Ask the Expert - True Meaning of Greatness
Ask the Expert: Acclaimed Journalist and Best-Selling Author, Don Yaeger
Article from thesportscommentary.com
In Ask the Expert, Image Management, Media training, Success Training on May 27, 2010 at 7:42 am
By Melinda Travis
In this week’s Ask the Expert, TSC speaks with four-time New York Times best-selling author and former Sports Illustrated Associate Editor, Don Yaeger, about the true meaning of greatness.
In his 20 years as a journalist, Don has witnessed greatness first hand, conducting interviews with some of the greatest athletes of our time including Michael Jordan, Emmitt Smith, Serena Williams, Jimmy Connors and countless others. He has lived with Walter Payton, writing the NFL legend’s autobiography as Payton courageously battled cancer, and interviewed the President of the United States in the Oval Office. On the flip side, Don has been interviewed more than 100 times on national television talk shows, including: Oprah, Nightline, Good Morning America, CNN, 20/20 and others. He has also served as a media trainer to scores of attorneys, corporate officers, athletes and politicians and travels extensively delivering motivational speeches about his experiences with sports and sports icons. He is the owner of a national/international sports business PR firm called 180 Communications.
TSC: As a keynote speaker and writer, you often talk about “greatness” and its 16 defining characteristics, all based on your many years of working with the Great Ones. Is greatness something these legends were born with or can athletes actually “plan” for greatness?
DY: The idea that greatness is something you are born with is an absolute negative. If you talk to these successful people and suggest for a second they were born with something that gave them the opportunity to be great, every one of them will argue with you. There are others out there who were given the same gifts, but didn’t achieve the same levels of success.
Greatness is, as John Wooden likes to say, available to all of us. It may be at different levels, in different places or through different career paths, but the ability to become exceptional is there. The problem is that not everyone is willing to work at it. Most will settle for good. They won’t fight hard enough for great!
TSC: There are professional athletes out there who don’t believe they should be role models. As a public speaker who draws on stories of athletic greatness to inspire large groups of people around the world—from Fortune 500 executives to cancer survivors—what do you say to athletes who shrug off the responsibility of being a role model?
They’ll never be great. They might be exceptional athletes, but they will never achieve the title of great. The up-side to this discussion is that greatness can be defined differently by all of us. I define it in my own way. If you aren’t willing to be a role model and accept your responsibilities as a role model, you can never be great. The great ones understand, embrace and desire being a role model.
TSC: When you’re working with young athletes who are just beginning their careers, what is the most important piece of advice you give to them as it relates to building their legacies?
Your legacy starts with the central people in your life. Value of association is one of the most important characteristics of greatness. The truly great understand you are only as good as the people you have in your inner circle. In fact, a quote that was once passed along to me is: you will never outperform your inner circle. If you spend time with people who complain constantly or blame others for their failures, that’s likely how you will become. If you spend time with people who are upbeat and looking for opportunities to succeed, you have a better chance of becoming like that as well.
4. With countless examples every week of athletes who create irreparable damage to their reputations and legacies, why is it sometimes difficult to convince athletes of the critical importance of building and protecting their personal brands?
Most athletes think of themselves as indestructible. It takes that mentality to achieve at the highest levels sometimes — and so one of the biggest challenges is overcoming this. Week after week, there might be an example of someone who falls, but there is always someone else willing to do the same thing again next week. Why wouldn’t they learn? The truth is, like most of us, you don’t learn until it happens to you. Athletes are no different. None of the athletes I talk to are perfect. They all fall, they all make mistakes, but the great ones are willing to do whatever it takes to overcome those challenges.
5. You recently published a new book, “Devoted,” the story of Rick and Dick Hoyt, the father and son who have competed in more than a thousand marathons and triathlons together despite Rick’s cerebral palsy disability. What can even the Great Ones learn from the Hoyt’s incredible story?
The thing I love most about telling their story is that there isn’t a person who hears it and doesn’t think they are great. And yet, Dick and Rick have never finished first in a race. They are the greatest athletes you’ll ever meet because they do it for the right reasons. Dick pushes his son because it gives him a connection to a young man whom the world was never really connected to. If you do the right things for the right reasons, it’s amazing the impact you can have on the lives of others. The Hoyts are a living testimony.
To learn more about Don Yaeger, please visit his website or follow him on Twitter @DonYaeger
Article from thesportscommentary.com
In Ask the Expert, Image Management, Media training, Success Training on May 27, 2010 at 7:42 am