Swing Your Sword: Leading the Charge in Football and Life

by Mike Leach

During my first orientation at Pepperdine, one of the professors said that as a law student, you won’t be getting a degree in case memorization or rule memorization. Instead, you learn how to take a variety of facts and a certain amount of precedent, and apply them to the problem at hand. You are actually getting a degree in problem solving. Well, football certainly supplies a lot of problems to solve.

At the heart, what you’re doing is making a presentation in one form or another. You’re trying to connect with people. The best actors are the ones who best connect with the audience. The best lawyers are the ones who best connect with the jury. The best coaches are the ones who best connect with their players.

a lawyer’s performance in the courtroom is responsible for about 25 percent of the outcome; the remaining 75 percent depends on the facts.

being open enough to engage in sometimes difficult discussions is a great thing. It prompts some level of the unexpected, and anything that provokes a response provides you the opportunity to generate ideas, which is hugely beneficial.

Most people will say you should love what you do or enjoy what you do. Enjoy what you do, though, is an oversimplification. If you’re ever really good at anything, you don’t enjoy it all of the time because there’s a chase and a challenge to it that goes beyond enjoyment.

You never know who you really are until you get out of your comfort zone.

Don’t let fear of failure cause you to hesitate. Hesitation is just like busting a play. It’s the same with calling a play or giving direction. When you tell the guys what you want them to run, you have to let them know that you 100 percent believe in what you’re calling. Otherwise you diminish your chances of success.

When it comes to taking chances and sizing up risk, there are certainly some wrong decisions that get made, but they happen less often than you’d think. What affects an outcome more than anything else is effort and attitude.

the better your opponent, the more the temptation there is to worry about them rather than focus on yourself.

Overcoming your fears and whatever other nagging resistance you may have is always the first step to solving any problem.

You have to defeat yourself before you defeat someone else.

You told him a thousand times and he still won’t do it? Then you’re not worth a damn as a coach. If I had to tell someone a thousand times to do something, he ain’t the problem. I’m the problem.

There’s a catch-22 about self-confidence: You need confidence to be successful, but it’s success that breeds confidence. There’s this chicken-or-the-egg deal to the equation. At some point, you just have to decide you’re going to be confident. Then, as you do, you’re going to have more success.

I know the pirates speech was unconventional, but you can’t be insecure or let fear rule your life. You have to do what’s in your heart.

I have never met a great player or an overachiever who does not have a big ego. That doesn’t mean they’re unpleasant. Their ego may be well covered with genuine modesty. Ego is why they know that they’re the ones to get the job done.

I think speeches are generally overrated, but good communication and having everybody on the same page is underrated.