It’s well documented that I’m a fan of the Dallas Cowboys.
I met Roger Staubach - the legendary Hall of Fame quarterback from the Dallas Cowboys - a few days after I moved to the Lone Star State from Chicago at the tender (and impressionable) age of seven. From that moment on, I’ve been a loyal Cowboys fan. I reveled in the Super Bowl years in the early 1990’s and remained steadfast during the dark first decade of this millennium when the team seem comprised of forgettable quarterbacks and even worse coaching.
Win or lose, I’m an ardent, faithful, and devoted fan of America’s Team.
Last week, Jason Witten, one of my favorite players of all time, retired after 15 years. He is the franchise leader in both number of receptions and receiving yards, ranks fourth all time for most touchdown receptions by a tight end trailing only Antonio Gates, Tony Gonzalez, and Rob Gronkowski, and won the Walter Payton Man of the Year award in 2012 honoring his volunteer and charity work. Not a bad resume to leave behind after the playing days are over.
Jason Witten was never the most talented, certainly not the most graceful, and it was painfully obvious that he wasn’t the fastest and yet he is almost universally recognized as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. As a third-round draft choice out of Tennessee in 2003, he didn’t appear to be anything special at all. How does someone who was drafted almost anonymously in the middle rounds – and was the verbal punching bag of then coach Bill Parcells – become one of the greatest of all time at his position? It turns out, it’s the same way someone in any industry thrives:
Be Durable and Dependable: During the fourth game of his rookie season in 2003, Witten took a vicious hit after making a catch from two Arizona Cardinals’ linebackers which resulted in a broken jaw. After surgery to put three plates in his jaw, he found himself in the training room on the following Wednesday. Normally, a broken jaw would cause at least three games to be missed. However, Witten only missed one game – in fact it was the only game he missed in his entire career. While sitting on that training table just days after his jaw was shattered, the head coach challenged him by saying, “the best ones find a way.”
The same is true in business – the best ones always find a way. Excuses like “busy” don’t exist even while they generate more activity and production than the people who surround them. The best ones always show up and do so willingly, without complaint, and without the need for recognition. Durability and dependability are an invaluable ingredient to sustained success.
Yearn for the Dirt: The myth of the “overnight success” is just that – a myth. The ones who seem to have overnight success are the ones that for weeks, months, even years put in the hard work necessary to succeed. When Jason Witten was drafted, no one thought he would be any more than a serviceable tight end for a few years. However, he knew that the secret was in the dirt: staying after practice catching pass after pass to improve his hands, studying opponents late into the night to gain an advantage, and working with outside coaches to improve his route running in the off season. That “dirt” is what enabled Jason Witten to surpass his natural athletic ability and become something much more than a serviceable tight end. At his retirement ceremony, Witten summed it up by saying, “the sheer concentration that is required to pursue a dream isn’t for everyone. I yearned for the daily grind and I couldn’t get enough of it.”
To succeed in sports, business, or anything, you must be willing to go out and earn it. The world is littered with people who never realized their potential simply because they weren’t willing to put their hands in the dirt and do the necessary work. Success is never given – it’s always, always, ALWAYS earned. If you want to be recognized as the best among your peers, go out and earn it.
Find the Bond: Jason Witten was fortunate to find people who also craved the daily grind and embraced the hard work necessary to succeed. By happenstance during his first training, he was roommates with Tony Romo, an undrafted free-agent quarterback with little likelihood of making the team. Throughout that first summer – and their careers – they challenged, encouraged, pushed, and pressured each other to be the best they could possibly be. During the same career span that saw Jason Witten become a Hall of Fame player, Tony Romo defied the odds and not only made the team but holds every major passing record for the franchise including touchdowns, completion percentage, and quarterback rating. The bond between those two players unquestionably made both better.
It can’t be done alone. Every person who achieves a high degree of success ensures they are surrounded by people who will make them better. Maybe it’s the accountability partner that tells you it’s not good enough, or the trusted friend who encourages you to keep pushing forward when you’re ready to give up, or the boss who is continually hard on you because he/she believes in you. What appears to be individual success is really the sum of all the people that made that person better.
Without the drive to succeed, the willingness to push through pain to be durable and dependable, without the enthusiasm to continually work in the dirt, and without the bond that is forged when people commit to making each other better, Jason Witten wouldn’t be Jason Witten. Instead, he would be a guy who never realized the possibility of wild success. He would be a name in a string of good but unremarkable tight ends for the Cowboys like David LaFleur, Eric Bjornson, Dan Campbell. Instead, he will be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame where his story will be told for generations.
Put in the work, be durable and dependable, and surround yourself with people who won’t allow you to be a lesser version of yourself. Those are the lessons we can all learn from Jason Witten.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, immediate past president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), vice president of the Regional Association Council (RAC) board, and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, and developing branding that resonates with a target audience. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.