Be Somebody - EntreLeadership Summit 2019

thank you thank you thank you Dave I love Dave Ramsey, one of the Giants of our country, you know what I talked about with my team. I coached football at Georgia for seven years and then I coached Taylor Williams for 20 years and when I said, you know what? they answered what and that's why I would be encouraged when I say you know what if you said what you know what you understood right, I'm going to talk to you about how to change your life and how to do something absolutely incredible in business, I mean, I was a football coach and I graduated at university with a degree in physical education, the kind of person who is not supposed to succeed in business and I discovered a lot of things about how to win in business, the really important things, too windy and busy. a lot of these people writing books that have never done anything but try to tell you how to do it, that's a load of crap, you know, going to college and listening to these professors, they've never done anything, tell you how to build a business.

Bunch of crap that you only know when you've done it like Dave Ramsey. You know the little things, the real little things that are the difference between winning big and just being average and normal? And today I'll cover the real little things with you. and the important things you need to do to win big in business, so you know what I believe. Nobody wants a boss, but everyone needs a coach. Bosses intimidate. Coaches motivate. Bosses look for your weaknesses. Coaches look for your strengths. Bosses criticize you. The coaches praise you. A theme we had at Al Williams was I Want to Be Someone.

I don't want to be someone so much. He just ate me up inside. He was in my bones. He was in my blood. It was in my heart. I want to be someone. Those five little words were important to those people at Air Williams. He was shameless to anyone who wanted to make a difference in his life. There was something good about AoE Williams. There was a goodness that attracted the right kind of people to us. We thought you had a responsibility. to do the right thing we believed that your reputation was everything if you don't do the right thing you have me you could get by for a day a week a month a year but sooner or later they smell you, as Williams believed that character was more important than education we believe that Mauro's was more important than status we cared more about determination than ability the people who joined ayo Williams saw that we were made for people who grew up tough for people who had had several disappointments in their life life for people who They wanted their life to be special.

I hate these big companies at these big liberal universities that tried to program people like me to believe that the winners are the pretty people, these people who have perfect bodies, you know they are. 6 feet to 185 pounds slim three piece suits wingtips wear ties beautiful teeth beautiful smile great tennis players that's a lot of people if they have this perfect background you know they're guys these people posted this this is out there what if You were born on the right side of the tracks If you were born rich You are the privileged class You are supposed to go to college You are supposed to get all the good jobs If you are born from a poor ordinary average background like me you must have given up you must give up on them all your big dreams and all your big ambitions if you have a high IQ they rule that you are brilliant brilliant if you have an average IQ like me they say you're supposed to Driving a truck or being a janitor will be a bull.

People are judged by their scores and aptitude tests. Personality tests. Test of performance. I think you know what you know what I think people want three things deep in their hearts they want three things they want to be their own boss they want to be their own boss number two they want to work at something they love something they believe in something they they are passionate about, number three, they want to build total financial independence for themselves and their families, where no one can put their thumb on you, squeeze you and use you well, you can tell everyone that I would take a flight. jump a nail if you want Williams provided his people with those three things on February 10, 1977 at Williams only one peanut was born 85 people in a city in a state the enemy was 250,000 people in each city in each state our weapon was by term and invest the difference in an IRA account our motto is a company where salespeople are kings see friends, I really believe that the first step to winning is to have impossible goals, big goals, listen, listen to these goals, we had a day of weeks in which we were just a peanut 85 of us in a city one we were left fighting the largest and most powerful industry in the world our number one goal was to change the largest industry in the world and destroy cash value life insurance that is impossible, can you imagine the little peanut 85 people like that?

The first two rows here talk about changing the largest and most powerful industry in the world. Number two. We wanted to become number one. There were 2,000 companies in that industry and we wanted to be Prudential. 40,000 Aegis compared to our 85. 1977, when we were born. They were born. in 1864 it's like I'm some of you right now. I mean, if I had to point to a company that I would really like to go to right now that reminds me of Prudential, it's the star Brooks, you know, they're the most. You're the most expensive, inflated pile of crap I think there is in your business, so number three, number three, our goal was to see our families become financially independent.

Public, can you imagine? I started making forty-six hundred dollars a year in my last year, my seventh. year as a football coach at Georgia, I was paid ten thousand seven hundred dollars as head coach and athletic director. Can you imagine what would happen if it were possible? That goal seemed to me to be financially independent to change my family and have a financial future for generations of people when we founded one of Williams in 1977. I told every new recruit in our company for two years. I spoke at every meeting like this for two years and they.

