How To Change Your Life and Your Business - Art Williams

thank you thank you thank you Dave I love Dave Ramsey in one of the Giants in our country you know what I talk to my team I coached football in Georgia for seven years and then I coach Taylor Williams for 20 years and when I said you know what they answered back what and so it would encourage me when I say you know what if you would say what you know what you got it okay 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 graduated in college with a PE degree the kind of person is not supposed to make it and you know in business and I found out a lot of things about winning in business the real important things too windy and busy a lot of these people did write books that ain't never done nothing they try to tell you how to do it that's a pile of crowd you know going to college and listen these professors they never done nothing tell you how to build a business a pile of crap you know only when you've done it like Dave Ramsey do you know the little things the real small things that are difference between winning big and just being average and ordinary and I'm gonna cover with you today the real small things and important things that you need to do to win big in business so you know what I believe nobody wants a boss but everybody needs a coach bosses intimidate coaches motivate bosses look for your weakness coaches look for your strengths bosses criticize you coaches praise you the number one thing that we had in al Williams was I want to be somebody I want to be somebody so bad it just ate me up inside it was in my bones it was in my blood it was in my heart I want to somebody those five little words were important to those ale Williams people it hit a nerve for anybody that wanted to make a difference with their life that there was a goodness in a of Williams there was a goodness that drew the right kind of people to us we believed you had a responsibility to do what's right we believed your reputation was everything if you don't do what's right you've got me you might get by for one day one week one month one year but sooner or later they're gonna smell you out al 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 people who joined ayo Williams saw that we were built for people that it grew up tough for people that had had a number of disappointments in their life for people that wanted their life to be special I hate these big companies in these big liberal universities that tried to program people like me to believe that it's though the winners are the pretty people these people that have the perfect bodies you know they're six feet to 185 pound slim three-piece suits wingtips use power ties beautiful teeth beautiful smile great tennis players that's a bunch of crowd they had these perfect backgrounds you know they're boys they they these people put this on this is out there that if you're born on the right side of the tracks if you're born rich you're the privileged class you're supposed to go to college you're supposed to get all the good jobs if you're born from a poor average ordinary background like me that you must have give up you must give up all your big dreams and all your big ambitions if you have a high IQ they rule you're brilliant brilliant if you have an average IQ like me they say you're supposed to drive a truck or be a janitor will bull people are judged by how high they score and aptitude tests personality tests achievement tests and crap like that ain't nobody ever designed to test or will they design a test that can measure the heart of a champion I believe you know what you know what I believe people want three things really deep in their heart 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're passionate about and number three they want to build total financial independence for them and their families where nobody can put their thumb on you and squeeze you and use you well you can tell everybody out there that if I take a flying leap if you want to a nail Williams provided for its people those three things February 10 1977 ayo Williams was born just a peanut 85 people in one city in one state the enemy was 250,000 people's in every city in every state our weapon was by term and invest the difference in an IRA our motto is a company where salespeople are King see folks I really believe the first step to winning is you got to have impossible goals big goals hey listen listen to these goals we had a day of weeks where we're just a peanut 85 of us in one city one stayed fighting the largest 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's impossible can you imagine little peanut 85 people just like this first two rows right here talking about changing the largest 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 forty thousand agents versus our eighty-five 1977 when we were born they were born in 1864 it's just like if I were some of you right now I mean if I had to target a company I'd like to really go after right now that reminds me of Prudential if Starbucks you know they're the most they're the most overpriced over oh did pile of crap I think out there in their business so number three number three our goal was to see our families become financially independent I post can you imagine I started off making forty six hundred dollars a year my last year seventh year in coach and football in Georgia I was paid ten thousand seven hundred dollars as head coach and athletic director can you imagine what if behind possible that goal seemed to me to become financially independent to change my family for financial future for generations folks when we found today 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 going join AOL I want you to understand upfront going in this thing that the odds are like this of us surviving I'm not talking about beating Prudential I'm not talking about changing in industry I'm not talking about becoming financially independent I'm talking about