NowTHINK!AboutIt

Earn The Right To Win, Chapter 3 – Details

September 21, 2013 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Preparation Is Key
In Every Detail

Tom Coughlin is the kind of guy that intrigues everyone. He seems a bit brash on the outside but his ability to win football games at every level consistently over a lengthy career, even the biggest game of all – not once but twice – proves he is more than just noise and bluster.

His second book, Earn the Right to Win, reveals just how deeply the stream runs below his turbulent exterior.

And in chapter 3, Success Is In The Details, you get a glimpse of how information-rich football is and how cerebral Tom is in mastering the game. Winning at football means processing endless details.

Tom, of course, isn’t focused only on football. His point in the book is that there is a correlation between the effort to win at football and what it takes to win in the rest of life.

Success, Tom says, begins with superior preparation and as Christians, we must believe that what is good for football success is also good Gospel success.

Football Is Complex

To appreciate the meaning of Tom’s point we need to first take a look at the complexities of football.

Football has one objective, score more points than the opponent, which seems quite simple until you look at the process. Football is no simple game and the proof is the many people who watch even several games and say, “I don’t understand.”

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The reality is, very few people completely grasp everything that it takes to run even one play successfully much less win the game. It really is that complex!

Let me illustrate. [Read more…] about Earn The Right To Win, Chapter 3 – Details

Earn The Right To Win by Tom Coughlin, Chapter 2 – Scheduling

August 18, 2013 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Life Can Be Unpredictable
But Preparing To Win
Requires A Schedule

In the mid-1960s The Rolling Stones recorded a song titled “Time Is On My Side.” It was one of their first recordings and it was a big hit.

In the song, Mick is philosophizing about a wayward girlfriend. She’s running around instead of staying faithfully by his side but instead of expressing hurt feelings Mick patiently waits claiming that “time is on my side.” And he confidently asserts that “She’ll come running back to me.”

Now, you might be wondering what a song about wayward girls sung by one of Rock N Roll’s most prominent bad boys has to do with winning. Well, the context of the song isn’t important but the refrain is.

The main issue in the song is “Time” and Mick repeatedly says it is on his side. In fact, at the end of the song, he builds to a crescendo with: Time, Time, Time is on my side.

But there is good reason to think Mick may not be correct. Time can be on your side but there is no guarantee.

And that brings us to Tom Coughlin and the book he wrote. The title of Tom’s book is:

Earn The Right To Win

And it’s worth reading because it makes some universally valid points about winning. [Read more…] about Earn The Right To Win by Tom Coughlin, Chapter 2 – Scheduling

Earn The Right To Win by Tom Coughlin, Chapter 1 – The Basics

July 31, 2013 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Preparation’s First Step
Build The Structure

It’s no surprise that Tom Coughlin has written a book but you might be surprised that it’s not the usual co-written scrabble to make money off celebrity status. Nothing promotional about it.

In this book Tom is making his point not the publisher’s. It’s not a bio of any person or organization. It’s about winning and how Tom managed to do that consistently over his entire career.

No, Tom is not a writer, he’s a coach, but the book shows that he’s cerebral about his job and there are many points in the book that are universally useful for any person in any kind of work.

This post covers chapter one. The previous post covered the introduction in which Tom emphasized his primary point, preparation and in chapter one he begins with “Build The Structure.” Following are the main points of the chapter.

Set A Goal

Tom begins in the usual place, goal setting, but what he says about it challenges traditional thinking. Most of us are trained not to bite off more than we can chew and there is a place for that type of caution but Tom says set a goal and make it a big one. He quotes Michelangelo to make his point. [Read more…] about Earn The Right To Win by Tom Coughlin, Chapter 1 – The Basics

Book Review: Earn The Right To Win by Tom Coughlin

July 29, 2013 by EnnisP 1 Comment

Preparation Is Winning

I just read Tom Coughlin’s book, Earn the Right to Win, and gleaned some valuable insights. Insights anyone can appreciate. This isn’t just another book written by a popular icon to entertain the masses and make a few bucks.

Although the book includes plenty of anecdotal material it isn’t a bio of the NY Giants or of Tom. This is Tom telling us how he won the most coveted prize in football, the Super Bowl, and he assures us, even in the title, that the principles he used can be applied to any field of work. Tom is very intentional in his coaching, his book tells us how he does it and it illustrates the point that a lot of thinking went into his approach to football.

If that’s true for one of the most physical sports around then it is probably true for anything else one might do.

Tom does have impressive credentials. He began his coaching career at Rochester Institute of Technology, starting the school’s football program from scratch. He also served in several assistant coaching positions before taking the head coaching job at Boston College and was eventually hired as the head coach for the new NFL franchise in Jacksonville. At every level and in every position he established himself as a no-nonsense leader who won games. How he accomplished this winning tradition is what his book is about.

I was impressed enough with the book to think it deserved more than just one short review. Since Tom is the kind of man who can start with nothing and eventually reach some lofty goals, He’s also a man to whom we should listen. If you’re looking for inspiration and how-to advice, Tom’s your man.

This post is just the beginning and will be followed by more.

It becomes very clear in the book that Tom is very deliberate. I was actually surprised at how much of a thinker he is and the overall theme of the book, preparation, illustrates the point. Everything Tom led his teams to do was his way of preparing them to win. Every detail of the preparation was well thought out. Winning was the goal and detailed preparation was his way of getting there. He introduces the “preparation” theme in the subtitle:

How Success in Any Field Starts with Superior Preparation

He elaborates on preparation in his introduction and then expands on it in every chapter that follows. He uses sports to illustrate his points but his illustrations can easily transfer to any other sphere of endeavor. He argues his points well. [Read more…] about Book Review: Earn The Right To Win by Tom Coughlin

Book Review: Blended Family Advice by Shirley Cress Dudley

July 23, 2013 by EnnisP Leave a Comment

Shirley, the author of Blended Family Advice: A step-by-step guide to help blended and step families become strong and successful, is not only a qualified psychologists specializing in marriage and family counseling – with two Masters degrees, one in family and marriage counseling and one in education – but also a wife and mother in a blended family. She’s lived through the experience. She knows first hand what it takes to blend members from two different families into a secure family group and she honestly and openly provides gems of wisdom from both her academic training and her blended family experience.

Reading through the book it is clear that her advice is good for traditional family units also which means she is not changing the rules. Instead, Shirley is helping blended families navigate the unfamiliar turbulence created when two groups of people, previously unknown to each other, move toward a desirable place: family.

The book is refreshing because Shirley doesn’t excuse poor family structure on the challenges of being a blended family. She makes it clear from the start that sound family structure can be maintained in spite of the difficulties. The challenges are different but not impossible to deal with and the solutions she provides enable blended families to achieve the same stability as traditional ones. She provides copious amounts of “how to” instructions for many different scenarios. [Read more…] about Book Review: Blended Family Advice by Shirley Cress Dudley