Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

The beginning of us starts inside, deep inside. The resolve to 'go forth' must be stronger than the tendency to leave it all to rot. My father was by no means a perfect man.. who is? Yet from an early age, he taught my sisters and I the value of resolve. He would say over and over again to us, "you were born to lead, you were born to lead." This, of course, ruined us. It made us tougher than tough in all the right places, as if we were invincible to failing because no matter what, we were primed to just keep getting back up. That is the growth mindset as it is called these days. Back then, Dad called it perseverance, toughness and 'firing out.' When I played football, Dad was on the lines always giving me his eye which I would catch for extra resolve. As I got older and moved through the divisions I got tougher and tougher until I thought of myself as 'all steel.' When I was at the line of scrimmage, my father told me to act meaner than a junkyar...

I don't find my students. I put my bread in the water and the students find me. Where is his strength? Is this the teacher? Oh. I see now. Let's do this. I got this! A great coach role-models, leads, supports, instructs, guides, corrects, mentors... and gets out of the way. Coaching then, is an art of balancing the player's strengths, fleshing out talents, strengthening deficits naturally and nurturing the mind and heart to reach higher levels of performance. Learning is not just a solitary action anymore with this understanding, but a humbling mindset that opens the mind to receive.  A central tenant to coaching duties is being able to impart knowledge so that learning can happen. The effective transfer of intellectual property comes easily when you seek to engage the mind via the heart first. Understanding that the mind and heart move the body, just like a small tiller directs a large ship, a great coach becomes sensitive to the player's wellbeing. The...