Lou Holtz - Winning Every Day: The Game Plan for Success

I n the course of a lifetime, Ive been in a lot of locker rooms. Ive hooted and shouted with the winners. Ive wept with the losers. But this was like no locker room Id been in before.

There were about 100 bodies stuffed into the cramped, tucked-away locker room past the end zone in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona. Shoehorned into a corner of the coaches dressing room along with a few other well-wishers, I took it all in. This was not your usual back-slapping, towel-snapping winners ritual of self-congratulation. The players seemed frozen in front of their lockers. Joy was written on their faces, but they were subdued, expectant. We waited, all eyes turned in the same direction, the room falling silent as the words began.

We didnt go out and try to win a national championship, said Coach Holtz. We went out and tried to be the best we could be. And because you asked that of yourselves today and every day you choose to do that after todayfor the rest of your livesknow this about yourself: You are a champion. You have it in you to always be a champion.

For these young men, this would be amaybe thehighlight of their lives, a moment they would always cherish, whether or not they went on to glorious professional careers, football or otherwise.

What made the experience even more special was that it was uncompromised and untainted. Every opponent was legitimate, every victory genuine, every foot of ground and every touchdown earned. Notre Dame had finished the 1988 season as national champions with a perfect 12-0 record, beating Miami, then ranked number one; USC, then ranked number two; and finally, West Virginia, then ranked number three.

You plan. You commit to excellence. And if it happens, if you achieve your highest goal, you have the reward of knowing it was by your efforts that you earned it. Today, that has happened. If someday it doesnt, if you dont always achieve your goal, be sure that it is not for want of trying. If you gave it the best you had in you, you cannot ask yourself for more. No one can ask you for more.

Ive had the privilege of spending a good deal of time around Lou Holtz. What Ive taken away from that relationship is not just a football experience. Its a life experience.

Being successful the Holtz way means more than being successful any way you can. Being successful the Holtz way means doing things the right way, the decent way. It is the way Lou Holtz coaches football, and the way he leads his life. Win or lose, the language and behavior in a Holtz locker room and on a Holtz team is at a different level than other locker rooms and other teams.

Lou Holtz is a 5'10", 150-pound giant.

When youd see him on television, pacing up and down the sidelines, he seemed shorter and even more frail, in part because of the contrast between him and the behemoths standing around him, and in part because of the huge, thick glasses and clothes that always seem a size too big for him.

Up close, he seems bigger. If hes speaking to you one on one, even though he has a kind of lisp, he grows a bit more. In front of a group, as he was that day, hes not just an individual, he becomes so large he creates his own space, hes a presence.

Ive seen him address groups of thousands, and I believe hes the best motivational speaker in the world.

Holtz once wrote a list of 107 personal goals. Youll read about them here. I know something about those 107 goals, and I suspect Holtz knows that same something, too. Just as soon as he finishes that listand he will finish ithes going to be miserable. Nothing to do. Nothing to love. Nothing to hope for. Hes going to crumple his list into a little ball, throw it away, and make himself a new list.

Now, Ive written enough nice things about Holtz. Being an age without heroes, its time for the rough stuff.

Holtz is such a determined competitor, he will go to any legitimate length to gain an edge on an opponent.

This clouds his judgment.

Holtz will listen to anyone on the face of the earth who will give him a tip on how to improve his swing. Recently, we were in a cab in Phoenix, and the driver was telling us how he got a hot tip on the golf channel on television and cut a couple of strokes off his game. Immediately, Holtz made the driver stop the cab and demonstrate on the sidewalk of the corner of Scottsdale and Camelback exactly what he had learned.

No matter what Holtz writes here, I advise you not to take any golf advice from him. However, if my son or daughters were to ask me to name one person to go to outside of their old man for any other kind of advice, Id name Lou Holtz.

W inning is never accidental. All successful coaches and playersand Ive known quite a fewhave at least one thing in common: a strong game plan. I have seen teams short on talent win famous victories simply because they were better prepared, more focused than their opposition. They had clearly defined goals and consistent work habits. And they werent afraid to make the sacrifices required to raise their play to another level.

If you want to achieve greatness in anything, you need the same resolve and discipline. You must design a strategy that will take you wherever you want to go. My hope is that this book will become your game plan for success. I have no literary pretentions; this isnt Faulkner or Le Carr resting in your hands. It never even occurred to me to write a book. But many people who have heard me speak have asked that I commit my game plan for success to paper. Once I agreed, my goal was to write a guide that was practical, easy to follow, and heartfelt. If reading my prose makes you feel as if you and I were chatting in your living room, thats exactly what I was aiming for.

Much of what I have to say is steeped in verities that may seem unfashionable in a world that often appears to be as cynical as its sophisticated. But I believe they are powerful and enduring, of greater value today than ever before.

Right about now, you may be asking who does this Holtz guy think he is? What qualifies him to tell me what I need to do to win every day? Well, Im with you. Theres nothing extraordinary about me. However, I have done a few things that I am proud of:

I have been married to the same woman for 38 years. In a time when more than half of all marriages end in divorce, tell me that isnt a feat. All four of our children are college grads and, yes, they still speak to us. For two years running, an industry poll has selected me the best motivational speaker in the country. My tape, Do Right! , is the top selling motivational video of all time. I have appeared as a guest speaker before nearly every company listed in the Fortune 500.

Ever hear of the Lou Holtz Museum? I didnt think so. They have one in my hometown, East Liverpool, Ohio, and, all right, its not as large as the Smithsonian, but even I was impressed when others had conceived of the idea. There is also a highway named after me, but on days when traffic is backed up that can be a dubious honor. Four different presidents have invited me to the Oval Office. Though Ive retired from football, I still work as a TV analyst for CBS Sports. And, as of this writing, I am one of the top fifteen winningest coaches in college football history.