Talent doesn’t always trump heart
I am a big sports fan and as I watched the opening weekend of college football, a plain as day lesson on the importance of passion and determination played out in Ann Arbor, MI. The home and #5 ranked team in the country, the University of Michigan Wolverines, charged out onto the field in front of 110,000 frenzied fans dressed in maize and blue.
On the opposing sideline was Appalachian State, a team from Boone, NC. If you were to open up a sports magazine and look for the App State Mountaineers amongst the 119 college football teams, you wouldn’t find them. That is because they are in the lower Division 1-AA system.
The Wolverines paid the visitors $400,000 to suit up for what was supposed to be a home opening yawner. I won’t go into the play by play, but if I’m writing about it, things didn’t go exactly as planned.
7-0 Michigan. 14-7 Michigan. 28-14 App State. 32-31 Michigan. Final Score: 34-32 App State!
The team that had no chance, the team that was supposed to be a cupcake warm-up for the real season, came into a hostile environment and beat the #5 team in the country. The Michigan team boasted a running back and offensive lineman rated as top three in the nation and a quarterback who started all four years and would’ve been drafted by the NFL last year. Michigan’s higher paid coaches, highly recruited players, superior training facilities, and a home crowd did not matter to App State. They came in and proved that if you mix teamwork, brains, and passion, you can run with the big boys.
Note that no Division I-AA team had beaten a team ranked in The Associated Press poll from 1989-2006. That is why the headlines asked, “Biggest upset ever?”
I write about this story in a business blog because it shows the power of team. Michigan had the bigger named talent, but they were underprepared, complacent, and overlooked the little guys. Well, your company might just be the little guy.
Big or small, to get to where you want to go, it will take all of the things App State showcased last Saturday.
On the opposing sideline was Appalachian State, a team from Boone, NC. If you were to open up a sports magazine and look for the App State Mountaineers amongst the 119 college football teams, you wouldn’t find them. That is because they are in the lower Division 1-AA system.
The Wolverines paid the visitors $400,000 to suit up for what was supposed to be a home opening yawner. I won’t go into the play by play, but if I’m writing about it, things didn’t go exactly as planned.
7-0 Michigan. 14-7 Michigan. 28-14 App State. 32-31 Michigan. Final Score: 34-32 App State!
The team that had no chance, the team that was supposed to be a cupcake warm-up for the real season, came into a hostile environment and beat the #5 team in the country. The Michigan team boasted a running back and offensive lineman rated as top three in the nation and a quarterback who started all four years and would’ve been drafted by the NFL last year. Michigan’s higher paid coaches, highly recruited players, superior training facilities, and a home crowd did not matter to App State. They came in and proved that if you mix teamwork, brains, and passion, you can run with the big boys.
Note that no Division I-AA team had beaten a team ranked in The Associated Press poll from 1989-2006. That is why the headlines asked, “Biggest upset ever?”
I write about this story in a business blog because it shows the power of team. Michigan had the bigger named talent, but they were underprepared, complacent, and overlooked the little guys. Well, your company might just be the little guy.
Big or small, to get to where you want to go, it will take all of the things App State showcased last Saturday.
posted by Andrew Harrison at
9:50 PM
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