No one is born a winner.
People make themselves into winners by their own efforts.I learned this lesson from an experience many years ago. I took the head coaching job at a school in Baxley, Georgia. It was a small school with a weak football program.It was a tradition for the school’s old team to play against the new team at the end of spring practice. The old team had no coach, and they didn’t even practice toprepare forthe game. Being the coach of the new team, I was excited because I knew we were going to win, butto my disappointmentwe weredefeated. I couldn’tbelieveI hadgot intosuch a situation. Thinking hard about it, I came torealizethat my team might not be the number one team in Georgia, but they weredepending onme. I had to change myattitudeabout their ability andpotential.I started doing anything I could to help them build a littlepride. Most important, I began to treat them like winners. That summer, when the other teams enjoyed their vacations, we met every day and practiced passing and kicking the football.
Six months after suffering our defeat on the spring practice field, we won our first game and our second, and continued toimprove. Finally, we faced the number one team in the state. I felt that it would be avictoryfor us even if we lost the game. But that wasn’t what happened. My boys beat the best team in Georgia, giving me one of the greatest thrills of my life!From the experience I learned a lot about how the attitude of the leader can affect the members of a team. Instead of seeing my boys as losers, I pushed and encouraged them. I helped them to see themselves differently, and they built themselves into winners.Winners are made, not born.
没有人天生就是赢家。人们只有依靠自己的努力才能成为赢家。我从多年前的一次经历中学到了这个教训。我在乔治亚州巴克斯利的一所学校担任主教练。那是一所足球项目薄弱的小学校。学校的老队在春季训练结束时与新队比赛是一个传统。老队没有教练,他们甚至没有训练准备比赛。作为新球队的教练,我很兴奋,因为我知道我们会赢,但令我失望的是我们输了。我真不敢相信我竟然陷入这样的境地。仔细想了想,我意识到我的球队可能不是乔治亚州的头号球队,但他们依赖我。我不得不改变对他们的能力和潜力的看法。我开始尽我所能地帮助他们树立一点自尊心。最重要的是,我开始把他们当作赢家。那年夏天,当其他球队享受假期时,我们每天都见面,练习传球和踢足球。在春季训练场受挫六个月后,我们赢得了第一场和第二场比赛,并且继续进步。最后,我们面对的是该州排名第一的球队。我觉得即使我们输掉了比赛,这对我们来说也是一场胜利。但事实并非如此。我的孩子们击败了佐治亚州最好的球队,给了我人生中最激动人心的时刻之一!从这次经历中,我学到了很多关于领导者的态度如何影响团队成员的道理。我没有把我的孩子们看作失败者,而是鼓励他们。我帮助他们以不同的眼光看待自己,他们把自己塑造成了赢家。赢者是塑造出来的,而不是天生的。