Oh, Williams, and I said, I want you to know if you're joining a me and I want you to do it. I understand from the beginning that the chances of us surviving are as follows. I'm not talking about beating Prudential. I'm not talking about changing the industry. I'm not talking about becoming financially independent. I'm talking about probabilities or things like that. This we survived, but if you ask me, say, "Be honest with me," tell me how you really feel. I have to tell you that I'm sorry, sorry, sorry here. I think we will and I think we will achieve it. to be great you know to be someone is to seize the moment Winston Churchill said it best he said that there comes a special moment in everyone's life a moment for which that person was born that special opportunity when he seizes it he will fulfill his mission a mission for which he is exceptionally qualified at that time he finds greatness he is at his best in 1977 the life insurance industry owns 60% of the assets in the United States they own the politicians and they own the regulators they had been in business for over a hundred years They did everything They could possibly do something to put Al Williams out of business, but the industry had to defend things that were indefensible.

They had to defend the sale from fraud. They sold a cash value life insurance product, either whole life or universal life. or any of those things, there were two benefits that could be combined into one contract, insurance and savings in one contract, you paid for two things, but you only got one if you died, did your family receive life insurance benefits but were were they left with their savings? if you wanted your savings you had to give up your life insurance, yes, William broke up that split financing, we call it, where you bought insurance, cheap term insurance from an insurance company and you invested with an investment company, you paid for two things and you got both.

Next they had to defend: you lose your savings if you die, let me ask you what kind of low-life scum-sucking dog could create a product like that, a savings program, you lose if you die, if they had to defend the average size of Prudential. the benefit like in my family for four thousand five hundred dollars was their average death benefit just one burial policy the industry average death benefit was six thousand dollars just one bad burial policy they had to defend that 90 percent of Their agents 90% of those scum-sucking dogs old term insurance on their own life bought cheap stuff and sold crap to their clients who could do something like that.

Look, winning in business in my opinion is achieving your goals. We had impossible goals, but we achieved it. We did it. Number. one we destroy junk value now these are the industry numbers these are not made up numbers of Oh iums since 1977 we were born until 2003 the life insurance industry lost forty 1 million policies 41 million policies isn't that something that is not ? that some 19 in 1977, 90% of all life insurance sold in these United States was cash value life insurance, only 10% term in 2003, 90% of all life insurance was term term and only 10% with cash value, hey, that's something CEO Williams did.

Williams thought about this in 1977 there were 2,000 life insurance companies in 2003 only 69 companies so a new policy only 39 life insurance companies hired a new agent isn't that something? Isn't that something to think about in 10 years? Williams grew from 85 people in one city in one state to 225,000 people in every city in every state. The life insurance industry went from 250,000 people to 170,000 people. Lost 80,000 people. No, folks, this is impossible, this is impossible, but you can still do those things today, but you have to do the important things and there are things to talk about in just a minute. Our second goal was to be Prudential, which had been number one forever. but in 1989, Williams did $92 billion in business, we beat number two Prudential, number three New York Life and number four metropolitan combined, hey, isn't that something?

Look at our goal number three, our goal number 3 seemed impossible, our family is just a group of coaches. and people who had played on a team to build financial independence for their families and we did it in a big way in 13 years we produced 140 millionaires now back in the 70s a million dollars in something we had today we had more people earning a hundred thousand dollars, that's $400,000 more than any company of our era, think about this in 1988, out of a hundred largest companies, 34 were Williams' team, number 5. Bob Douze Onze's team made twenty-six point seven billion Dollars.

Number six, Prudential, made twenty-six point five billion dollars. One of our teams. Beating Prudential Isn't that something? Isn't that something? Look people, you have to set impossible goals, you have to set impossible goals, you have a big dream, you have to go out and do impossible things, another key to Williams' success, since we gave our people will honor, they will see, I think ownership builds its own, like we talked about jumping in and taking down Starbucks, you know, if a group of people had the courage to come together and go out and beat each other's asses, you can do it, it's just amazing what you can do we gave ownership we gave our people the opportunity to build their own company within a company and when people have ownership they love it the more they predict they will protect it the more they try harder let me give you a couple of examples Bob Turley died a few years ago he had formed an army of 16,000 people in 36 states of Canada had a payroll of one hundred and forty-five million dollars a year 1.4 billion dollars in ten years and he left it to his son he changed his family for generations Bob Sadler, another great leader in the year Williams, had an army of 19,000 people operating in 38 states plus cannula.

