I went to Coach Frank Beamer’s final home football game at Virginia Tech last month. While there I attended an event for former Tech players, where I ran into a former player on some of Coach Beamer’s best teams at Tech. After college this young man went on to play in the NFL, following in the footsteps of his father, who played with me at Tech.
The former player talked about the many lessons he learned from Coach Beamer, but he said the most important lesson he ever learned took place at home, as is true for many of us. He said it occurred when he was in middle school. One day he came home early and went right upstairs to start working on his homework, which was the rule in his household. He was surprised to find his father was also home early. His dad asked him why he wasn’t at wrestling practice, where he was supposed to be that afternoon.
The young man replied that wrestling wasn’t his thing and he had decided to quit. His dad looked at him and said, “Son, I don’t care if you play in the band, wrestle or play football, but it you start something then you’ve got to finish it. Now you’ve got two choices: you can come out to the car with me and I’ll drive you back to practice, or I can physically move you out to the car and drive you back to practice. Which one is it going to be?”
He looked up at his 270-pound, active-NFL-player father – then made the smart choice and went quietly out to the car.
He didn’t wrestle again after that season, but he did go back to the team and finish out the year, learning the importance of sticking it out and not quitting on your team when the going gets tough. Today the young man works with his father running a successful business. The root of their success is that they operate on the principle that if they start a relationship with a customer, they see it through to the end.
A good lesson for all of us, no matter what arena we are in.
Have a great weekend,
Ro