Editor’s note: Writing today’s Skinny is Jim Roberts, the founding executive director of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and the Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — OK, I know some tech geeks’ eyes glaze over when people make a sports reference to teach a business lesson, but stay with me, please. (Would it help if there were an ACC connection to this story?) There is a football coach who has turned around a university program and has turned it into a dynasty. One of his keys to success was to remove the fear from his life.
For weeks before the big college football bowl games started, I kept hearing the ESPN Radio guys talk about this profile on University of Southern California football coach Pete Carroll. The profile was done by LA Times Magazine.
Now, I am a big sports fan and have been aware of Pete Carroll for decades. I dismissed him a bit when the New York Jets fired him. College is a much better fit for his player-friendly approach, since NFL players make so much more money than the coaches in most cases. I kept seeing how well Mr. Carroll was able to recruit top talent to a football program that had a rich history but had fallen on hard times due to poor leadership. Now I understand his overwhelming success after reading this profile.
Here is part of the profile from LA Times Magazine:
Carroll gave up fear long ago. He gave it up the way people give up carbs. Fear now has no part in his daily life. Fear is like an old, distant friend. They know each other well, talk once in a while, but they’re not close like they used to be.
In meetings, practices, pre-game talks, fear is Carroll’s theme. "That’s what we’re all about," he says, lying back on the leather sofa in his office one night. “Our entire approach is to come to the point where we have the knowing that we’re going to win. There’s nothing to stop us but ourselves. To do that is to operate in the absence of fear.”
Wow, how liberating that must be for the players who play for this leader who has removed fear as an excuse of failure to accomplish the goal.
Now imagine if you could install that sense of fearlessness into your employees. Would your employees be more innovative and productive if they knew you had their backs and they were encouraged to be proactive everyday even if mistakes were made? Would they be more innovative if they felt more job security in a business world where huge profits are expected with minimal risks taken?
I have been working with entrepreneurs for the last event seven years in Charlotte and in Asheville. One of their biggest fears is rejection. Rejection by potential clients. Rejection by press outlets. Rejection by potential angel investors and venture capitalists. And of course the fear of failure is another.
But then you come across a different kind of entrepreneur. The entrepreneur who is fearless and walks into the room and the room changes and begins to pay attention. The entrepreneur that has the attitude that if this deal does not work out today, they will land a better deal tomorrow and these people will regret the day when they could have had a piece of the action and didn’t take it. Of course, the attitude is not enough, execution is the key to making great things happen.
I have always dreamed about living and working with a safety net of abundant wealth where a few mistakes would not hurt my long-term financial health. My approach has always come from the angle of “I have nothing to lose, so let’s go for it.”
So take a minute and think about your daily business life. What would you do differently in your business if you removed all fear and had the confidence that the risk you want to take would end up in a big win?
What was the connection to the ACC? Pete Carroll was an assistant coach at NC State in 1980. Ponder that for a minute.
Read the rest at the accompanying Web link.
Jim Roberts is the former founding executive director of the Blue Ridge Entrepreneurial Council and the Blue Ridge Angel Investors Network. Jim, a new resident of the Triangle, recently started a new blog about leadership and entrepreneurship. Jim can be reached at jimRroberts@yahoo.com.