Canada had an annual cash flow of one hundred and ten million dollars, ten years, 1.1 billion dollars and he left it to his two sons and we had dozens for more examples like that, I think to win in the free system company, friends, you must do two things, number one, you must have an advantage, you must have an advantage, you must have something, you are better than other people, who are you competing against? You have to have a better product at a better price and a better delivery system. Now how do you get that advantage? You get that advantage by studying the competition like you're after Starbucks.

I know everything about them. I know I know them from A to Z and I guarantee you that if you look at a cut like Starbucks, they have over 3,000 kraut coffee places, you know, and that guy said you can find all kinds of things that are blued in. they got fat and lazy and I'm sorry, right, you got it, you got it, but you have to take these things seriously, get an advantage, you have to look at the competition, analyze them and study. I studied Prudential. I study life in New York. I studied metropolitan. like you couldn't believe it and I discovered his weaknesses, it was like when I was a football coach and we played against someone on Friday night.

I saw thosegame films, he studied them and found the opponent's weaknesses, so we studied the game films and analyzed life insurance. Enders, the largest industry in the United States, 60 Play alone owns 60% of the assets in the United States. They look so big. Prudential seems so big. They are so powerful that they seem unbeatable, but then when I went in and looked at them, I discovered that there was nothing but a paper tiger. I discovered that the big life insurance companies are like the federal government, they are fat, lazy, slow and inefficient at everything. the federal government plays becomes a crowd let me give you let me give you two examples FedEx have better service and make profits the post office run by the federal government bad service and lose money the competition spent millions and a half dollars on things we didn't think were important like example in advertising Prudential spent $68 and $0.50 per policy on Williams spent 4 cents on office expenses Prudential spent $1,383 per policy on Williams spent $149 per policy Equitable took out a full-page ad in USA Today and said they spent two hundred and twenty thousand dollars on agent preparing them to sell life insurance.

Al Williams spent zero hours and part-time workers paid their own one hundred dollar license fee. CA or Williams took all the money, we saved it by being more efficient and built a better product for the consumer and generated more commissions for our sales force. Then to get that advantage, we had to simplify the complicated when you get as big as Starbucks, for example, it's just like a bureaucracy, it just gets out of control and the life insurance industry was a million times bigger than Starbucks and we had to find a way to simplify how complicated they made it, let me give you an example, this is Prudential Dre's book.

If you look at its 176 pages, it is interesting. This is what they got. Three series of products. They got the Gibraltar series. Lai modified. 3 high modified life. Modified useful life. 10 25 volts modified. 10 reproduced. 85 a condom penthouse all life life paid at 90 life paid for 85 electricity paid at 65 20 years useful life 10 years useful life Co joint life all life now if you don't like any of those, they modified the state series life 5 citation 50 life paid at 90 professional 52 layers paid at 85 modified life 3 modified life I modified the light 10 graduated premium all life the BRE v8 or modified life 21 increase in premium life paid at 90 modified 25:10 paid life up at 85 a state 25 all life a condom penthouse all life paid life at 90 paid life at 65 years 20 years paid life 10 years paid as before joint life whole life now if you don't like that, they got what they got the PRU Coast series they have variable life there, but life gives up their premium appreciable life exemption prenup achievable standard of living death benefit a life preacher variable death benefit variable appreciable standard of living death benefit the bear will preach life bearable death benefit the bear will preach life exemption premium and this is what we have our rate book is one page thick we sell our best product that we own in our own life every time you have to get an advantage you have to simplify the complicated the next thing we had to do is we had to build a better delivery system CA o Williams was the first company to build with part-time workers we wanted to build an army of part-time workers and go to the table cooking and educating the consumer now the Williams had that advantage now the second thing what you have to do once you study the competition and get the advantage is that you have to compete better than the competition in the free enterprise system, you have to get up early and compete hard or you will get your ass beat and compete.

Your attitude is everything. I think the most important thing you develop in your life is a positive attitude. The glass always has to be half full. You should expect people to be positive. You can never let your meetings become one big meeting. session positive attitude is all there is more everything there is more everything there is positive people are like a bubble gum magnet people are attracted to them like bees to honey friends I believe that you can overcome all problems in business can overcome financial problems sales problems health problems business problems recruiting problems personal problems you can overcome everything and still be everything you should be in business but you will never be able to overcome an attitude problem the moment you you perform you're dead as a door now if you get this positive attitude you can't walk like a dead friend you have to prove it you have to walk faster you have to talk faster you have to show your enthusiasm for what you're doing look I think more than 90 percent to win is to always be excited, stamp this on your brain, people will not follow or believe in a negative, bored, disillusioned, frustrated crybaby dad, but the best definition, the best definition of a winner.

