Coach Dan Meyer addresses the Brentwood Morning Rotary Club on Wednesday.

Meyer: Costs to reach top not always worth it
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
Don Meyer led his college basketball teams to 922 victories over a 38-year career. On Wednesday, he shared his philosophy of success with members and guests of the Brentwood Morning Rotary Club.

Photo by Mike Sower Best bits from Coach Don Meyer: “People don’t pay for average. If you want to increase your sales, double your prices.” Beware the “coach killers.” These are the people “don’t think they need to practice. …They look good during warm-ups but come to practice and watch them.” “The worst reason to take a job is for the money.”

He started out by listing a dozen people who had failed. On the list: President John F. Kennedy,  Michael Jordan, Winston Churchill, Isaac Newton and others.

“The best examples of success are failures,” he said later in his address, because successful people don’t stop until they get something right. “Necessity is the mother of invention,” he reminded those listening.

While a few of his jokes fell flat at the early morning breakfast, the advice and information he imparted was soaked up by his audience at the City Café.

Quoting writer George Will, Meyer said “Your example isn’t the main thing you do to influence people, it’s the only one. If you’re not doing that, you’re not doing anything.

“We all fall short, but if we keep plugging along, that’s an example in itself,” continued the former Lipscomb University coach who retired from Northern State University. As expected, he used lots of sports analogies to get his points across.

He talked about the Five C’s of Success: Concentration, courtesy, communication, competition and consistency.

Concentration: It's all about “making the main thing the main thing.”

Courtesy: Meyer shared a story about Alabama’s famed football coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant. Early in Bryant’s coaching career, he was nice to a stranger. Years later, that stranger’s grandson chose Alabama over Auburn just because of that. “It don’t cost nothing to be nice,” Meyer quoted Bryant as saying. He also mentioned the success of Chick Fila restaurants, whose employees always say it’s “my pleasure” when they serve their customers.

Competition:  “The people who don’t compete complain,” Meyer said. “Don’t whine. If you’re a real competitor, you don’t say, ‘Why Me?’ You don’t feel sorry for yourself.” He added that competitive people work hard, work smart, work together and have fun.”

Communication: “A quiet team is a scared team,” he said. “If your team can’t communicate with you at the top and you can’t communicate with the ones at the bottom, that’s a problem.” Knowledge and wisdom come, he noted, when you know what to say and when to say it.

Consistency: “Nothing’s more harmful than the lack of discipline in your company,” he said.

When it comes to success, you must determine the price you’re willing to pay for it, he said. First, determine what you really want. (Don’t become a doctor because your parents want you to become a doctor.) Second, determine the costs to get what you want, and finally, ask yourself: Do you really want to pay that cost? He shared that when he was coaching at the University of Utah, five assistant football coaches there went through divorces, all because each was trying so hard to become a head coach.

“You have to make sure you’re willing to pay that price,” he said.

Bringing his talk full circle, Meyer said successful people first discover their unique talent or gift; second, use that talent or gift to the fullest, and third, they give it away every day.

“Your example’s not the main thing; it’s the only thing.”

Meyer, the all-time winningest coach in collegiate basketball, is the 2009 recipient of the Jimmy V ESPY Award for Courage.