Football Poetry? Sure!

Well, it’s not exactly football poetry, but the connection is there!!!

So today the Dow dipped 500 points, and closed 391 points down. So now do we get all depressed ? Or just realize that when the whistle (closing bell in the stock market) blows, the play (day) is over, and yes, Scarlett, tomorrow IS another day!

Time to pull out inspiring things to read, like the poem “IF” by Rudyard Kipling, which a radio sports show host read aloud, in its entirety, this morning between 10 and 11 a.m., as I was driving to my lunch speech at a Chamber in the Valley. I needed to hear it this morning, and I’m choosing some excerpts to give to you:

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you. . .
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting. . .
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same . . .
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on’ . . .
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man my son!” (or a Woman, my daughter)

You can easily see the poem in its entirety online. . .the sports guy read it in the context of football, which I love. To me, football is the advanced course in getting ahead and getting what you want in life and at work. Valuable lesson: do not back off from confrontation.

Two teams are eyeball to eyeball on the line of scrimmage. One team’s desire is to go there. The other team says, “No, you don’t.” For those of us not comfortable eyeball to eyeball, I recommend you watch some football this weekend, and watch those gorgeous athletic men holding on when there is nothing in them except the Will . . .inspiring? You bet.

For more football inspiration for business and life, get your copy of my new book, Necessary Roughness: New Rules For The Contact Sport Of Life!