Mark Weisman: A True Standout Player
During the last three weeks, I watched my alma mater University of Iowa Hawkeye football team beat their opponents. It was heartwarming to see. I was struck by the spectacular tough running performance of the best player on the team, in my opinion: running back Mark Weisman. His story is interesting. He was not recruited from high school, although he played well there. He earned first team all-state (Illinois), all-area, and all-conference as a senior, and was all-county, all-area, and all-conference as a junior. He earned three football letters as fullback and linebacker, rushing 53 times for 1,657 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior and 182 times for 1,149 yards and 16 touchdowns as a junior. And he was Team Captain as a senior.
But, no one expected him to play on such a big stage. His father, a podiatrist, says, “People would tell him, ‘You’re not a Division I athlete. You’re Division II, a Division III player at best.’ He just wouldn’t let them stop him.” Weisman came to Iowa without a scholarship and is still without one. That’s a temporary thing. “I came in here as a walk-on,” Weisman said, “and there were no promises with that. I just love the way this program is run.”
Weisman has achieved because he found his strengths. As one of my favorite authors and business minds, Marcus Buckingham, puts it in his latest book StandOut: “The best way to do a job is to find your strengths. When you do that, it’s a miracle of sorts.” He talks about identifying your two top “Strength Roles”—your areas of competitive advantage. When your “job” is in football, as Weisman’s, and it uses your strengths and fits the essence of who you are, you naturally “stand out.”
The workplace is based on the same principles. Buckingham says, “So many people think work is something you suffer through. We have to flip that and say, work is something you grow by. Work can be heaven or hell.” And now, many of you are reinventing yourselves. My sister went back to working as a speech pathologist after 22 years of being a full-time mom and wife. It’s not a total surprise. Like Mike Weisman, she paid her dues. She got her Master of Arts in Speech and Language Pathology on a full academic scholarship at Northwestern University School of Communication, the best in the country. She also worked successfully in clinical settings for several years before her hiatus. In an interview, Buckingham is asked, “Is it ever too late to find one’s strength?” He replied, “Strengths are ageless. They are as fresh at 65 as they are at 16—or arguably fresher because you have had a chance to exercise them.” My sister is years away from 65, but she has rediscovered her strengths all over again. I thought of her Saturday as I watched Mark Weisman running against Michigan State. Like him, my sister stands out. And they have something else in common. They are both Jewish! Ya gotta love that.