Football Season is Here

Hey team, alright. So here we are for another Wednesday Workshop. Last week, I was talking about the change of seasons, and you might notice I was wearing the same shirt and everything. It’s football season, so hook ’em horns.

So, how many of you are really football fans? Honestly, I’m not. The shirt goes well with my goatee, and when I was in Texas with my wife on our 25th anniversary, we were in Texas. I was walking along, and I saw this t-shirt, and it looked good on me. I bought one for all the boys and Karen. We even took a Christmas picture and sent it out to family a few years ago. The cool thing is that the seasons are changing, and football is in the air.

I can go to my cousins for a holiday, whether it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving, or correction, my brother-in-law’s, and they are avid football fans. Huge football fans. So I watch about 22 games over the week while I’m at their house, and I soak in enough knowledge that I can come back, and I can spend the rest of the holiday season, and I can have a 15 or 20-minute fairly intelligent conversation because I soak in the information and the knowledge that happens around me. I’m kind of a sponge that way.

So you might be guessing, what am I going to talk about? Well, soaking in information and knowledge, and thinking about teamwork and how a team works. Thinking about watching those football players. The one thing I do find fascinating, especially at the college level, is these young men are doing what they love. They are kind of trying out, hoping for someday to be on that pro line, and they’re working really hard. They’re doing things that they’ve probably practiced since they were seven or eight years old. Their dream is to get on that team. To get on a professional football team, and they’re working so hard to do it.

They go through and learn the plays, practice their hearts out, work out in the gym, and do so many things. They focus because they have dedication, because they have a vision for the long-term goal or prize they’re looking for. Do you have a vision? What are you looking for? Are you following your dreams? Some of you might not want to be a security officer your whole life. I get that.

But everything you do in life, no matter what you do and where you do it. I mean, those football players at the college level, they still have to get a certain GPA to stay on the football team. They still have to do the work in the classroom in order to do the work on the field. And that’s important to know because everything you do in life, everything you do at this job, working at Northwest Enforcement, at the lumber yard, at the hotel, at the patrol, inside the classroom, everything that you do matters in terms of how you are honing and shaping your work ethic for that next big thing that might be coming your way.

That dream you can hope and dream for anything you want. You’ll accomplish absolutely nothing if you put no time or work in at the low level. You’ll never achieve it, and if you do, you won’t be able to hold it because somebody that works harder than you will always be able to come up and take yours. There’s a story I remember hearing from Dwayne Johnson, so you guys know The Rock. He was playing in a position on a college team, and there was another guy that came into that position who ended up becoming a famous football player. See, I don’t even know the guy’s name; I can’t remember his name because I’m not a huge football fan, but some of you know who I’m talking about.

He said, “What are you doing here?” And he says, “Well, I’m going to take your position. I’m taking your position on the line.” The Rock said, “No, you’re not.” And he did because he was a better football player, and he put in the time and the dedication. And I’m not saying The Rock doesn’t put in the time or dedication, but The Rock was destined for something else later in life, and he learned through even that adversity in that situation to put in the time. Today, he’s like obviously a multi-million-dollar superstar. He’s got two or three companies; he’s got all kinds of things going on. Some of you guys, I’ve seen, are probably drinking some of his energy drinks.

My point is, sometimes when you get beat out by somebody else, you don’t use that adversity or that loss as something that controls you and keeps you down. Instead, you rise, and you keep working to get to the next thing. That’s important to remember. So, hook ’em horns, enjoy the football season, and be valuable because nothing less would do. I’ll see you next week.