I have heard this person say that almost everyone can stay excited for two or three months. people can be excited for two or three years, but in winter they stay excited forever people want to follow a leader who is positive, who is aggressive, who is enthusiastic, who is tough, another principle that I believe in, winners They are discipline, you must have standards in your life. you have to have rules, you live by discipline, the definition is doing what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it. I had a rule on my football team and it was that you wouldn't come to practice every day unless your ass was in the hospital on life support, but I was going to be at practice in one day, we were getting ready to start the game. practice and I had my starting right guard Johnny Campbell coming out to practice in his blue jeans and a t-shirt and I said Campbell, if you quit, did you quit?

He said there is no coach. A bee stung me in the eye. My right eyes closed. My head was swollen. I can't put the helmet on my head. And I said. Campbell, if you want to play on this football team. you get your butt back in the locker room, you put on your uniform, you find a way to put the helmet over your head and you get your butt out here to practice and think about Campbell, if you can practice with one eye, think about how cool you are. You're going to play on Friday night with both eyes, so you know what you know, what's the big win, you've got to have a big dream, you've got to have a big vision, look, I had the privilege of coaching in high school. and I think for most men.

And for women, their high school years were their peak years for dreaming and being excited. I would have these boys and girls come in the ninth grade reading that their eyes were as big as a baseball that they would start driving, dating or playing in front of hundreds of thousands of people who were in beauty pageants on the bait teams. , they felt like life was a bowl of cherries, that they were put on this earth to conquer the world or really be someone who made a difference and then they graduate and throw them in the trash.

Big bad world and they get married to have some kids, they change jobs several times and one day this Bob came back, an animated human being turns into a shell of a man, his foot taps the ground and he has developed an attitude that life en I was dealt a bad hand I can't, I can't do it, I just have to give up all my dreams, look at it, besides Williams, we didn't sell life insurance, it was much bigger than that, we gave a different type of person a chance to dream again a chance to have hope again a chance to get excited again seeing people it's your responsibility as a leader to get inside your people it's hard to grab your people tightly and help that person get excited again to believe in themselves again I think you win with your heart, not with head coach Lombardi, the great coach of the Green Bay Packers, who is speaking in his last speech in Washington DC before dying of cancer before a group of top executives and the At the beginning of his speech he said: I am preparing to give you the secret to winning in business and there was silence in the room, you could hear a pin drop and he said: the secret to winning in football and the secret to winning in business.

You capture the power of your heart. the heart of the person you capture the person look friends the secret is passion your passions your heart your passions your mind your passions your soul winning big in business has to be more than just making money you have to have a passion and I have a passion, you have to love it Mickey Mantle, the great baseball player of the New York Yankees, said: I love hitting the baseball. I wake up every day. I'm excited to get out to the stadium. I love hitting baseball. man man when it rains the game.

I get angry because I want to go hit a baseball. I don't like. I love it. He said that if you like something, you will never be good at it. You have to love it. Look, how do you maintain a passion once you love it? How can you maintain a passion without ever forgetting the things that blow your butt off? And let me give you two examples. I never got over what they did to my mom. My dad died at 48 of a heart attack and was sold. a little bit of the wrong insurance and I had two younger brothers still at home with my mother I wanted to hurt him I wanted to punish him I had the father of one of my football players I made $4,600 a year assistant coach in Thomasville Georgia I had a wife and two kids and he said everything: I want to come talk to you about insurance.

I knew I needed insurance, so I said, sure, let's go and I didn't want to know anything about insurance. I didn't want to know. Anything about investments, all I was interested in was football, right? So he sits there and talks to me about insurance and tells me how much you can pay and I told him $20 a month and he sold me a $10,000 whole life policy and I found out a couple of years later he could have sold me $150,000 of insurance. I wanted to hurt him. I wanted to punish him. Never forget the things that gave you your passion.

Another principle I learned is that you always have to learn to do a little. a little more I learned this 40 years ago in an Oh Williams from two of my vice presidents in Dallas Texas now on the outside they both look the same they were the same age they were the same sex but one made five hundred thousand dollars a year and the other made $50,000 a year year and I started studying. I said, man, why such a difference? They both do everything they are supposed to do. They are both loyal to the company. They work hard.

Win money. They save money. They treat their people well. On the outside everything looks the same, but what does the $500,000 a year person do? The $50,000 a year person doesn't make it. The $500,000 a year person does everything he is supposed to do. In a little more, work hard and in a little more, earn a little money. more, save money a little more Three years ago I had back surgery and a partial knee replacement and became a swimmer. I swim every day for one hour to two hours. swim time. I don't swim lout and probably hadn't. I haven't missed five days of swimming in the last four years and friends, when I get to that time, let's say I'm swimming for an hour today, it's so programmed into me for 40 years.

