The Pep Talk

A Football Story about the Business of Winning

Kevin Elko

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2008
• eBook ISBN: 9781418569273
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Business Skills

Coach Jack Morris was at a complete loss. One week after being hung in effigy for leading the beloved Lincoln Lions to their twenty-fourth straight defeat, Morris was bracing for the Jacktown Giants. Gians by name and by record, they were heralded as the best prep team Ohio had ever seen. Coach Morris was just waiting for the axe to fall.

But something bizarre happened when a stranger requested permission to deliver the pregame pep talk. With nothing to lose, Coach Morris agreed. No one could have predicted the result: A motivated team, fighting for pride, fighting for their town, fighting for each other.

Though just a fictional football story, The Pep Talk contains universal and inspirational words of truth that apply to every walk of life. Author Kevin Elko makes a living giving the same talk contained in these pages to corporations and athletic teams around the country. Like the characters in this story, Elko's pep talks have changed lives and helped drive teams to national and world championship victories.

Empower yourself for success. Empower yourself with The Pep Talk.

THE PEP TALK

Still dressed in a suit,Mr. Christopher stood facing the players. He never took off his suit jacket nor did he remove his fedora. With his left hand, he held up a football in the air until there was complete silence. Then he spoke.

“There were two buffaloes that were standing in the open range in Wyoming when a couple of cowboys on horseback trotted by. One cowboy said to the other, ‘Look at those two buffaloes. They’ve got to be the ugliest animals on the entire range.’

“‘Yeah, look at their big heads on their skinny bodies,’ the other cowboy said. ‘And you know, I’m told buffaloes are as stupid as they are ugly.’

“That’s when one buffalo said to the other buffalo, ‘I thought that out here, home on the range,we’re not supposed to hear a discouraging word.’”

A couple of players snickered, but most of them didn’t crack a smile. The joke simply went over their heads.

“Gentlemen, I overheard some of you talking to each other in the locker room,and I couldn’t help hearing some of you saying some discouraging words about tomorrow night’s game. Sure, you are playing one terrific football team, but remember that they’re high school kids—just like you guys. They’re not the Ohio State Buckeyes. They’re not the Cleveland Browns.”

It was as if Mr. Christopher made eye contact with every player in the room. And as if in unison, all eyes looked down.

“The Bible tells us in Numbers chapter thirteen,” the speaker said, “that Moses sent twelve men to the land of Canaan, commanding them to spy on the enemy. ‘Go up there into the hill country,’ Moses instructed them, ‘and see what the land is like, and whether the people who live in it are strong or weak, whether they are few or many.’

“Upon their return, the spies reported back to Moses, ‘All the people we saw in it are of great size.’ They claimed that the Canaanites were so large that in comparison they felt as small as grasshoppers. The Canaanites, however, were not giants. To lead his people into the land of milk and honey, Moses recognized that he must inspire them to see themselves worthy of possessing it.

“I don’t see any grasshoppers in this room. If you think of yourself as a grasshopper, please raise your hand. How about you, Jimmy, are you a grasshopper? Or you over in the back. Are you, Henry?”

“No sir,” Jimmy answered, seeming surprised that the stranger knew his name. Henry just shook his head.

“Okay, so there are no grasshoppers in this room. I’m glad we got that out of the way.

“The Giants are not giants. Remember, men, in order to win at anything, the winning starts up here in your head. If you think otherwise, you defeat yourself before the game starts. I don’t think you want to spot Jacktown three touchdowns before you step onto the field. Well, that’s exactly what happens when you convince yourself that you can’t win.

IN ORDER TO WIN AT ANYTHING,
THE WINNING MUST START IN YOUR HEAD.

“In Joshua 1:9, the Bible tells us: ‘Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’”

“I repeat: Be strong. Be courageous. Don’t be afraid. God is with you.”

It was the second time that the stranger quoted from the Bible. It seemed to get everyone’s attention. But it was out of context. Evidently, they never heard a biblical quotation in a locker room.

