Adieu, Lou

I had to say goodbye to one of my closest friends, and we lost a national treasure, with the passing of Lou Holtz.

I will always remember all the times Lou said at the podium that I was the brother he never had and then wrote in one of his books that I was his brother from another mother.

I frequently quote the Hall-of-Fame college football coach in my speeches and column. His wisdom and common sense apply to so many areas of life beyond football. He was intensely loyal to his faith, his family, his friends, his players and his country.

Ask the hundreds of young men whose lives he helped shape: They'll tell you that he was the real deal. As much as he liked to win, he liked to see his players grow into responsible and decent adults.  

Football was his passion from his earliest days, but looking at him, he was the last person you would expect to see on a football field. A scrawny 80-pound kid with Coke-bottle glasses, he begged to be in the lineup of his Ohio high school team. That meant facing tanks outweighing him by nearly 150 pounds! Lou was no star, but he made himself valuable by learning all 11 positions. That's when he began developing his unforgettable list of lessons.

Here's a sampling:

 "WIN is an acronym for, 'What's important now?'" If you want to win at anything, Lou asks, what sacrifices will you make to get the result? Even easy answers can demand pain and hard work.

"Setbacks don't define your goals; you do." Lou's path to a professional coaching slot included a job swabbing up blood off the floors of hospital operating rooms. He couldn't even get a job as a high school coach at first. Later, when he thought he had landed a spot at the University of South Carolina, the new athletic director fired him within an hour of their first meeting. "Have you thought about going into a different profession?" the director asked him. Still, Lou persevered.

Lou believed there were four things any person or organization needs to be No. 1.

"First," he said, "you have to make a commitment to excellence." When you are interested in doing something, you do it when circumstances permit. However, when you're committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.

Second is complete attention to detail. "It is the teams that pay strict attention to little things that win," said Holtz. Having a fanatical attention to detail must be an obsession. It has to be part of a company's culture or an individual's mindset. You can't just talk about it. You have to practice it every day for years.

The third thing is to have sound fundamentals. "You can't be bored with such basic things as blocking and tackling." Whatever it is you do, you can be better at it if you keep learning and practicing the right concepts.

The fourth requirement is discipline. "Virtually nothing is impossible in this world if you put your mind to it and maintain a positive attitude." Most people aim to do right, but they fail to pull the trigger. For whatever reason, they just don't have the wherewithal to finish the job. 

Lou always amazed me with his practical, down-to-earth advice. He simplified life into three basic rules.

Rule No. 1: Do right. "Just do the right thing," Lou said. "We've all done dumb things and wish we hadn't done them, but you can't go through life with an albatross around your neck saying, 'I made a mistake.' Say you're sorry, make amends and move on."

Rule No. 2: Do everything to the best of your ability with the time allotted. Lou said: "Not everybody will be an All-American. Not everybody will be first team. Not everybody will be great. But everybody can do the best they can with the time allotted."

Rule No. 3: Show people you care. Lou was constantly asking people, "How can I help you? How can I assist you?" And he meant it. He had a deep-down burning desire to help people.

Mackay's Moral (from Lou Holtz): "Ten percent of you won't remember 10% of what is said 10 minutes after it's said. But I hope it will cause you to think. I hope all of you have the desire to dream, the courage to win, the faith to believe and the will to succeed."

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Harvey Mackay is the author of the New York Times bestseller "Swim With the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive." He can be reached through his website, www.harveymackay.com, by emailing [email protected] or by writing him at MackayMitchell Envelope Co., 2100 Elm St. SE, Minneapolis, MN 55414.