I've spent whole seasons buried in frustration. Not because we didn't work hard enough, or try hard enough, or exploit the talent on hand. Most of the time we did all of those things, but we still lost, and that's all that mattered.When you reach that goal, when you achieve at the highest level, there is tremendous satisfaction. We all strive to be recognized as one of the best in our field. It's no small accomplishment to get there -- it demands effort and stamina far beyond the norm.
But there's a catch. The quest that we're on is impossibly to complete. Because once you win, you've got to win all the time -- and no one wins all the time. The world doesn't work that way.
Winning the Super Bowl is the ultimate pinnacle for a football coach. But if you have a real engine inside you, even that satisfaction can't be final; it creates an insatiable desire to do it again. Bobby Knight, who's scaled the mountaintop a few times himself, told me that I'd want to win my second championship a lot more than I wanted the first one. I found out he was right, and that it only gets worse. Because after we won the second one, I really wanted to win the a third.
That desire goes beyond the scoreboard, of the fame, or the money. Those are just the incidentals, the by-products of winning. For me the point is something else: Can you contribute to greatness? Can you witness -- even if just for a moment -- an end product that reflects character and courage and principle?
From "Finding A Way To Win"
By Bill Parcells with Jeff Coplon