the odds or like this with us surviving but if you asked me said art be honest with me tell me how you really feel I got to tell you I feel it I feel it I feel it in here I think we're gonna do it and I think it's gonna be big you know being somebody is seizing the moment Winston Churchill said it best he said there comes a special moment in everyone's life a moment for which that person was born that special opportunity when he seizes it will fulfill his mission a mission for which he is uniquely qualified in that moment he finds greatness it is his finest hour in 1977 the life insurance industry owns 60% of the assets in the United States they all the politicians and they own the regulator's they had been in business over a hundred years they did everything they could possibly do to put al Williams out of business but the industry had to had to defend things that were indefensible they had to defend selling fraud they had they they sold a cash value life insurance product whether it was called whole life or universal life or any of that stuff out there there were to benefits let locked together in one contract insurance and savings in one contract you paid for two things but you only got one if you died your family got the life insurance benefits but they kept your savings if you wanted your savings you had to surrender your life insurance hey yo William separated that split funding we called it where you bought an insurance cheap term insurance from an insurance company and you invested with an investment company you paid for two things and you got both things next they had to defend you lose your savings if you die let me ask you this what kind of low-life scum-sucking dog could create a product like that a savings program you lose if you die they had to defend Prudential average-size benefit like in my family well $4,500 was their average death benefit just a burial policy the industry's average death benefit was $6,000 just a bad burial policy they had to defend that 90% of their ages 90% of those scum-sucking dogs old term insurance on their own life they bought the inexpensive stuff and sold trash value to their clients who could do something like that see winning in business in my opinion is accomplishing your goals we had impossible goals but we did it we did it number one we destroyed trash value now these are the industry numbers these were not AO eum's made-up numbers from 1977 we were we were born to 2003 the life insurance industry lost forty 1 million policies 41 million policies ain't that something ain't that something from 19 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 soul was term and only 10% cash value hey ty something Williams did that hey-oh Williams did that think about this in 1977 there were 2,000 life insurance companies in 2003 only 69 companies so one new policy only 39 life insurance companies recruited one new Asian ain't that something ain't that something to think about this in 10 years al 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 ain't that something ain't that dad got something hard number to gold not folks this is impossible this is impossible but you can still do those things today but you got to do the important things and I'm things to talk about in just a minute our second goal was to be Prudential who had been number one forever but in 1989 ayo Williams did 92 billion dollars in business we beat number two Prudential number three New York life and number four metropolitan combined see our number three goal our number 3 goal seemed impossible Bart family is just a bunch of coaches and people that had played on a team to build financial independence for their families and we did it big time in 13 years we produced 140 millionaires now back in the 70s a million dollars worth of something we had we had more hundred thousand dollar earners today that's four hundred thousand dollars than any company in our era think about this in 1988 of a hundred largest companies 34 were ayo Williams team are number number 5 Bob you sons team did twenty six point seven billion dollars number six Prudential did twenty six point five billion dollars one of our teams meet Prudential ain't that something ain't that something see folks you got a set impossible goals you got it set impossible goals you got a dream big you got to go out there and do impossible things another key to a Williams success is we gave our people honor she'll see I believe ownership building your own company like we talked abouts taking part taking Starbucks down you know if some group of people had the courage to come together and go out there and knock their butt off you can do it's just unbelievable what you can do we gave our people ownership we gave our people a chance to build their own company within a company and when people have ownership they love it more they predict to protect it more they try harder let me give you a couple of examples Bob Turley died a few years ago he had built an army of 16,000 people in 36 states in Canada he had a payroll of 145 million dollars a year 1.4 billion dollars over ten years and he left that to his son he changed his family for generations Bob Sadler another great leader in ayo Williams had an army of 19,000 people operating 38 states plus canula Canada had an annual cash flow of one hundred and ten million dollars ten years 1.1 billion dollars and left that to his two sons and we had dozens or more examples like that see I believe to win in the free enterprise system folks you got to do two things number one you got to have an edge you got to have an edge you got to have something that you're better than other people that you're competing against are you've got to have a better product at a better price and a better delivery system now how do you get that edge you get that edge by studying the competition like if I was going after Starbucks I know everything about them I know I know them from A to Z and I guarantee you