“There’s a story about a Stanford math student who was doing graduate work during the Depression,” the stranger said. “His professor announced to the class, ‘Whoever scores the highest grade on this Wednesday’s final examination will be offered the job as my teaching assistant.’

“The student was financially strapped and desperately needed the job to stay in school. He studied so hard that he overslept on the day of the exam and walked into class ten minutes late. The professor handed him the exam that consisted of eight math problems. Two problems were also handwritten on the blackboard. The student did his best to complete the exam, but time ran out before he got around to answering the two problems on the board.

“‘I didn’t have time to do those two questions,’ he said to the professor, pointing to the blackboard, ‘and I really need that job.’

“‘You’ve got until Friday to turn in your answers for those two questions,’ the professor answered, but come Friday, that’s it.’

“The appreciative student profusely thanked the professor, copied what was written on the blackboard, and headed home. He worked on them day and night. By Friday morning, he woke up with just a couple of hours of sleep, finished the test, and rushed to his professor’s office with his completed assignment.

“The next morning at 7:00, the student heard a loud knock on his door. When he went to the door, there stood his math professor.

“Upon letting him in, the professor said, ‘Congratulations, you just made mathematics history.’

“‘What do you mean?’

“‘Those two problems on the board,’ the professor said. ‘I wrote them on the board before you arrived and told the class that nobody has ever been able to solve them. Not even Albert Einstein. Had you been there on time, you would have known they weren’t part of the test.’

“The student acknowledged that had he known the truth, he would have never attempted to answer them.”

Mr. Christopher paused for a few moments to let the thought sink in. This time his audience got the message. Heads were nodding, and faint smiles appeared on the boys’ faces. Then he continued.

“What if you didn’t know that Jacktown had a record-breaking winning streak? What if you didn’t know about your team’s losing streak? What if you all believed that together, there was no limit to what you can do as a team?

“Nobody in this room should be thinking about the past. As Carl Sandburg said, ‘The past is a bucket of ashes.’Forget about Jacktown’s winning streak. Forget about Lincoln’s losing streak. Throw those thoughts out of your mind. Why? Because they don’t matter. The only thing that matters when you step onto the playing field tomorrow night is the game itself. You got that straight, Frankie?”

Mr. Christopher tossed the football to Frank Howard,a lineman and the biggest boy on the team. He caught the ball, immediately stood to attention, and said,“Yes, sir.”Mr. Christopher motioned to him to throw back the football. Howard did and sat down.

“During a recent trip to Disneyland, I walked by a play that was in progress,” Mr. Christopher told the players. “The park employees asked twenty volunteers from the audience to participate in the play; a mother and her five-year-old girl were among those who were brought up onto the stage. The little girl didn’t have a hair on her head, and she was having the time of her life. Her mother was enjoying herself as much as her small daughter. I learned that they were special guests of Disney—the little girl had lost her hair because she had cancer and was being treated by chemotherapy. The little girl was dying, so why were she and her mother so happy? you may ask. They were so happy because they were in Disneyland, that’s why.

“They made a choice. They could feel sorry for themselves, or they could enjoy their day at Disneyland. They chose to enjoy the day. They said, ‘This is my day.’ It was their responsibility. (By the way, if you break down the word responsibility, it means ‘respond with ability.’) Each of us has to decide how we are going to respond. You can decide how you want to respond tomorrow night. I suggest you do as that brave little girl and her loving mother did: They decided that they would seize the moment. They chose to say, ‘This is my day, and I will make the most of it.’ In tomorrow’s game you can choose to say, ‘This is my day and I will make the most of it.’”

THIS IS MY DAY AND I WILL MAKE THE MOST OF IT

Mr. Christopher had lowered his voice when he said, “This is my day, and I will make the most of it,” and looked around the room. He saw that a few of the boys were teary-eyed: his message was reaching them.

