Those of us in the coaching arena and speakers as well, love
quoting our mentors and many of those quotes ring true. You know some of the people who are quoted
often and we just take their quote as law and that may not be the most
empowering thing for us to do. We must
remember that they were not always quoted and only after they said a lot of
things and gave a lot of speeches were they quoted. People whom they have helped also quote
them. Let’s try out a few of those
quotes. I will do the quoting and you
can see if you recognize them. “You help
enough people get what they want and you will get what you want.” “Winning is not the best thing, it is the
only thing.” You probably recognize
those as quotes by Zig Ziglar and Vince Lombardi respectively. The quote I want to talk about today is one I
wish to challenge vehemently as a coach and once I tell you, you might
challenge it also.
It was my mentor, Zig, who said to “Find someone that has
what you want, do what they do and you will get what you want.” A man I respect very much, Les Brown promotes
the fact that we should only listen to people who have done what we want to
do. There is so, so, much more to the
story than those simple truisms. We must
choose to believe those things that serve us and were you to listen to the
rhetoric, yes, I said rhetoric, you might not be a coach today. You certainly would never get your first
client because when you start, you have not client.
Michael Jordan undoubtedly is the greatest basketball player
ever and of course he has coaches. I have
not of him becoming a coach just yet but there are other great players that are
active that could eclipse his success.
Michael’s coach was Phil Jackson and the record shows that Phil never
won an NBA championship let alone six of them.
Had Michael looked for a coach that had did what he did, he would still
be looking and not even come close to the name he has made for himself. Clearly Michael had enormous talent and might
have succeeded in spite of his coach but I don’t think so. Phil Jackson brought things to the table that
you, too, could bring for your clients. Phil
did things for Michael that Michael could never bring for himself. True, Phil is a strong personality and
Michael could be hard-headed but suffice it to say that three things brought to
Michael that impacted him could impact your clients in a big way. I am talking about things that your clients
could never do for themselves. Your
clients could never in a million years bring themselves an outside, objective
opinion. They are absolutely incapable
of holding themselves accountable for what they say they will do. The only results they can bring is those they
already have and you can bring new ones.
Lest you think it is an anomaly that a great ballplayer like Michael
could only be coached by another great player, let’s examine the following.
Approaching the topic from another perspective, let’s look
at the greatest coach ever in my opinion.
Vince Lombardi was a reserve player.
He didn’t even play in the NFL but he coached the Green Bay Packers to
the NFL championship three out of four years.
And before there was even an NFL championship, he helmed the New York
Football Giants to phenomenal seasons. He
decided to bring the three elements of coaching to those teams and
excelled. Coaches have a different
measuring stick from the general population and just as performers are
committed to performing well, coaches are committed to coaching well. If you are like me, you want to be and aspire
to be an extraordinary coach.
What to do, though, as you seek clients? Know that what is necessary is that your
clients resonate with you and there are a number of ways to do that. Once they resonate with you, simply elaborate
on the things that all coaches do as stated above. Specifically talk about the area of our lives
where all breakthroughs occur and we can talk about that also. Allow yourself to be exposed to clients and
have them become interested in you so that they come looking for you and when
they do, recommend this blog. This blog
is designed to be read by coaches but others read it as well. When you are new to coaching, you have no
track record to reference but you don’t necessarily need one. Tell stories about coaches you know and edify
your own coach. As clients hear that you
have a coach and pay for your own coaching, it will make sense to them that
they do the same. If you have no coach,
get one, because your not having a coach is a sure sign that you do not believe
in the process. You do not have to own a
multi-million dollar company to coach someone else to own one. You do not have to have a company of one
hundred employees to coach a person who has a company like that. You are called to be a coach and if you don’t
believe that quit. No one is quite like
you and you can make a living doing this and that living starts with being
authentic. Tell your clients when they
ask how long you have been doing this, “What made you ask that question?” and
wait for them to think of an answer.
Finally to assert your individuality and get you on track to
believing you are an extraordinary coach, remember Malcolm X? He was not the first prisoner to hear the
message of Islam while in jail but he was the only one who became Malcolm X,
right? Take this blog to heart my friend
and keep reading them. Remember to take the popular quotes with a grain of salt and let's start being quoted ourselves rather than quoting others.
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