Book of the Week: "Row The Boat" by Jon Gordon and P.J. Fleck

As a history buff as well as political science major I took my fair share of history classes. During my junior year at McDaniel I took a post-World War II U.S. History course. In the class we examined the events after the second world war. Midway through the semester our professor gave us the prompt for a short essay about whether former President Richard Nixon's presidency was a success or a failure. 

Many in the class, myself included, believed this was going to easy question to respond to upon first glance. Nixon was a polarizing figure, responsible for the Watergate break in, but re-thinking the question it dawned on me and took a different approach to the paper. Nixon's legacy was tarnished, but his overall presidency was far from a failure. I forced myself to separate HOW Nixon was going to be remembered (his legacy) and what he actually accomplished in his five years in the White House. 

What does this have to do with Jon Gordon's latest book, which he co-wrote with current Minnesota Golden Gopher Head Football Coach, P.J. Fleck? Everything. For Coach Fleck and his rowing the boat culture, it's about making a difference in people's lives and being the reason others experience success. "Rowing the boat' is continuing to plough through the difficult times and keep going. That should be your legacy. 

It mirrors a new Disney series that originated on Disney-plus and starred America's favorite uncle, Uncle Jesse, or as he's known in the real world, John Stamos. 

In the new Disney-plus original, "Big Shot," Stamos plays plays a former college basketball coach with multiple championships who gets barred from the NCAA after going all Bobby Knight and throwing a chair at a ref. In trying to re-claim his reputation, he begins coaching a private, elite, GIRLS high school basketball team, who care more about how being a member of a sports team looks on their college applications than they do about winning. 

While Stamos' character, Marvyn Korn, was attempting to rehabilitate his image for a return to college basketball, the girls on the team as well as colleagues and his daughter was teaching him other crucial lessons. 

As a college coach with multiple national titles, Coach Korn was riding high at Wisconsin where they constructed a statue of him in front of the arena, but after the chair-throwing incident people were calling for that same statue to be taken down, in Joe Paterno statue fashion, and melted so Korn took it back himself. Mirror that to the present when Korn's star female player's father had just been arrested on embezzlement charges and the student body was calling for his name to be removed from the school gym. 

Lesson learned is quite simple. The statue represented the the past successes Korn had achieved and was not something that could be stripped away from him. He earned those wins and championships,  but those wins and titles also turned changed him into a volatile, unstable person. At Westbrook, Coach Korn was changing his persona into a kinder and gentler coach, father and most importantly human. So when he had the opportunity to return to the college ranks at UC Santa Barbara, it was incredibly difficult decision. 

Seeing how he had the ability to change and shape people's lives - including being more of a presence in his own daughter's - he knew that was something he desperate did not want to give up. And that is important when it comes to coaching and building a championship culture, it's about helping others improve and change their lives, not your own glory. 

The statues, accolades, awards, and privileges are all great, but we all have an expiration date. When that day is reached we learn that all those privileges and accolades we once had, we no longer have because they were for the title and position we were in. What we are left with is is our legacy and what we want to be remembered for.