Happy Friday Friends!
I hope & trust this post finds you having a great day as a beautiful new opportunity begins to dawn! Hope, opportunity & promise await each one of us in this day...let's relentlessly pursue it with everything that is within us!
Before beginning I would like to respectfully ask for you prayers for those who have been affected by Tropical Storm Cindy. While we were fortunate to miss the brunt of this storm as it made landfall yesterday, I am very mindful that our neighbors in Louisiana were not so fortunate. Thank you.
Well, this is another message that will be vastly different than I thought it would be 24 hours ago. Everything changed when I received a phone call yesterday around 11:00 a.m. telling me that a friend had died.
Today there will be a lot of articles in newspapers and on the internet that start something like "Legendary Arizona State Football Coach Frank Kush died..." and the article will go on to tell you all about his incredible won-loss record, how he dominated the arch rival, how he is in the College Football Hall of Fame, etc. I was neither a good enough football player or coach to know that man. This morning I want to tell you about my friend I always called "Coach", the man who taught me a couple of great life lessons that I believe might bless your life as well.
Working in development, fundraising, I had the opportunity to get to know and work with Coach for more than 5 years. We would got to lunches, on road trips, etc. People always wanted to talk to Coach, to have their pictures taken with him and he always obliged. One of the lessons he taught me we talked about often and the other, well he simply lived that one out.
Lesson #1
This one is so profound to me. You see, Coach had accomplished everything I once thought I had wanted to accomplish. He had been an All-American football player, one of the captains of his team. He was wildly successful as a college football coach, eventually ending up in the College Football Hall of Fame. He coached in the NFL. However all this, in the end, did not matter to him. I remember clearly the day he said, "Kev, you know these people don't really love me. They just love the fact that I won a lot of football games (his voice fading)...and that doesn't mean anything." There was deep sadness in his eyes, the emotion in the moment was thick.
What you do (vocationally) is not who you are and it certainly does not define you. I have heard it from Coach and other giants - of athletics, academics, medicine, the military. Men & women who have achieved profound vocational success. Yet millions of people will wake up this morning chasing after something that will define them, that will validate them, that will exclaim to the world that they are a success! And at the end of the day, or life, it still will not define them.
I pray that each one of us will thoughtfully, very thoughtfully, consider the things we value, the things we chase and what legacy we will leave. There is nothing wrong with being successful vocationally and I would argue that we are each to chase the very best we are capable of in whatever it is we do. I simply hope we all realize that regardless of whether we achieve those successes or not our value is not determined by them.
Lesson #2
This one Coach walked out without ever saying a word. He was always genuinely happy to see me and always made time for me, no matter who he was sitting with or talking to, to talk to me, to make sure I was included in the conversation. I remember the only time I got to meet Mrs. Kush. I walked into a dinner and Coach & Mrs. Kush were sitting at their table. As soon as he saw me he started waving frantically for me to come over. I was shocked, looked around to try to find the person Coach was waving at. He then looked at me with that "Coach look" which let me know it was me. I sheepishly put my head down and walked over to their table. He introduced me to his wife and we had a very nice conversation. I am still dumbfounded by that moment...
As I would give families tours of the athletic facilities I would stop by Coach's office and he would always stop whatever he was doing and talk to the family, take pictures, etc. for as long as they wanted. Actually, it was us who usually left Coach, still wanting to talk, tell more stories.
Whenever I would come upon Coach at a football, basketball or baseball game it was as though we were long lost friends who hadn't seen each other in years, even if we had just gone to lunch together that day. He would insist that I sit right next to him and he would always introduce me to everybody he was visiting with at the time...I met some people 20, 30 times! :)
Coach never told me he liked me, enjoyed being with me, etc. He simply valued & appreciated me every day in the way he acted, in the things he did. And it wasn't just me, it was everyone he encountered.
How are you & I doing in this area? Do we truly value & appreciate the people we get the honor & privilege of doing life with every day? I know I fail far to often in this area however this day affords me the opportunity to once again try to get it right...and I plan to seize it! It takes zero talent or ability to genuinely care about others however the impact is so incredibly profound.
As I thought about Coach yesterday afternoon I thought I would title this "Happy Friday" something like "A Legend Died." Somehow that just did not seem right. Whether Coach was a legend or not I will leave up to others to decide. He was so much more valuable to me than what he did or accomplished vocationally. He was a friend who always made time for me, who valued & appreciated me and who taught me a couple of lesson I will not ever forget.
Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend and please cherish your precious families.
Kev
No comments:
Post a Comment