She recently reached back out to us and wanted to share her notes from a talk that Coach Don Meyer had gave to her team about eight months before he passed. They are excellent Abby -- thanks for sharing!
DON MEYER EVERYDAY WISDOM
I was fortunate enough to meet Coach Don Meyer eight months before he passed prior to my junior season at Wright State University. Our team quietly sat for hours listening to Coach Meyer talk about characteristics of great players and teams, things he had learned through winning and losing, and life lessons. Before meeting Coach Meyer, I knew I wanted to be a college basketball coach and I was encouraged to write down everything he had to say. All that came out of his mouth was so golden to me as a player and future coach that I couldn’t move my pen fast enough. I ended up writing seven pages filled of notes and probably could’ve written more if my hand wouldn’t have went numb! To this day, I refer back to these notes daily in helping me become a successful assistant coach, mentor, colleague and friend. I find myself flipping through a composition notebook nearly five years old in times of success, tragedy, stress and when I just have a ‘what would Don Meyer say?’ moment.
I had only one chance to speak to him and wish I could’ve had more because these seven pages have drastically helped me in my life and in my coaching career. Below are some notes I had taken as a young and eager player who dreamed of being as impactful as Don Meyer:
IF YOU AIN’T SERVIN’, YOU AIN’T LEADIN’
Every morning I have a 6-pack. Not what you’re thinking! A 6-pack of goals for the day. It allows me to stay committed and productive.
Process/Product à How you do something is most important
Cause/Self à Successful teams, players, and people put the cause over themselves everyday
There are two types of ENERGY PEOPLE: Energy givers and energy suckers
Have a fox hole list of trustworthy players who you would want beside you in the hole of distress.
Sooner or later TEAM PLAYERS win out
NEVER have to say “I wish I would’ve lived the life I wanted to live instead of the life everybody else wanted to list.”
Your example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing!
Don’t make decisions because they’re easy, popular or convenient. Make them because they’re right.
The hardest decision to make is the right one.
Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.
Plan, Prepare, Practice like you lost your last game
Three rules of life:
1. What is your talent that is unique? Find it.
2. Develop that gift to the fullest because people don’t pay for average
3. Give your gift away every day.
Give back, there won’t be a UHaul behind your hearse
Be what you is, because if you aren’t what you are, you ain’t what you is. (He said this was written inside a bathroom stall in Mexico)
Success can knock you to your knees faster than losing – HUMBLENESS
Have adrenaline for your job every day! Some coaches aren’t nearly as affective at the end of their career because they can’t handle the additional stress. They don’t have the energy that they h ad in the beginning of their career.
You have to be sick for coaching – Love every second. You have to love what you do every single day.
You can tell a lot about a person how they treat someone who can’t help them
Be a lifelong learner!
