.)

Let’s see what we can learn about winning from this astonishing story:

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare! One day your opportunity will come. At that point it’s up to you. If you meet the challenge you can change your life forever! Jeremy was ready.
2. One dynamic person can change the whole team dynamic. Enthusiasm is contagious! Jeremy plays with energy and a love for the game that has caused the totally average players on his team to play like they are all-stars! Their attitude and energy has turned around instantly.
3. What was bad for others turned out to be an opportunity for him. If you are running a team, treat all your people with respect because the time will come when you need them to step up and deliver. 
4. When he was put in the starting line up, he attacked. He was timid. He wasn’t hesitant. He didn’t apologize about being there. He focused on the job he had to do. He made up his mind to make an impact and to have no regrets. He knew he couldn’t control the results but he could control his effort, attitude and enthusiasm.
5. He deflected praise when things started going well and gave all the credit to his team. He refused to take credit. He kept his team and coaches in the spotlight. He kept his focus on what was coming next. He said “We’re hoping and preparing for the best, expecting the worst and we’ll take whatever happens.” He’s staying humble. He knows it’s only one week and they have a long season in front of them.
6. If you keep working your dreams can come true! As he told the reporter after the Laker game “This is everything I’ve dreamed about happening”. 

Success like this isn’t an accident. 
It happens because people are doing a lot of the right things. The best way to put yourself on a winning track is to learn as much as you can from stories like this and apply the lessons to your situation.

Jeremy Lin has been on a winning track for a long time. He has been working hard to develop his skill, his craft, his command of the game. In the world of professional basketball he was largely unknown, but that didn’t keep him from working.

All happened this past week is that he got his chance to show the world he what he can do…and now the whole world knows!

Coach Harbaugh’s Biggest Message

What did he do to turn around the San Francisco 49ers?

Last season the 49ers record was 6 wins 10 losses. Coach Mike Singletary was fired. New coach Jim Harbaugh was hired. With essentially the same roster and no off season to practice due to the NFL lockout that would have allowed him some time to introduce his system, Coach Harbaugh led them to a 13 win 3 loss record and won their Division! On January 14, they beat the red hot New Orleans Saints to win their first playoff game. 

What made the difference?
A player from the team was talking recently and said it came down to creating a true family atmosphere and adding a real sense of excitement and enthusiasm. The players felt accepted and a part of something special in a way they never had before. But there was one more thing.

He sold them on one fact
Coach Harbaugh told them they were good enough! He told them it didn’t matter what had happened in the past.

He told them that if they played like they knew they could they didn’t have to worry about needing anything or anybody else. If they did what they could do and wanted to do and were capable of doing THEY WERE GOOD ENOUGH! That gave them confidence. That caused them to relax and focus on playing to their potential. That caused them to believe in each other like never before. They stopped feeling inferior. They stopped focusing on their weakness and failures. They started thinking about what they were capable of doing. Result? They had a record season and are still in the hunt to win the Super Bowl!

What’s the lesson? 
Maybe your people haven’t done anything special yet. But what most leaders do is constantly focus on what their team is doing wrong and how they don’t measure up. No one knows how good anyone can be but no one is going to play to their potential when they are browbeaten and made to feel like failures before they start. If you are constantly pounded about the things you do wrong, of course it’s natural to feel that you aren’t really good enough to win because you’ll forget that there are any areas you are actually any good in. So when the heat of competition comes, the pressure meets your doubts and you fold.

If you want to bring out the best in your team, let them know in no uncertain terms that …they are good enough to Win - and that you believe in them!

To Become a Champion

What does it take to become a champion?  

First you need to be making a championship effort.

Then you’ll need two additional things: 

1. Championship level coaching
2. Championship level competition.  

Championship Level Competition. 
Until you get into top level competition you'll never find out exactly where you are in your development.  

When you compete at the highest level you either win or lose. When you are on your way up and compete at the championship level, you're a winner regardless of how the match or game turns out because even if you lose you're going to learn. 

You’re going to win knowledge of what additionally you need to do, what skill you need to develop, where your areas of weakness are that will allow you to move up and when it comes. 

Championship Level Coaching
On the other hand, when it comes to making those changes you'll need coaching from somebody who has been there, coached and preferably competed. You don’t want to waste your time training under someone who really has no first hand knowledge of what it takes. That would be a blind leading the blind situation and you don’t have time for that.

The experience of coaching and/or competing at the highest levels gives a coach the experience to show you the secrets that only the champions know. Winning is getting a specific thing done in a specific time period and doing it better than anyone else at that moment.  

Winning involves making lots of things happen. A winning performance involves making lots of critical things happen at the right time. At this level you don't learn how to be a champion out of a book.  

The Road to Becoming a Champion: You learn and develop into a champion from combining your own Championship Level Effort with the benefits that only come from Championship Coaches and Championship Competition.