I've done it, it's so programmed in me when I get to that time the finish line I always go another three minutes another five minutes if you want to win in this life you have to do what you're supposed to do and a little more and you can never stop at the goal line Let me give you another example of being tough in my five years of coaching football. I never had to call a timeout and drag one of my players off the field. I told my players. I told them: listen, football is not a team game, it is not an eight.

Football is a game between you and that guy in the wrong color jerseys right in front of you and someone is going to beat you or him and the first four plays of the game are vitally important, you have to hit him hard and show him who's boss and then from there. In you you look for every weakness and you can never show yourself hurt, you can never show doubts, you can never show yourself abandoned. I never let one of my team kneel during timeout. I said in timeout, you turn around. and you look at that guy, you see him, you see him on his knees, you seemed to take off his helmet, you see how much he's sweating, you see how much water he drinks, you know he's sucking balls, hit him hard and we give him an electric shock now we pray before every game We pray before every game and it's a sincere player that no one on either team would get hurt, that's not the purpose in sports, but just as our kids and the locker room came in to get dressed for the game and walked out the back door, the bull boards the bus to go to the stadium to fight.

It had a giant backboard and it was a knockout charge and our goal was that the referees in the third quarter are going to have to raise their hands and say, look, those people don't have anyone. Nobody wants to keep playing, you know, and our goal was to eliminate them in our championship year. We had 49 knockouts to zero and I would tell the players, you know, they are there working, you know, one hourbefore the start. game, you know, and then 20 minutes before kick-off the players always go to the locker room for last-minute instructions. I told my players this for five years.

I told you guys enough. They saw me talking to the referee tonight and I told him. Mr. Referee, you see those guys have the wrong colored shirts. They don't love it like my boys do. They're not as tough as my boys. Referee I have never had to pick up one of my guys and drag him off the field and I want you to know that on Friday night I will wear my nice, clean clothes to the game and if one of my guys gets hurt, I will. I'm not going to go out and have his blood sweat all that shit on my clothes.

You know you'll have to move the ball to the other side to feel him play a little until he can walk on his own. It will develop. Crawling. Leave the field. Now folks, if one of my players had gotten hurt, he would have been the first one out, but they didn't know that, so they didn't get hurt. My first two years, my first two years when I got into the business, everything I heard. It was no, no, no, I don't want anything, no thanks, no, and it was killing me, but two years later I paid a death claim, took a children's will, a check for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and if not, For me and my company and my toughness, they had to try to live on ten thousand dollars, my whole world changed.

I said Wow Wow, you know, I thought this worked. The numbers showed me that Terman investing the difference was the best way. go, but now I see a real situation where a family is in a desperate crisis and this really works, but you know what people kept saying no, no, no, thank you and you know what, look, I forgot that 95 percent from the people. I went to see I said yes yes thank you and it was developed I changed my attitude I said look all you can do is all you can do you can't do anything but all you can do right I mean I can't do anything but sell what's right, Right, I can't do anything but sell what I want from my own life, so when I go into a house I can't pay people's premium, right?

I can't make the decision on the farm, they have to pull their own red cart right there, so all you can do is all you can do, you can't do anything but all you can do well, but all you can do is you can do is enough, you have to stay positive, you have a Pete, stay positive and have a positive attitude. The two worst words and the English language is I can't, you know? I was watching our kids in the weight room for a few weeks one year and I kept hearing these guys say, I can't, you know, honey, they wanted to do 300?

Pound Club and they took it almost up to here and said I can't, they took the observers and put it on the shelf and I said, wow, that's our problem and I called an emergency meeting the next day and I got all my equipment together in the locker room and I told them, guys, I'm going to pass a law today, you will never be able to say that I can't, in fact, I'm going one step further, you can't even think that I can't and no one catches one of my football players. saying, "I can't, you can give it three licks with the board." He had a board this width and this length and he had little holes in the board and you know, you could really speed up.

