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High School Football & Small Business Leadership
“Matzner, I swear to F&#^$” god, if you miss another tackle - I’m going to make you run so many laps…you'll be sweatier than the dance floor at the Jersey Shore”
It was 2PM, on a scorching hot day and Coach Carmen Guarino was screaming at me at the top of his lungs - his spittle flying into my face from 4 inches away.
It was August, and it was “Double Sessions” time - which meant PAIN.
Coach Guarino was an old school Jersey guy, and among other noticeable characteristics, he hadn’t had two eyebrows since 1984.
He exclusively wore shorts (even when it was -10), and truly didn’t give a shit what anyone thought (absolute legend).
He was recruited to turn around a somewhat nerdy high school team’s football program (we were State champs in fencing AND academic quiz bowl), and he didn’t have a lot to work with.
Here is what his raw ingredients were:
Undersized kids (When I dressed as a freshman and he listed me as 6’0, 230… and every year the numbers went down, and got closer to the real one. I’m the only person to shrink in high school)
Not enough players (everyone had to play offense and defense)
Annoying parents (most of whom were litigious and worked in NYC)
The list was endless, but Coach Guarino had a job to do.
He was scrappy.
He didn’t have enough time, money, people, space, whatever.
He made us sell coupon books to raise money for a new weight room.
He was a crafty bastard - and would beg, borrow, and steal his way to getting what the team needed.
After years of getting absolutely demolished, Guarino’s hard work paid off, and he built a great football program, that while never winning a championship, consistently won many more games than it lost, including some playoff appearances.
Mission accomplished.
In hindsight, I’ve come to appreciate how much high school football coaches are like small business owners.
Just like SMB owners, high school coaches hold open tryouts and cross their fingers hoping they’ll have enough folks.
They don't get to recruit blue chip prospects or pay professional salaries.
Talking about “getting A players” is for the fancy prep schools, we’re just trying to fill the roster over here.
Practices are run on muddy fields behind the school, not million-dollar training facilities.
And forget about using fancy "pro-style" offenses - high school coaches have to keep it simple with plays their own undersized kids can actually execute.
No fancy technology, no big budgets, no nonsense.
In business, we small business owners are playing high school ball while the big companies are like the NFL.
We can't afford their slick marketing campaigns or high-priced executive talent.
But we can still build winning organizations by maximizing our people and focusing on the fundamentals.
We have to be scrappy bastards, just like Coach Guarino.
I’m reminded of a lot of conversations I have with “MBA types”.
They are full of complex ideas and buzzwords that sound great in the classroom but had no connection to my real world companies.
They talk about things like "maximizing ROI through partnerships" and "leveraging our assets to penetrate new verticals."
Whenever these desk jockeys talk, I picture someone spinning the thing they use for the lottery and pulling out balls to figure out what to say next:
“BIG DATA!”
“TECH STACK!”
“UNLOCK GROWTH VERTICALS!”
I genuinely have no idea what these people are talking about.
I just casually try to leave the room.
I’ve come to realize that these “MBA types” (with some exceptions, of course) have almost no grasp of how to actually run and grow a small business.
Their ideas sound slick but have no substance - and no grounding in reality.
The lesson here, is to be more like Coach Guarino.
Guarino didn't care about anything but results.
No fancy strategies or complex ideas - just blood, sweat, and tears until the job got done got done.
Time to channel your inner Guarino.
So, put your mouth piece in, lace up your cleats and get scrappy as hell to build something great.
Yallah Habibi,
Jon
P.S. Guarino didn't need fancy tech or expensive gear.
Just hustle and duct tape.
Same goes for building your business.
Don't overcomplicate things - keep it scrappy.
That's why I just launched "1 Click Assistant" - a 100% done for you playbooks to help you (and your global talent) kick butt on day 1 of working together, without the brain damage.
Passage of the Week (and one of the most beautiful pieces of writing, of all time):
Our Boeing 747 has been fleeing westward from darkened California, racing across the Pacific toward the sun, the incandescent eye of God, but slowly, three hours later than West Coast time, twilight gathers outside, veil upon lilac veil.
This is what the French call l'heure bleue.
Aquamarine becomes turquoise; turquoise, lavendar; lavendar, violet; violet, magenta; magenta, mulberry.
Seen through my cocktail glass, the light fades as it deepens; it becomes opalescent, crepuscular. In the last waning moments of the day I can still feel the failing sunlight on my cheek, taste it in my martini.
The plane rises before a spindrift; the darkening sky, broken by clouds like combers, boils and foams overhead.
Then the whole weight of evening falls upon me.
Old memories, phantoms repressed for more than a third of a century, begin to stir.
I can almost hear the rhythm of surf on distant snow-white beaches.
I have another drink, and then I learn, for the hundredth time, that you can't drown your troubles, not the real ones, because if they are real they can swim.
One of my worst recollections, one I had buried in my deepest memory bank long ago,
comes back with a clarity so blinding that I surge forward against the seat belt, appalled by it, filled with remorse and shame.
I am remembering the first man I slew.
Opening Passage of “Goodbye, Darkness” by William Manchester - a memoir of the Pacific Front in WW2