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SUPERBOWL & EXCELLENCE
This is the story of how one relatively unknown coach took the worst team in the National Football League and using a philosophy of “chasing perfection to actually catch excellence” created one of the greatest dynasties in sports history.
Each year on a Sunday in January, the National Football League will play the Super Bowl, which is the championship game between the two champions of the two football leagues. Over the years there have been more than 50 of them. The Super Bowl is one of the biggest days in professional sports. I have watched every one of them since the first one in 1967, with the Green Bay Packers beating the Kansas City Chiefs. There is obviously a lot of hype in any Super Bowl and over 50 plus years there have been many unbelievable games, fantastic finishes and iconic players and coaches.
I would like to use the background of the Super Bowl to share with you my philosophy on excellence. Several years ago, as I was flipping through the newspaper on Super Bowl Sunday, I saw an article, “How Vince Lombardi inspired Bart Starr,” that caught my attention. If you do not know who Vince Lombardi or Bart Starr are, this message may miss the point, so you might try looking them up on the internet and then read on.
I was 13 when the first Super Bowl was played between the Packers and the Chiefs. I was a big fan of the Green Bay Packers, probably because the San Francisco 49ers weren’t very good at that time. Their coach was Vince Lombardi. Mr. Lombardi had such an impact on the game and profession of football that the winner of the Super Bowl is awarded the Lombardi Trophy each year. There have been many great coaches before Lombardi and there certainly have been some great ones after him, but there is only one Lombardi Trophy.
I admired Vince Lombardi and his method of leading, coaching and care for his players. He had a knack of coaching individual players to bring out the best in themselves. He was the best and I have never stopped quoting him or reading about his philosophy on life. I often say, “Luck is preparation and opportunity coming together at the same
time.” This was one of Mr. Lombardi’s favorite sayings when someone would comment that the Packers were “lucky” to win as often as they did.
In his first season with the Packers, he took over a team that had lost 11 of their 12 games the previous season. At the first team meeting, he started by saying, “Gentlemen, I have never been associated with a loser and I do not intend to start now. Starting tomorrow at practice and everyday after that, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence”.
He went on to say, “I am not remotely interested in being a good team.” For the next ten years the Green Bay Packers were simply the best team in the league and one of the greatest teams of all time.
Bart Starr was the quarterback of the Packers over that ten-year period and became one of the best quarterbacks of all time. Besides his skill as a quarterback, he was also known for his leadership, his sense of commitment, and his relentless pursuit of excellence. In the famous “Ice Bowl” against Dallas in 1967, with the Packers trailing by a few points, he led his team down the field as he went five-for-five in the final drive of the game, scoring on a quarterback sneak as time ran out. In the article, he concluded by saying, “The desire to excel is paramount. When you seek to lead a life of integrity and to make a difference in the lives of others, it’s incredible what you can accomplish.”
Over my career I used Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great” as a tool to guide me. I truly believe that if you, day in and day out, chase Perfection you just might catch Excellence. The lessons told as stories of how certain companies used a combination of leadership, getting the right people in the right positions and facing the brutal facts, showed multiple times that a philosophy of Chasing Perfection and Catching Excellence is obtained by only a few. It is hard work and requires a reckless commitment to the philosophy in everything you do.
A few years ago, I started a new company after leaving a company that I co-founded and ran for 25 years. In both companies we used the concepts in Collin’s book, “Good to Great” and the Lombardi philosophy of chasing perfection and hopefully catching excellence. At our formation meeting with our nine employees gathered around a conference table, I, like Mr. Lombardi, made it clear to our team that we would work hard every day, and over time we would transform from a good firm to a great firm. In keeping with Vince Lombardi’s philosophy, I am not remotely interested in being a good firm. The concept of Chasing Perfection and Catching Excellence is a pretty good concept. I hope you, too, will adopt that philosophy.