if you go look at a country like Starbucks it's got over 3,000 coffee kraut places you know and that kind of stuff you can find all kinds of things that they're over blued it on they got fat and lazy and sorry right you got it you got but you got to take this stuff seriously get an edge you got to look at the competition and you got to analyze them and study I study Prudential I'm study New York Life I study metropolitan like you can't believe I found out their weakness it was just like when I was a football coach and we were playing somebody on Friday night I'd look at those game flames and I studied those game films and I'd find the weakness of the opponent so we studied the game films and we looked at the life insurance industry the largest industry in the United States they only 60 they owned 60% of the assets in the United States they look so big Prudential looks so big they look so powerful they look so unbeatable but then when I got in there and I looked at them I found out there were nothing but a paper tiger I found out the big life insurance companies is like the federal government they're fat lazy slow and inefficient everything the federal government touches turns to crowd let me give you let me give you two examples fed eggs they have better service and they make a profit the post office run by the federal government poor service and they lose money the competition spent millions and millions of dollars on things we didn't think we're important as an example in advertising Prudential spent $68 and $0.50 per policy al Williams spent four cents in office expenses Prudential spent one thousand three hundred eighty three dollars per policy al Williams spent $149 per policy equitable took out a full-page ad in USA Today and said they spent two hundred twenty thousand dollars per agent getting them ready to sell life insurance al Williams spent zero hour part-timers spent paid their own hundred dollar licensing fee CA o Williams took all the money we saved by being more efficient and we built a better product for the consumer and we built more commissions for our sales force next to get that edge we had to simplify the complicated when you get as big as Starbucks as an example it is just it's like a bureaucracy it's just you know it's just uh it just gets out of control and and and the life insurance industry was a million times bigger than Starbucks and we had that we had to find a way to simplify how complicated they made it let me give you an example this is Prudential Dre book if you look at it's 176 pages it's an inch thick this is what they got three series of products they got the Gibraltar series modified like three modified like PI modified life ten modified twenty five or ten played light up at 85 a condom attic whole life life paid up at ninety life paid up its eighty five life paid up at sixty-five twenty year pay life ten year pay like old life joint whole life now if you don't like any of those they got the state series modified life five citation fifty life paid up at ninety professional fifty two ply paid up at eighty-five modified life three modified life I modified like ten graded premium whole life the breviary modified live 21 increase in premium life paid up at ninety modified twenty five ten life paid up at eighty five a state twenty five whole life a condom attic whole life life paid up at ninety life paid up at age sixty five twenty year pay life ten year pay like old life joint whole life now if you don't like that they got the they got the true coast series they got bearable life bearable life waive your premium appreciable life waiver prenup reachable life level death benefit a preach life bearable death benefit variable appreciable life level double death benefit bearable priests life bearable death benefit pair will preach life wait for premium and this is what we got our rate book is one-page think we sell our best product that we own on our own life every time you've got to get an edge you've got 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 that built with part-timers we wanted to build an army of part-timers and go to the kitchen table and educate the consumer now al Williams had that edge now the second thing you have to do once you study the competition and get the edge is you got to compete better than the competition in the free enterprise system you got to get up early and you got to compete hard or you gonna get your butt knocked off and to compete your attitude is everything I believe the single most important thing you develop in your lifetime is a positive attitude the glass has always got to be half-full you got to expect your people to be positive you can't ever let your meetings turn into a great session positive attitude is everything there is plus everything there is plus everything there is positive people are like a dadgum magnet people are drawn to them like bees to honey folks I believe it could overcome every problem in business you can overcome financial problems sales problems health problems business problems recruiting problems personal problems you can overcome everything and still be all you want to be in business but you can't ever overcome an attitude problem the moment you give up on you you're dead as a doornail now if you get this positive attitude you can't walk around like a dead bud you've got to show it you got a walk faster you got to talk faster you got to show your excitement about what you are doing see I believe 90 plus percent of winning is always being excited stamp this in your brain people won't follow or believe in a negative dull disillusioned frustrated dadgum cry-baby but the greatest definition the greatest definition of a winner I ever heard this person said almost everybody can stay excited for two or three months a few people can stay excited for two or three years but a winter stay excited forever people want to follow a leader that's positive that's aggressive that's enthusiastic