“Jesus taught us in John 20:29: ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

“Those were not idle words. It’s easy to believe that you will win a game when you’re riding a winning streak. Tonight, I am asking you to believe in yourselves and that you can beat Jacktown even though your past performances do not compare to theirs. This makes it harder to believe, doesn’t it? I won’t kid you. It’s not going to be easy tomorrow night. It will be difficult. But you can do it. And you can start doing it by believing in yourself and in your teammates. This is something you can start to do right now. I want you all to stand up and tell the man next to you that you believe in him. And I want you to tell him why you believe in him. Go ahead, do it.”

Everybody stood up and turned to someone next to him and they started talking to each other. Mr. Christopher let them talk for two minutes and then he instructed them to sit back down.

“There’s a story about a fourteen-year-old boy who was born without a left arm. The boy told his mother that he wanted to take judo lessons. Reluctantly she enrolled him in a course. The instructor worked with the boy, and in particular, taught him one move. ‘Master this move,’ the boy was told again and again.

“The boy did as he was instructed and soon was winning matches; he qualified to compete in the final round of a major judo tournament. His opponent was a real brute who had overwhelmingly defeated his foes. Before the match, the referee pulled the instructor aside and said, ‘You’re going to get your boy killed. Even if he had two arms, he’s no competition for this guy. He’s a killer.’

“‘Don’t worry,’ the instructor said. ‘He’ll be fine.’

“The boy even told his instructor, ‘I’m going to get killed.’

“The instructor replied, ‘You just do as I taught you, and there isn’t anything to worry about.’

“The boy won the match. On the way home from the tournament, the boy said to his instructor, ‘Why did you let me go into the ring with such a strong opponent? I don’t have a left arm, and that guy could have seriously injured me. Besides, you only taught me to master one move. What made you think I could win with only one move?’

“‘There is only one defense for that move,’ the instructor said, ‘and that is for your opponent to grab your left arm.’

“Do you get the message?” Mr. Christopher asked the players. “The instructor had taught the boy to believe in the process. Tomorrow night, it won’t be the process that beats you. It will be self-doubt. Believe in yourself and your teammates. This is what has been missing with this team. This is what has caused Lincoln’s current losing streak. Believe you will win. Believe in each other. Get rid of your doubts.”

“That’s right boys,” Coach Morris interjected, catching on to the excitement. “You can’t win football games if you don’t think you can win.”

“Satchel Paige, the old great baseball player in the Negro leagues, never knew how old he was,” Mr. Christopher told the boys. “Everyone knew that Satchel had to be up in years because he’d been pitching for so long. Old Satch just kept playing and playing. One day, determined to know his age, a group of reporters surrounded him and asked, ‘Satch, how old are you?’

“Satchel replied, ‘If you didn’t know how old you were, how old would you be?’

“I pose this question to you: What kind of Lincoln team would suit up for tomorrow’s game if you had no preconceptions about yourselves?”

Coach Morris scanned the eyes of his team and saw a confidence shining from them that he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“Two railroad workers were sitting on a bench,” Mr. Christopher continued. “The president of the company walked by and stopped to say hello to one of them. Afterward, the other worker said to his friend, ‘I’m impressed. How did you become such good buddies with the president?’

“‘He and I started for the railroad at the same time. We worked side by side doing manual labor,’ the worker answered.

“‘But he’s the president, and you’re still a laborer.’

“‘Yes, I know,’ he sighed. ‘I came to work to earn $1.40 an hour, and he came to work to build a railroad.’

“You see, it’s all up here in your head,” Mr. Christopher said, pointing to his forehead. “Envision yourself as a superior athlete playing on an unbeatable team. A winning team runs like a well-tuned precision machine with each player executing his job with perfection. If you work together, each of you doing exactly what you’re supposed to do, you’ll be a winning...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• The Meeting in the Diner
• The Pep Talk
• The Lincoln-Jacktown Game
• After the Big Game and Whatever Happened to . . . ?
• Pre-reunion
• The Reunion
• The Scrapbook
• Coffee at the Diner
• Piecing Together the Puzzle
• The Pep Talk Revisited
• 12 Business Lessons from The Pep Talk
• About the Authors
• Acknowledgments