Sir. little but and it took me about two or three weeks every year, a kid would come out and knock on my door and say coach, he said it coach, he said it and I would make that other kid bow down and I would give that kid a board, I would arrest him three times and friends, you couldn't create a pun for one of my children to say, "I can," will come a little closer to home when the art in April, my children were that young and I could understand the words when they said I can't I made them do three push-ups engraved this in your brain a winner is not afraid to fail a winner is not afraid to fail in a high school football game if you have two teams of equal ability there are about 120 plays 60 plays on each team and 98% of those plays fail you know you fumble the ball you're going to make your yard or two you're going to miss the order two you're going to drop a pass and if you really study football you'll find four or five plays or the difference between winning and losing, but look, every player on that team knows that when he is in that meeting he knows that 98% of those plays are not going to work, but he also knows that the next play could be one of those four or five plays, so the team that wins is going to give everything they have, leave it all on the field a hundred and twenty times, they have to keep calling the play most things.

What to do in business doesn't work as it's supposed to, you just have to keep calling the shots. Let me give you another principle of leadership. Reward and punishment. Look, you have to have long-term goals like the ones I mentioned before. You know what these goals take that seem impossible, you have to have them. long-term goals, but then you have to have a plan to get there with short-term goals in football. My long-term goal was to win a state championship, but to get there we had short goals. range goals every week we would go out thirsty and in shorts and relax and then I would take them to the classroom and go over our goals and these were our goals for five years as a head coach that if you come out tomorrow guys and really go after it and we have a great offensive effort and we beat them by 21 points or we hold them scoreless and we win, we're going to go out and shorts on Monday and you know, former soccer players, there's no greater feeling in the world and go out and win and then you go out on Monday and you put on those shorts, you're prancing around and your little friends sitting there on the hill, you know, watching, yeah, man, I saw Ultima, right?

I said, listen, if you go out tomorrow and you drop it and you only give it half an effort and you win, but you know you're beaten by 21 points of yours without scoring, we'll go out and pass. punish ourselves because we have to get better and if you lose I'll see you Saturday morning my first year in business my long term goal was to build financial independence for myself and my family and my short term goals were to punish myself until I got there. I thought that from Monday to Friday my goal was to have five cells and three recruits from Monday to Friday, if I met that goal, then I would go out on Saturday and Sunday and spend it with my family if I didn't meet that goal. on Friday I worked on Saturday if I didn't make it by Saturday I worked on Sunday friends, there is no easy way to get to the top, you must reward and punish yourself to be a great leader, you must be a great motivator, always remember the most powerful way Motivation is praise and recognition.

In the early days of Vail Williams we had no money and became famous for our t-shirts. He'd go out and spend two and a half dollars on a t-shirt and I'd say: I'm stopped. I'm someone played like a champ, just do it. I have literally seen grown men and women cry in a meeting that they made two or three hundred thousand dollars a year without getting one of those little two and a half dollar T-shirts they would go back to their room they couldn't sleep at night they would hit their head on the wall and would cry all night see people, you are never too old and you are never too young to be praised and recognized people today are starving in this world for recognition.

It is the most powerful form of motivation in the world. Let me give you an example that just happened to us in Highlands, North Carolina, where we spent the summer. We own an inn and spa called Old. Edwards there and we built an indoor pool for the city, a really beautiful indoor pool and they have a swim coach from Clemson. I met a guy from Clemson here a while ago, but a Clemson swimmer is the swim coach in Hollins, North Carolina, right now. Four years ago they had four people on their swim team, so we built this beautiful indoor pool and I said coach, I want to put a wall of fame board at the end of the pool down here and he said coach, uncouple, coach, say coach .

Don't you think they're too young? You know, eight kids ages 10, 12, and 15. I said you don't get too young, you can never motivate kids enough, right? Hey, this year, 4 years later for you. to get on that wall of fame you had to go to the Youth Olympics you had to go to the Youth Olympics last year it was in Detroit, Michigan we had 66 swimmers for the swim team and we have 12 swimmers that went to the Games Youth Olympics and put your name on the wall on the wall of fame you can't if you want to win in this business if you want to win in this world in business you have to become an expert in praise and motivation look, I believe, I believe Being someone is be an example and a doer, not just a thinker and a talker.

I own an inn and spa in Hollandsworth, Carolina, old Edwards, like I said, and I want all of our employees to feel like family, to feel important like we try to do. it AoE em let me give you, for example, I handwrite a letter every day, every day, I write a letter to one of us who now have 500 employees, to one of our people and I tell them that I love them, I appreciate them and Thanks for what you do number two. I told all of our 500 employees to call me art or call me coach, not sir.

Williams, I told each of them. I said you're much more important in this business than I am at number three. I don't want to see teammates shaking hands. Don't do that to a teammate you're going to work with every day. For the love of God, shake hands. I want you to give them a lot of fiber. I want you to hug them. I want old Edwards to become a hugging company. I would go every week, every week. I do this every week and give to each leader. every leader in old Edwards a cookie or a piece of candy and just hug them and tell them I love them and tell them I appreciate it.