this tough another principle I believe in winners are discipline you've got to have standards in your life you've got to have rules you live by that discipline the definition is doing what you're supposed to do when you're supposed to do it I had one rule on my football team and that was you won't come to practice every day unless your butt was in the hospital hooked up to life support yo but was gonna be at practice then one day we were fixing to start practice and I had my starting right guard Johnny Campbell walking out to practice and his blue jeans and a t-shirt and I said Campbell if you quit have you quit he said no coach a bee stung me and my eye my right eyes close of my head swollen I'm I can't get the helmet on my 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 fit that uniform on you find a way to squeeze that helmet over your head and you get your butt out here to practice and just think Campbell if you can practice with one eye just think how great you're gonna play Friday night with both eyes see [Applause] so you know what you know why to win big you got to have a big dream you got to have a big vision see I had the privilege of coaching in high school and I believe for most men and women their high school years were their peak years to dream and be excited I'd have these guys and gals come in the 9th reading their eyes were as big as a baseball they'd start driving or dating or playing before hundreds of thousands of people they were in beauty contests on debate teams they they felt like life was a bowl of cherries that they were put on this earth to conquer the world or really be somebody to make a difference and then they graduate and they get dumped out in the big bad world and they get married to have a few kids they change jobs a few times and one day this Bob returned on pumped-up human being becomes a shell of a man in his foot foot hits the floor and he's developed an attitude that life's dealt me a bad hand that I can't I can't do it I just got to give up on all my dreams see it a/o Williams we didn't sell life insurance it was so so much bigger than that we gave a different kind of person a chance to dream again a chance to hope again a chance to get excited again see folks it's your responsibility as a leader to reach inside your people's hard to grab your people's hard and to help that person get excited again to believe in themselves again I believe you win with your heart not your head coach Lombardi the great coach of the Green Bay Packers was speaking at his last speaking engagement in Washington DC before he died of cancer to a group of top executives and early in his speech he said I'm fixin to give you the secret to winning in business and there was a hush came over the room you could hear a pin drop and he said the secret to winning in football and the secret to winning in business his heart power you capture the person's heart you capture the person see folks the secret is passion your passions your heart you passions your mind your passions your soul winning big in business has got to be more than just making money you've got to have a passion and I get a passion you gotta love it Mickey Mantle the great baseball player with the New York Yankees said I love hitting the baseball I wake up every day I'm excited to go out to the ballpark I love hitting the baseball man man when it rains the game out I get angry because I want to go hit a baseball I don't like it I love it he said if you like something you'll never be good at it you gotta love it see how do you keep a passion once you love it how do you keep a passion by not ever forgetting the things that blow your butt out of the water and let me give you two examples I never got over what they did to my mama my daddy died at age 48 of a heart attack and he was sold to little 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 daddy of one of my football players I was making 4600 dollars a year assistant coach in Thomasville Georgia I had a wife and two kids and he said all I want to come talk to you about insurance I knew I needed insurance and so I said sure come on and I didn't want to know anything about insurance I didn't want to know anything about investments all I was interested in football right and so uh he sits there and he talks to me about insurance and he says how much can you afford and I said $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 don't ever forget the things it gave you your passion another principle I learned is you always got to learn to do a little bit more I learned this 40 years ago in a Oh Williams from two of my vice presidents in Dallas Texas now on the outside both looked the same they were the same age they were the same sex but one made 500 thousand dollars a year and what made fifty thousand dollars a year and I started studying I said man what why such a difference they both then they both do everything you supposed to they both a loyal to the company they work hard they make money they save money they treat their people good on the outside everything looks the same but what does the $500,000 year person do the $50,000 year person doesn't do the $500 year person does everything he's supposed to and a little bit more he works hard a little bit more he makes money a little bit more he saves money a little bit more three years ago I had back surgery and I had a partial knee replacement and I became a swimmer I swim every day for him an hour to two hours I swim time I don't swim louts and I probably hadn't missed five days of swimming in the last four years and folks when I get to that hour mark let's say I'm swimming an hour today it's so programmed in me for 40 years I've done this it's so programmed in me when I get to that hour the finish line I always go another three minutes another five minutes if you want to win in this life you got to do what you're supposed to and a little bit more and you can't ever stop in the finish line let