One busy morning a friend came into my office and placed a ticket on my desk to attend a conference conducted by Vince Lombardi.  I had no idea who he was.  One look at the frown on my face and my friend laughed, “He is a famous football coach!” Having no interest in football, I attempted to return the ticket to him when he said, “Go to the lecture. You won’t be sorry.”   That was 40 years ago and the words of Vince Lombardi became the foundation of my life.

The ticket was for the front seat in the first row surrounded by 500-700 people in the audience. None were football players. All stood and applauded as he came on stage and stood quietly at the podium.  Vince Lombardi was not the average motivational speaker and when he began to talk, I soon realized why his team was number one and we would be in for some serious enlightenment as to what it would take to be number one in any business or career.

As the coach of the Green Bay Packers he said there was no room for second place, that football was a game and it has been an American zeal to be first in anything we do and to win… and to win…and to win. 

To be competitive, you must win fairly and by the rules.  You have to be smart in any business and it takes commitment; total commitment. “Winning is not a-some-time thing, it is an all-the-time thing. You don’t do things right once in a while…you do them right all the time.” When you make a commitment, it is a decision to do something and cut away all our other options; the excuses and rationalizations.  The quality of a person’s life is in his commitment to excellence… to have the discipline to make the sacrifices to achieve the right choices and goals.

It is a commitment to have the discipline and dedication to doing with our lives the very best we can to make our careers more successful, to provide for our families, to secure our communities, to teach and guide those wanting to learn and to make the world a better place to live.

“To be successful, a man must exert an effective influence upon others and the degree in which he accomplishes this depends on the personality of the man: The incandescence of which he is capable… the flame of fire…the Passion…that burns inside of him and the magnetism which draws the hearts of other men to him. Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will all be judged on one thing…the result.”

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In the early 1970’s business owners, educators and leaders in government filled the conference rooms in cities around the world to listen to the motivational speakers of the era: Zig Zigler, Dr. Thomas A. Harris, Herb Cohen, Peter McWilliams, David J. Schwartz, Robert J. Ringer and a host of others. Their purpose was to transform their audiences to become positive in their thinking, to ignore the negative influences in their lives and to be more successful in their careers, their family lives and themselves as individuals.  Vince Lombardi will always remain the motivational leader.

Today I judge a person who commits to excellence with the discipline and motivation to be successful, with an ethical dedication and passion for his career and … of those who assist others to achieve the same results of success, the real leaders in any industry.

Life is a game.  We are a team and together it’s a game we must win…