Winner's Book Club Selection of the Week: Called to Coach

What are his Winner Credentials?

Having coached young men in seven decades, Bobby Bowden is the second-winningest coach in major college football history. Bowden guided Florida State University to more than three hundred victories, two national championships, twelve Atlantic Coast Conference titles, finishing in the top five in the country in fourteen straight seasons, and he also led the Seminoles to Bowl Games in twenty-eight consecutive seasons during his thirty-four-year tenure. The patriarch of college football’s most famous coaching family, Bowden remains heavily involved in the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, annually awarding The National Bobby Bowden Award to a student-athlete for achievement on and off the field, including his conduct as a faith model in the community. Bowden was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2006.

Reviews

This book comes highly recommended by Nick Saban, Head Coach, University of Alabama; Mack Brown, Head Coach, University of Texas; Lou Holtz, Former Coach, College Football Analyst, ESPN; President Jimmy Carter; Kenny Chesney and many others. Whether or not you're a fan of Florida State—or even football—you'll enjoy this book about faith, family values and a truly inspirational leader. >>Read more reviews at Amazon>>

Winner's Book Club Selection of the Week: Geno

WINNERS CREDENTIALS

Geno: In Pursuit of Perfection is the memoir of Geno Auriemma, the most accomplished male coach in women's basketball today. In his relentless quest for excellence at the University of Connecticut, he has led the Huskies to five national championships.

From the Book Jacket

Controversial, confrontational, and driven, Coach Geno Auriemma is a force to be reckoned with. For Auriemma, life affords only the briefest moments of happiness - a good round of golf, forty minutes of great basketball, a day at the beach with his family, a nice glass of wine - while disaster is seemingly always waiting to strike. It's a fatalistic philosophy, a remnant of his hardscrabble early years, but it's an outlook that has driven him to unparalleled success.

In this deeply personal memoir, Geno Auriemma reveals for the first time the man behind the legend. He talks candidly about his coaching style - famed for being one of the most demanding in all the sports world. He spills the beans about his stormy dealings with other coaches such as his archrival, Pat Summitt of the University of Tennessee. And with warmth and a genuine love for his champions, he writes openly about Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Nykesha Sales, Rebecca Lobo, Swin Cash, and all of his other UConn stars who have gone on to stellar WNBA careers. You get a courtside seat to all of the action - including an epilogue on the 2004-05 season, as well as interviews with the team's most celebrated players.

Amazon Editorial Review

If nothing else, Auriemma, coach of the UConn women's basketball team since 1985, explains how little girls in Connecticut inherited the dreams of little boys in Indiana. The rise of a program with a leaky gym and roll-away bleachers to become a powerhouse with five national championships is a Hoosier-like tale. Read more>>

From Booklist

Auriemma is one of the most successful college basketball coaches in the history of the sport, yet he is never mentioned in the same sentence as Dean Smith or Mike Krzyzewski. The reason? Auriemma coaches women's basketball at the University of Connecticut. In this revealing autobiography, written with the help of Boston Globe reporter MacMullan, Auriemma tells a version of the classic immigrant's journey. His parents immigrated to the U.S. from Italy when he was seven. He was the new kid, the kid who talked funny, and the poor kid. Read more>>

What's Wrong With Self Help Books?

Nothing—if it was written by somebody who has “done something.”

Unfortunately that’s not most of them. Like Art Williams says, "They tell you “almost” what it takes to win."

Most never did anything, so they don’t really what to tell you. They watch and observe and think that makes them experts. They give you lists of thing to do, from their studies. They  give you formulas of how others have done it. They say follow the formula and you’ll win, because that’s what they saw someone else do.

What they don’t know is that the Winners they are copying could probably have won using any one of a dozen game plans. If they had to repeat their success they would certainly do a lot of things totally differently. Same philosophy, same values, same principles but totally different plans.
The things they did got them the results they were looking for at that point in time.
But circumstances always change and what makes certain people win and others not is their burning desire to overcome any and all obstacles and surprises.
They are focused on winning and they’ll do whatever fits that exact situation, at that particular time.

Here’s where they go wrong:
The problem is, watching a gorilla doesn’t make you a gorilla. You may have worked at the zoo for 20 years, you may have lived in the jungle with them, but you still have no clue as to how they really think. You can describe their actions, but you can’t say what’s going on in their minds. It’s the same with many self appointed experts. These experts tell you what other successful people did, but they don’t tell you what you most need to know. What is that? It's how to handle the sudden surprises, the things that go wrong while you’re doing it heading towards your goal.

And as we all know, things are going wrong all the time. When you have won and done big things, you learn the little things you need to know that make the difference between winning and losing. By doing winning, you learn what it takes to win. You know what it takes. When you haven’t won, you may think you know, but you don’t. 

If you want coaching, get it from someone who has done it big and won. They actually know what they are talking about—the others “almost” know. And “almost” is just not good enough.