me give you another example about being tough in my five years as head football coach I never had to call timeout and drag one of my players off the field I told my players I said listen football's not a team game it isn't an eight football is a game between you and that guy in the wrong color jerseys right across from you and somebody's gonna win you or him and the first four plays of the game are critically important you gotta hit him hard and show him who's boss and then from there on you look for every weakness and you can't ever show hurt you can't ever show doubt you can't ever show quit I never let one of my teams take take a knee during the timeout I said on a timeout you turn around and you look at that guy you see you see him on his knee you seemed take his helmet off see how much he's sweating you see how much water he drinks you know he's sucking eggs hit him hard and we shock him up now we pray before every game we pray before every game and it's a sincere prayer that nobody on either team would get hurt that's not the purpose at sports but right when our kids in the locker room came into dressed for the game and exit the back door the boat to board the bus to go to the stadium to do battle I had a giant board and it was a knock out charge and our goal was to the the referees in the third quarter gonna have to raise their hands and say look those folks ain't got nobody that wants to keep on playing you know and our goal was to knock him out in our championship year we had 49 knockouts to nothing to zero and I would tell the players you know they're down there working out you know an hour before the game you know and then 20 minutes before the kickoff the players always go to the dressing room for the last-minute instructions I told my players this for five years I said now fellas you saw me talking to the ref tonight and I told him I said mr. ref you see those guys are wrong color jerseys down there they don't love it like my guys they're not as tough as my guys mr. ref I've never had to pick up one of my guys and drag him off the field and I want you to know on Friday night I wear my nice clean clothes to the game and if one of my guys get hurt I'm not gonna go out there and get all his blood sweating all that crap all over my clothes you know you gonna have to move the ball to the other side to feel and play a little bit till he can walk himself get default crawling get off the field now folks if one of my players had got hurt I'd have been the first one out there but they didn't know it so they didn't get hurt my first two years my first two years when I went in business all I heard was no no no no I don't want any no thank you no no and it was killing me but two years later I paid a death claim I took a would and two children a check for a hundred and fifty thousand dollars and if it not been for me and my company and my toughness they they had to try to live on ten thousand dollars in my whole world changed I said Wow Wow you know I thought this thing worked the numbers proved to me that my term and invest the difference was the best way to go but now I see a real live situation where our family's in desperate crisis and this stuff really works but you know what that you know what people kept saying no no no no thank you and you know what see I forgot that 95 percent of the people I went to see said yes yes thank you and so I developed I changed my attitude I said look all you can do is all you can do you can't do no more than all you can do right I mean I can't do no more than sell what's right right I can't do no more than sell what I want on my own life right so when I walk in a house I can't pay the premium for the people right I can't make the decision farm right they got to pull their own little red wagon right there so all you can do is all you can do you can't do no more than all you can do right but all you can do is enough you got to keep being positive you got a Pete keep being positive and have a can-do attitude the worst to 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 baby they wanted to get in a 300 pound Club and they'd get it almost up here and they say I can't the spotters were taken away and put it on the rack and I said wow that's our problem and I called it emergency meeting the next day and I got all my team together in the locker room down there and I said fellas I'm passing a law today you can't ever say I can't in fact I'm going one step further you can't even think I can't and anybody that catches one of my football players saying I can't you get to give them three licks with a board I had a board about this wide and this long and I had little holes board in the fatty and you know so you could really get speeding mr. little but and it took me about two or three weeks every year I'd have a kid come down and knock on my door and said coach he said it coach he said it and I'd make that older kid bend over and I'd give that kid to board he had bust him three times and folks you could not create a word game to get one of my kids to say I can they're bringing home a little bit closer when art in April my kids were this little and could understand words when they said I can't I made them do three push-ups stamped 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've got two teams of equal ability there's about 120 plays 60 plays on each team and 98% of those plays fail you know you don't fumble the ball you're gonna make your yard - you're gonna lose the order - you don't drop a pass and if you really study football you're gonna find it four or five plays or the difference in winning and losing but see every player on that team knows when he's in that huddle he knows that 98% of those plays are not gonna work but he also knows that the next play might be one of those four or five plays so the team that wins is don't give it everything they got leave it all on the field a hundred and twenty times and in one of those plays are gonna