Humble and Hungry
“Be humble and hungry, and always be the hardest worker in the room.”
- Dwayne Johnson
As a strength coach my mentor was a man named John Stucky. You probably never heard of him. Even if you are in the strength and conditioning world, you might not recognize the name. Coach Stucky was a pioneer in the profession. He was old school. He would be seen as a dinosaur in today’s “Sports Science” world. But he did something that most of these “smart guys” have never done. He won the big games and developed the best athletes in the game of football.
I learned more than I could ever tell you from John. He was a fountain of knowledge. If you wanted to know something all you had to do was ask and he would talk non-stop for an hour on something as small as the importance of foot placement during a bench press.
He learned so much because he wasn’t afraid to ask, “the stupid question”. This is where I learned my need to know; it came from listening to “Stuck” interrogate any visiting coach. If you came to visit us at the University of Arkansas or the University of Tennessee Coach Stucky would get more out of you, than you would out of him.
One of the most important things I learned from John was not about lifting weight or running. It was about how to live your life. He would tell the athletes, coaches, administrators, sports information people and anyone else who happened by: “Stay humble and hungry.”
Two words summed up why you might not have heard of John Stucky: Humble / Hungry.
He lived these two words every day of his life. Because he lived these two words that’s probably why you don’t know who he is. He was humble beyond reproach and was never satisfied with his base of knowledge.
Control What You Can Control
In October I wrote a blog about controlling what we control (Control What You Control — Chris Carlisle (thecoachcarlisle.com)). I spoke about how we can lose focus on what is important by worrying about things we don’t control.
Being Humble and being Hungry fit right into the pocket of controlling what we control.
We decide how to react to situations around us. We can try to take all the glory when good things happen or we can blame others when things don’t turn out as expected.
You control your reaction to both.
Great leaders like Bill Belichick don’t look for the bright lights. He gives all the credit to his players and coaches when they win. When they lose, he eats the blame. This is what true leadership looks like.
Time to Eat
Being Hungry is all about not accepting your current place in life.
Being hungry means that you will do what it takes to be even better. Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan weren’t just “hungry” they were “starving”. They never accepted good enough from themselves. What made them the best was that they expected everyone else to have the same hunger as they did.
This turned off a lot of people. But in retrospect I would bet a bunch of them, if they had it to do over again, would have come back as a hungrier person. Careers in sports are short. Too many get full of themselves and will coast. The ones who leave their mark in the profession are always on the hunt for more.
Business and Personal Setting
So, does this only pertain to sports? Heck no! This goes right to the core of who you are. Humility is the mindset that you already expect to win, so when it happens it’s like waking up in the morning – You’re shocked when it doesn’t happen.
When you are humble in your office setting you will lead others to be just as humble. Being successful is about expectations. When you expect to be successful, and you have lived a life of searching out how to be the best, then you will become successful.
Being Humble does not equate to being “weak”. To many people think humility means you can’t strive for success. In fact, being Humble has nothing to do with being successful or being a failure. Humility is the way you react to what happens in your life. You go about your work every day. You take each day’s outcome as a step. None are bigger than the others, as long as you continue to move forward.
As far as being hungry it should be as normal, and vital, as breathing. Looking for more answers should be natural. If you are “full” then your time is about over. If we are not continually changing and evolving as a person, we will soon become obsolete.
Last Words
Remember the words of the great Walter Payton, “When you are good at something, you’ll tell everyone. When you’re great at something, they’ll tell you.”
As you begin to climb the ladder “stay humble and hungry”. When you do you will be on your way to living your optimal life.
Have an amazing day.
