Someone said it at the World Series.

Someone said it at the Super Bowl.

Someone said it at the NBA Championship.

Someone said it at the Stanley Cup.

And they’ll say it next year and

the year after that, and

the year after that.

What did someone say?

“I Love these Guys and I Love Playing For my teammates!”

If you’ve ever played organized sports than chances are you’ve played on a winning team and a losing team. I remember playing on a 16-year-old all-star baseball team where the best players from my home town played on one team. With great players sometimes came great egos. On our team we had one of the best hitting catchers I’ve ever played with. But his downfall was he was a hot head. He would always call us out when we made a mistake or missed a play. He was the cancer in the clubhouse and he was hard to play with because we would always play out of fear of making a mistake, and getting called out.

One of our tournaments started out a little scary; we had a 2 hour bus ride and found out that our great hitting catcher was sick with the flu and did not able to make the trip. Without him on the bus, the ride was a lot more fun, all the guys were more relaxed. We all got along and enjoyed being together. At first we thought we would never make it out of the first round – then we said, let’s play our best and see what happens!

We not only made it out of the first round, but we won that tournament! How could this happen with our best player out sick? For that weekend tournament we all played for one another and didn’t want to disappoint each other. We no longer played out of fear, we played fearless, we were not afraid of making a mistake, because we all knew we had each others’ back!

Enough of my childhood heroics!

In football, fear is a great motivator, but if used in the wrong context it can also be a great detraction and work negatively. Fear can only be a great motivator if it comes from within. When someone tries to plant fear in you, you’ll instinctively respond negatively. The way to use fear as a motivator is to shine light on the consequences of one’s actions and explain the likely outcome of the situation. Let that person add the fear to his own equation – it’s not your job or place to instill that fear into other people. It’s a fine line to walk. By the way, this is where personal character is built!

Vince Lombardi knew this formula better than any other coach of his time. Lombardi worked his players relentlessly but he also taught them about playing FOR one another, and not for themselves. He taught them the fear of letting your teammates down when not giving 110% on every play!

Better then anyone, Lombardi understood and communicated his vision of what TEAM meant, and the importance of TEAM. In order for the Packers to win, they had to love one another and play for one another at the highest level possible. Lombardi knew that the love one player has for another is manifested and measured by his deeds and not by his words!

In a speech he gave at one of his off season banquets he said:

“And Love one another! The love I’m speaking of is loyalty, which is the greatest of loves. Teamwork, the love that one man has for another and that he respects the dignity of another the love that I am speaking of is charity…”

Lombardi knew when you play for yourself, you have a predictable level of excellence. But when you play for another the effort is sometimes immeasurable. It’s immeasurable because your fear disappointing the person you love playing for. You’ll push yourself harder then you normally would, because there is a great deal of mutual love and respect toward one another.

As Lombardi would say, “You’ve got to love him and maybe, that love would enable you to help him!”

The first part of being able to Love one another is to love you first! You can’t love someone else if you don’t love yourself. Loving yourself simply means accepting yourself including being good at some things,  bad at others, great at some things, and average at others. Until you can accept yourself for who you are, you can never accept anyone else for who they are. You cannot love another person until you love yourself. Then you’re able to accept the shortcomings of others because you understand and accept your own shortcomings.

You may have heard the story about the guy who could see the splinter in his friend’s eye, but could not see the 2 x 4 in his own eye …  think about it.

On a more basic level, most dysfunctional families deal with a lack of love, and inordinate amount of fear. The families that produce happy, productive and compassionate kids, are families that have and show a great deal of love.

In this series of blogs, I’m covering;

“The 4 Pillars of Success:

1. Self Awareness
2. Ingenuity
3. Love
4. Heroism

In the first blog I covered Self Awareness. Self awareness allows you to know your gifts, your faults, your short comings, and your fears, and know that you need to deal with them. Once you know your limitations, then and only then can you accept them and deal with them in order to find peace, and Love, then move on to success. You can’t hide them, you have to deal with them in order to begin to love yourself. That’s why Self Awareness is the first pillar, everything builds from YOU!

In this blog, I’m covering the importance of Love and how it takes you, and any company from Good to Great!

Good is easy; look around, you can find good at any company. Good only requires the amount of effort you need to meet your so-called goals. Great on the other hand is the next level and beyond, far beyond! Love is the catalyst that takes any company from good to great!

The element of Love in a company is not easy to see, hard to define and impossible to fake! But in a company that has it, you know what it is when you’re around it.

In the 50s many companies were managed by fear. Coaches coached out of fear. Next time we’ll relate the impermanence of Love in the work place and how to EASLEY ACHIEVE GREATNESS everyday through love!

Man’s greatest desire in life is to be Loved and accepted,

Why would that be separated in the work place?