Look, I wanted to create an event in an environment where we are a family, you are my teammate. You are my friend and you know what you know what look it's not the cookie it's not the candy it's not the letter what was important was my heart it was me showing our people that they are important to me that they are special to me that they are special to this company, look people, I think the difference between being

somebody

and being nobody is that people who are

somebody

have a special kind of belief in themselves, they have a kind of desire and determination to change the world, their attitude is bringing the more difficult, they better understand that you don't get what you want or what you would love to have, life gives you what you will excel if you accept being average and ordinary, that is exactly what you will get from someone. someone expects to win demands for themselves happiness and success in achievement always has a positive attitude someone truly believes in their heart that they are supposed to be someone someone would be the most surprised person in the world if they ended up being a nobody.

I had a coach, my only hero in life. If there was someone important to me. Except he ruined my high school codes in every way. I was a little better than the average athlete. A little better than average. student but Coach Taylor saw something in me that I didn't know I had Coach Taylor made me feel like I would do something important in my life he made me feel like I was different that I was special that I would make a difference in my life and you know what you know what that I discovered one thing about life no one has ever accomplished anything significant on their own think about this friends no one has ever accomplished anything significant on their own they always had someone someone someone a dog like Coach Taylor for me, who cared about them, who saw something special about them, that believed in them.

I wanted to be that someone at AOA Williams. I wanted to be that someone who was always there in the most difficult moments, encouraging them, fighting with them, pushing them forward, never giving in. she never gave up on them. I wanted to be someone who was willing to invest one-on-one time building relationships building friendships that would last a lifetime. Look, I think coaches believe you practice until perfect coaches believe you practice until you can't fail, I think you win by beating the enemy, Gary Player, the great hall of fame golfer from South America, who It is one of the international golf tournaments more than anyone in the history of golf, he said that I played golf in all the civilized countries of the world and You know, I discovered that people are the same everywhere, people have the same desires, ambitions in everywhere and I always have these guys and girls that come up to me after I play and say, Gary, I'll see you with a golf ball, man I love. watching you hit a golf ball, I would give anything if I could even hit a golf ball like you and he said one day I had a particularly bad round and someone said dad and I turned around and said no you wouldn't, no would you do it.

You would give anything to hit a golf ball like me if it were easy, but nothing good comes easy. You know what you have to do to hit a golf ball like I do. You have to get up at five in the morning. You go down, you hit a thousand golf balls, you hit so many golf balls that your hand starts bleeding, then you run to the clubhouse, you look at the blood on your hand,You put a bandage on it and you fall, you hit another thousand golf balls. Yeah, you'd love yourself in a golf ball like me if it were easy.

Well, nothing good comes easy. All I ever wanted to do as a kid was be a football coach. Now, stamp this into your brain. You will see your players rise to the occasion. your expectations on them, look, if you see your player as a failure, he will turn out to be a failure, if you see your player as the loser, he will turn out to be a loser, let me give you an example, if you want a wide receiver, there are six four runs or four four forty but your wide receiver is five eight who runs a forty four eight Porterie you have to see him as an all American you have to make him believe that you think he is an all American that I wouldn't trade him for anyone.

My first head coaching job was in a city that hadn't had a winning season in 20 years. The last two years I had won one game and lost 19. I went to every club in the city. I went to school and said we were done losing, I guarantee you I'm a winner and we're going to win starting this year. I had 75 players come to spring practice after a week, we were down to 17 or 18 players. I lost my first two quarters. bags, we were going to have a spring game against the old guys from last year, sorry, seniors who had won a game in two years, the only time I did this, I never did it again and they came on Thursday and I handed out uniforms, they had not practiced. been practicing for four weeks I thought we were going to beat him 100 and open, the whole city would come out, they were going to see the savior of the football program, you know, when they were excited, all that crowd and me sitting there on the 50 yard line He said It's going to be a joke, we're going to beat them like a drum and they beat us and I went lower and lower and said my life is over, there's no way I can recover from this.

Who would hire a soccer coach like me? And I went home and I cried and I cried all weekend and then Sunday afternoon and I looked in the mirror and I was ashamed of Bart Williams. I said shame on you, you know you're planning a tough league, yeah you only have 17 or 18 kids, but they believed in you and they did everything you asked and I called the next morning I went to the principal's office and I walked in the intercom system and I called all the football players into the gym and said friends, when I came here I told you this was the greatest opportunity for life because no one except the city and the school believes that we are going to win as well as I thought.

