You Win With People

It seems kind of crazy that it has been an entire year since I started this blog. Just last year I was terrified and also excited to post my first ever blog and now here I am! Thanks to all who have read and hopefully will continue to read! If this is your first time reading my blog thank you as well but…go read my other posts!!(Got that shameless plug out of the way real early this time!) Now on to the reason for this post!

If you have any knowledge of Ohio State Football you probably know the name Woody Hayes. I’ve quoted him a couple times in previous posts(shameless plug count: 2). Woody Hayes is mostly known for winning a lot of football games as the head coach of the Buckeyes but there is also a lot more to him than meets the eye (as with everyone).  If you Google his name you will find out quite a bit but I want to focus on one of his more famous quotes and would like to expand on what it means to me and how we can all apply it to everyday life.

“You Win With People” – Woody Hayes

 

I think there are three main things that we can do as people and for people that will allow us to “win” each day. I define winning the day as living each day to the fullest and learning something new each day, which I have previously written about as well ! (shameless plug count: 3)

The first thing I think that we need to do each day is to cooperate with other people. This may seem obvious or it may get you to scratch your head. Of course we need to cooperate right?? We were hopefully taught to cooperate with others when we were very small and there was a reason. Brian Tome, the Senior Pastor at Crossroads Church in Cincinnati brought up some things this past weekend that relate directly to this idea. He made the point that every great thing that has ever been accomplished in this world has been because of a group. A group that cooperated.

The most recent example that I thought of was my trip about a month ago to Portland, Oregon to visit my Aunt and Uncle. Our picture from Cannon Beach is pictured above (The state of Oregon = Buckeye Nation). There is tremendous cooperation that has to go in to getting on a plane and flying thousands of miles across the country. The group that makes those trips successful are large and incorporate people that you may not even think of. From the people that created the websites/systems that let you schedule your flight using a computer, to the people who scan your ticket, to the flight attendants, to the air traffic controllers(Breaking Bad anyone?) to the pilots and even to the passengers. All these people have to be cooperative with each other in order for the flight to taxi, take off, fly, and land safely.

 

The second thing I think that we need to do every day in order to win is to tolerate other people. These days it seems that judging and arguing and generally being disagreeable towards others is just commonplace. With our scalding hot takes, putting people “on blast”, and ripping people via social media while hiding behind an egg avatar at its peak; the world tolerate seems to have gotten taken out of the dictionary while words such as “fleek” have been added. I think that just because other people’s viewpoints or beliefs are different from yours does not mean that you should publicly (even if you have 13 other egg avatar followers) shame them.

There are so many different backgrounds and cultures out there that no one can begin to imagine living through all of them. So instead of the instant judging that comes with something different, try just tolerating. I am not saying you have to agree with others, but just don’t judge. I believe that the toleration of others viewpoints will lead to understanding if not appreciation of other cultures, backgrounds, and beliefs. That understanding of the diversity that you encounter everyday will allow you to live each day without the anger that comes from judgement.

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.” – Albert Camus

The third and final thing that I think everyone needs to do each day is to love each other. I’m not asking you to use the  in every text, although that could get pretty entertaining. The love I am talking about does not mean that you need to romantically love everyone in the world, that would defeat the significance of romanticism. I am talking about the love of meeting people and learning from them. Everyone you come in to contact with will leave an impact on you if you let them and if you begin to love that learning experience, I think that your day will be better. I also think that a true friendship is rooted in a love for that friend. The following verse can be taken literally, but in my mind it means sacrificing for your friends to show that you care for them.

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” John 15:13

Urban Meyer preaches the “Power of the Unit” and I believe in that power as well. The unit that he talks about are different units of the football team, but we all have our “units” in life that we hang out with. Our units consist of our group of friends; for me it would be Steeb 6, Delt,  my coworkers, etc. For Urban, the units are the different position groups that make up a football team.

Urban constantly discusses fighting for the guy next to you. The different units that make up the Ohio State football team become as close as any group of friends or family, and they share the love for each other that allow them to go out there on Saturdays and play their hearts out. Those units are the quintessential example of people cooperating, tolerating, and loving each other in order to win the day. The most visible of those winning days are Saturdays in the fall, but that bond that the units share is formed way before gameday. Speaking of gameday…3 DAYS TILL BUCKEYE FOOTBALL IS BACK!!!

Now I want to sort of go back to the Woody Hayes quote that I discussed earlier. I do believe that you win with people, but I would offer this one change:

“You win with the RIGHT people”  -Matt “Not Woody” Stuckey

As Jim Collins, the author of the book “Good to Great” says:

“In fact, leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with ‘where’ but with ‘who.’ They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.”

As much as cooperating, tolerating, and non romantically loving the people you encounter every day will lead to winning the day, there is another level to winning the day. To steal Urban’s mantra for this years team…simply doing those three things will get you to The Edge, but to cross the threshold of winning the day, you must find the right people to cooperate with, tolerate, and love.

Take your group of friends for example. It would not function nor be a fun group to hang out with if one of the people was not the “right” person. If a person applies to be a pilot for an airline but is not qualified, that group will not function properly because that applicant is not the “right” person for the job. If I tried out for an offensive lineman position at OSU, I would not even come close to sniffing the field because I am clearly not the “right” person for the job.

You get the picture. Groups, jobs, and relationships do not work if you do not have the right people in place.

As a perfect example of winning with the right people, I have two examples that I will leave you with.

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to witness a lifelong friend get married to the woman of his dreams. He comes from one of the best families that anyone has ever and will ever meet, and his family is part of a group of families from our street that we affectionately refer to as “The Village.” The Village is a group that is so close that we all consider each other family. Remember when I said that every great thing that has ever happened has been by a group? Well, for all of us kids from The Village to have grown up as successful as we are speaks to the great things that the parents of The Village did for us. This was a friend who I had grown up with and have tremendous respect for. To see him standing up there ready to commit unequivocally showed me that he had found the right person to marry. That’s called winning.

This coming weekend I am blessed to be a part of another great friend’s  wedding as a groomsman. I have known this man for eight years and he is also one of the best men I know. Him along with his soon to be wife have taught me so much about life and what it takes to be a man. Along with me will be two fraternity brothers standing next to our friend as a witness to his marriage. We don’t even consider each other friends or fraternity brothers at this point, we consider each other family. Remember when I said that every great thing that has ever happened has been by a group? Well once again, for all of us to be as successful as we are now is credit to how we all took care of each other through college and supported each other. Along with the other groomsmen, we could not have a better reason to get together and celebrate for our friend and brother. Saturday will be a great night, and we will all be winning then.

From my first post one year ago to  this post, I have grown so much as a person and as a writer. My first post was hardly even 800 words and this one now is approaching 2K. I never would have thought I could do this and get the great feedback that I have received so far.

As always…GO BUCKEYES BEAT BG.