be one of those four or five plays you've got to keep calling the play you got to keep calling the play most of the things you do in business don't work like it smokes to you just got to keep calling to play let me give you another leadership principle reward and punish see you got to have long-range goals like I talked about earlier you know they take these goals that seem impossible you got to have long-range goals but then you've got to have a plan to get there with short-range goals in football my long-range goal was to win a state championship but in order to get there we had short-range goals every week we'd go out on thirsty and shorts and we loosen up and then I'd take them up to the classroom and go over our goals and this was our goals for five years as a head coach that if you go out there tomorrow fellas and you really get after it and we have a great offensive effort and beat them by 21 points or we hold them scoreless and win we're gonna go out and shorts on Monday and you know you former football players there's not a greater feeling in the world and go out there and win and then you go out on Monday and you put those shorts on you're prancing around and your little girlfriends sitting up there on the hill you know watching yeah man I saw Alzheimer right but I said listen if you go out there tomorrow and you slop it up and you just give a half but an effort and you win but you know you're beating by 21 points of your own holding scoreless we gonna go out and pass we got to punish ourself because we got to get better and if you lose I'll see you saturday morning my first year in business my long-range goal was to build financial independence for me and my family and my short-range goals to punish myself well I got there was I thought Monday through Friday my goal was to have five sales and three recruits Monday through Friday if I met that goal then I took off on Saturday and Sunday and spent it with my family if I didn't make that those goal by Friday I worked on Saturday if I didn't make it by Saturday I worked on Sunday folks there's no easy way to the top you've got to reward and punish yourself to be a great leader you got to be a great motivator always remember the most powerful form of motivation is praise and recognition in the early days they'll Williams we didn't have any money and we became famous for our t-shirts I would go out and spend two and a half dollars on a t-shirt and I put I am a stud I am somebody play like a champion just do it I've literally seen grown men and women cry at a meeting that were making two and three hundred thousand dollars a year not getting one of those little two and a half dollar t-shirt they would go back to their room they couldn't sleep at night they'd beat a head against the wall and cry all night see folks you're never too old and you're never too young to be praised and recognized people are starving in this world today for recognition it's 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 spend the summer we own an inn and a spa called old Edwards in up there and we built an indoor swimming pool for the city a really beautiful indoor swimming pool and they have a swimming coach from Clemson I met a Clemson guy in here while ago but a Clemson swimmers the swimming coach at Hollins North Carolina right now four years ago they had four people on their swim team so we build this beautiful indoor swimming pool and I said coach I want to put a wall of fame board on the end of the swimming pool down here and he said coach says the coming coach say coach don't you think that's they're a little too young you know eight 10 year 12 years 15 year old kids I say you don't get too young and you start praising to motivate your kids when they come out into Mama's bud ain't that right ain't that right you can't ever motivate kids enough right hey this year four years later for you to get on that wall of fame you had to go to the Junior Olympics you had to go to the Junior Olympics last year was in Detroit Michigan we had 66 swimmers come out for the swim team and we have 12 swimmers go to the Junior Olympics and get their name on the wall on the wall of fame you can't if you want to win in this biz if you want to win in this world in business you've got to become an expert on praise and motivation see I believe I believe being somebody is being an example and a doer not just a thinker in a talker I own an inn and spa Hollandsworth Carolina old Edwards in like I said and I want all of our employees to feel like a family to feel important like we tried to do it a or Williams let me just give you for example I hand write a letter every day every day I hand write a letter to one we have 500 employees now to one of our people and tell them I love them I appreciate them and thank you for what you do number two I instructed all our 500 employees to call me art or call me coach not mr. Williams I told each one of them I said you're much more important this business than I am and number three I don't want to see teammates shaking hands you don't do that to a teammate somebody you go to work with every day for heaven's sake shake the during hands I want you to give them a high fiber I want you to hug them I want all Edwards to become a hugging company and I would go around every week every week I do this every week and I give every 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 him see I wanted to create an event in an environment where we are a family you're my teammate you're my friend and you know what you know what see it's not the cookie it's not the candy it's not the letter that was important it was my heart it was me showing our people that they're important to me that they're special to me that they're special to this company see folks I believe the difference in being of somebody and being a nobody is people that are somebodies have a special kind of belief in themselves they have a change the world kind of desire and