Today it is a hundred times greater because no one, not even our city and our school, believes that we are going to win. The only people who believe we are going to win. They are going to win are the people in this room, but I am nothing, but I stood my ground and I know how to win and I am going to teach you how to win the first thing I did, the best thing I did in my life, my business life or My life as coach is that I brought each one of those players and I started talking to him about their goals and their dreams and what they wanted to do and how football meant a lot to them and I discovered something incredible that I was looking for. to most of these kids and I say it and I compare them to some of the kids that I had coached before that were better football schools and I was looking at them and what they didn't have and I said wow, every one of these kids. they have some good things, they had some good things and I started at that moment, friends, I started praising their strengths and not criticizing their weaknesses and even though that motley group of players did it, it gave me the greatest thrill of my coaching life. six months later.

On the same field where those pitiful seniors beat us, we beat the crazy team in the state of Georgia. Now listen, you know what I'm about to go through, so stay here with me. You know why one of my big life lessons is that I preach balance like Dave. he said in the introduction, see, I wanted our people to win in all areas of their life, their spiritual life, their family life, their business life, the first company I went with was ITT and my first people I admired in business with these vice presidents who were making six-figure incomes and traveling on airplanes and giving motivational talks and all those kinds of people and I said, man, if I could ever be one of those people, that's all I would want from the life and I met a A couple of years later I got promoted and I met these people personally and I was devastated because a lot of them were alcoholics and had been divorced two, three, four times and I said, man, if that's the price you have to pay. to be successful in business it's not worth it and I started preaching and tried to be an example.

I failed a lot in having balance in your life. I think God should be first, your family, second in business, third and it's hard, it's hard, but I. I tried Ty I tried I tried to help our people win in all areas of their lives to win big listen to me friends to win big you have to make a total commitment, the only thing, I mean, a total commitment, the only thing that They have to burn all your bridges there can be no plan B you see that most people fail because they are running out of time you see that it takes 20 to 30 years to win in business and most people keep changing and going changing and it keeps changing and it's not 25 35 45 55 anymore you know someone once said and I think it's true I turned 77 last Friday they say the biggest surprise in life is old age see friends, you're here on this earth for a moment, it's scary, they're here on this earth for the blink of an eye I don't feel 77 I fell in love with my wife in second grade I remember like yesterday I remember dressing in high school like yesterday having my first baby like yesterday I had 14 grandchildren great-grandchildren right now I want to say that you are here on this earth for a moment Look, it won't be long, they will plant me in the ground and plant me in the face with a shovel and there will be a tombstone over my head and it will say one of two things here lies the stallion or here lies the stallion now friends let me ask you what your real song is, don't say about yourself what your tombstone will say about you, you're here for a moment exhausting my last principle almost everyone does almost everything that needs to be done to win almost everyone gets there almost everyone has overcome the obstacle almost everyone does it almost it is a way of life for almost everyone but the winners do it what do they do? they do whatever it takes to get the job done they do it and they do it and they do it and they do it until the job is done we need leaders who can do it if you want to become someone do it me if you want to be financially independent do it I hear a lot of conversations about Al Williams, you need to do it and then talk, yeah, I hear people say, can you count on me?

Gray, just do it right. I will be a sales leader in 30 days. Wonderful, just do it or our life subscription partnerships will run for your entire period out of business, super dumb, just do it boy, if I could have a good month, I know I could make it great, just make it hard, if I could pay this debt, I really could. go, we will do it, okay, if I could sell my house, do it, but how do they sell? Do it anyway. Part I'm not making money, what can I do? Just do it, do what you want, do it and do it and. do it right when I become vice president I can stop doing it heartlessly I guarantee I'm going to win this cool contest just do it right I'm over it now look at my wonderful smoke just do it right I want to do it so bad I can taste what I'm doing you just do it well, it hurts I don't know if I can continue with what I do you just do it do what you do you do it and you do it and you do it it's not my whole life I don't want to be someone important we will do it then it's okay I'm going to recruit 20 people this wonderful month just do it or don't most save money so you never have to go through this again great just do it.

I'm hurting the art. I'm really hurting what I do, just do it right. I feel like I haven't had enough training. What I do, you just do it or not my manager. give me enough help what do I do you just do it right I want all the awards when they add my old company you don't mean someone like me has to start there and do it yes you really have to do it art art what is the main difference between winners and losers ? Winners do it and do it and do it and do it and do it until the job is done and then they talk about how wonderful it is to have achieved something unique and I'm glad they are.

They didn't quit like everyone else and what a wonderful day it is to finally be someone they are proud of, thank you.