determination their attitude is bringing on the tougher the better they understand you don't get get what you want or what you'd love to have life gives you what you'll excel if you'll accept being average and ordinary that's exactly what you're gonna get somebody's somebody's expect to win they demand for themselves they demand for themselves happiness and success in fulfillment they always have a can-do attitude somebody's really believed in their heart that they're supposed to be somebody but somebody would be the most surprised person in the world if they wound up a nobody I had a coach my only hero in life whether there was somebody important to me only he ruined life with my high school codes in every way I was just a little bit better than average athlete just a little bit better than average student but Coach Taylor saw something in me I didn't know I had Coach Taylor made me feel like I'd do something important in my life he made me feel like I was different that I was special that I would make a difference with my life and you know what you know what I found out one thing about life nobody has ever accomplished anything significant on their own think about this folks nobody has ever accomplished anything significant on their own they always had some body some one person some a dog like Coach Taylor to me who cared about them who saw something special in them who believed in them I wanted to be that someone at AO iums I wanted to be that someone that was always there in the toughest times encouraging them fighting with them pushing them forward never give her a never giving up on them I wanted to be that someone that was willing to invest time one-on-one building relationships building friendships that would last a lifetime see I believe coaches coaches believe that you practice until perfect coaches believe you practice until you can't fail I believe you win by outworking the enemy Gary Player the great hall of fame golfer from South America the one more international golf tournaments than anybody in the history of God he said you I've played golf in every civilized country in the world and you know I find out that people are the same everywhere people have the same desires ambitions everywhere and I always have these guys and gals come up to me after I play around they say Jerry I love watching you at a golf ball man I love watching you hit a golf ball I'd give you anything if I could eat off ball like you and he said one day I had a particularly bad round and somebody said that and I turned around I said no you wouldn't no you wouldn't you'd give anything to hit a golf ball like me if it was easy but see nothing good comes easy you know what you got to do to hit a golf ball like me you got to get up at five o'clock in the morning you go down you hit a thousand golf balls you hit some mini golf balls that your hand starts bleeding then you run up to the clubhouse you watch that blood off your hand you slap a bandage on it and you go down you hit another thousand golf balls yeah you'd love it a golf ball like it was me if it was easy well nothing good comes easy all I ever wanted to do as a young boy would be a football coach then stamp this in your brain see you players live up to your expectations of them see if you see your player as a dud he's gonna turn out to be a dud if you see your player is the loser he's gonna turn out to be a loser let me give you an example if you want a wide receiver that's six four runs or four four forty but your wide receiver is five eight two runs a forty four eight forty you got look at him as an all-american you got to make you got to make him believe you think he's an all-american that you wouldn't trade him for anybody my first head coaching job was in a town that hadn't had a winning season in twenty years the last two years had won one game and lost 19 I went to all the clubs around town I went to the school I said we're through losing I guarantee I'm a winner and we're gonna win beginning this year I had 75 players come out for spring practice after one week we were down to 17 or 18 players I lost my first two quarter bags we were gonna have a spring game against last year's old sorry seniors that have won one game in two years only time I ever did this never did it again and they came up Thursday and I issued him uniforms they hadn't practiced we'd been practicing for four weeks I thought we'd beat him 100 and then the whole town comes out they were gonna see the savior of the football program you know when they were excited all that crowd and I sit there on the 50-yard line said this is gonna be a joke we're gonna beat them like a drum and they beat us and I got lower and lower and I said my life's over there's no way I can recover from this who would hire a football coach like me and I went home and I cried and I looked around all weekend and then Sunday afternoon and I looked in the mirror and I was ashamed of art Williams I said shame on you you know you're planning a tough League yeah you only got 17 or 18 kids but they believed in you and they did everything you asked and I called the next morning I went up to the principal's office and I got on the intercom system and I called all the football players down to the gym and I said fellas when I came here I told you this was the greatest opportunity by life because nobody except the town and the school thinks we're gonna win as great as I thought it was it's a hundred times greater today because nobody even our town and our school don't think we're gonna win the only people think we gonna win are the people in this room but I ain't nothing but it stood and I know how to win and I'm gonna teach you how to win the first thing I did greatest thing I ever did in my life my business life or my coaching life is I brought each one of those players in and I started talking to them about their goals and their dreams and what they wanted to do and how a bunch of football meant to them and I found out something unbelievable then I was looking at most of these kids and say it in comparing them to some of the kids I'd coached before they're better football school and I was looking at them and mmin have and and I said wow every one of these kids they have some good stuff they had some good stuff and I've started at that moment folks I started praising their strings and not criticizing their weaknesses and all that ragtag bunch of players did was give me the greatest coaching thrill of my life six months later on that same field where those Sarge seniors beat us we beat the number one team in the state of Georgia now listen now you know why I'm bout through so hang in here with me you know why one of my great life lessons is I preach balance like Dave said in the introduction see I wanted our people to win in all areas of their life their spiritual life their family life in their business life the first company I went with was ITT and my first people that I admired in business with these vice presidents or will make in six-figure income and they were traveling around on airplanes and motivational speaking and all that kind of crowd and I said man if I could ever get to be one of those people that's all I'd want out of life and I met a couple years later I got promoted and I met those people on a personal basis and I was devastated so many of them are alcoholics and they'd been divorced two and three and four times and I said man if that's the price you got to pay to be successful in business it's not worth it and I begin to preach and I tried to be an example I failed a bunch of having balance in your life I believe God should come first your family second in business third and it's hard it's hard but I tried to tried I tried to help our people win in all areas of their life to win big listen to me folks to win big you got to make a total commitment the one thing I mean a total commitment the one thing you've got to burn all your bridges there can't be any plan B C most people fail because they run out of time see it takes 20 to 30 years to win in business and most people keep changing and keep changing and keep changing and they're no longer 25 35 45 55 you know somebody once said and I believe it's true I turned 77 last Friday they say the biggest surprise in life is old age see folks you're here on this earth for flickers it's scary you're here on this earth for a flicker I don't feel 77 I fell in love with my wife in the second grade I remember that just like yesterday I remember suiting up in high school just like yesterday having my first baby just like yesterday got 14 grandbabies great-grandbabies right now I mean you're here on this earth for a flicker see it's not gonna be long they're gonna be planting me in the ground out there and they're gonna be planting in the face with a shovel and there's gonna be a tombstone over my head and it's gonna say one of two things here lies the stud or here lies the stud now folks let me ask you this what's your to Songdo say about you what's your tombstone gonna say about you you're here for Flickr time's running out my last principal almost everybody does almost everything you need to do to win almost everybody gets there almost everybody is over the hump almost everybody has it going almost is a way of life to almost everybody but the winners they do it what do they do they do whatever it takes to get the job done they do it and do it and do it and do it until the job gets done we need leaders who can do it if you want to become somebody do it uh if you want to become financially and do it I hear too much talk around al Williams you need to do it and then talk yeah I hear people say are you can count on me great just do it alright I'm gonna be a Sales Leader in 30 days wonderful just do it or die life underwrite associations gonna run all you term outside the business SuperDuper just do it boy art if I could just have one good month I know I could make it big girl he'd just do it alright if I could just pay off this debt I could really go we'll do it alright if I could just hell my house do it but how does a selling do it anyway part I'm not making any money what can I do you just do it do what art you do it and do it and do it alright when I get to be a vice president can I quit doing it nope alright I guarantee I'm gonna win this contest great just do it alright I'm over the hunt now watch my smoke wonderful just do it alright I want to make it so bad I can taste it what I do you just do it alright I'm hurting I don't know if I can keep on keepin on what I do you just do it do what art you do it and do it and do it aren't all my life won't want to be somebody important we'll do it then all right I'm gonna recruit 20 people this month wonderful just do it all right I'm gonna save money so I don't ever have to go through this again great just do it I'm hurting art I'm really hurting what'd I do you just do it all right I don't feel like I've had enough training what I do you just do it all right my manager don't give me enough help what I do you just do it alright I want every award where they add my former company you don't mean someone like me he's got to start off down there and do it do you yep you really got to do it art art what's the primary difference between winners and losers the winners do it they do it and do it and do it and do it until the job gets done and then they talk about how great it is to achieve something unique and I glad they are that they didn't quit like everybody else and how wonderful is to finally be somebody they're proud of thank you [Applause]

Channel: EntreLeadership

Views: 260,451

Keywords: entreleadership, dave ramsey, How To Change Your Life and Your Business - Art Williams, Art Williams, art williams, art williams best, art williams motivational, art williams do it

Id: 7KYOO5gyJ94

Length: 54min 47sec (3287 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 23 2019