The School of Greatness - 610 Competition, Leadership, and Playing to Win with Coach Urban Meyer

Episode Date: March 5, 2018

We don't talk about the end all. We talk about how to get there. Having grown up in Ohio, I have always been a fan of Ohio State University. If you weren't aware, they have the best coach out there: Coach Urban Meyer. What I love about Coach Meyer is that he doesn't just set up a team for winning in football, he sets them up to win in life. Even though football is just a game, there is a lot you can learn from it. The power of teamwork, what it means to be a great leader, and what truly defines a loser (hint: it's not losing). Coach Meyer really sets all of his players up to have a solid career and foundation when they leave university because he doesn't just run a football program. He runs a leadership program. Coach Meyer has also led an incredible life himself. He is a 3 time national championship coach and a NY Times bestselling author. I'm so excited to share this interview with you. If you are in any type of a team or leadership position I know you're going to get so much value out of this. Learn all about teamwork and what it means to be a real winner, on Episode 610. Some Questions I Ask: How do you get complete strangers with big egos to to buy into your philosophy? (10:40) When you're cultivating a relationship with someone out of high school, what are you speaking into? (13:16) Have you evolved your philosophy since your first coaching job? (16:00) Do you meditate as well? (18:21) How important is it to have big dreams? (21:06) You're developing a leadership center, not just a football program right? (22:44) What's the biggest loss you've had in sports and in life? (25:34) When you start the season, do you sit down and talk about your team's vision? (27:33) What do you think is the biggest weakness you still need to improve on? (31:12) In This Episode You Will Learn: When he gets people to buy into his philosophy (12:42) What makes him different from other coaches (14:38) The one thing he must do every single day to be at the top of his game (17:10) How he gets kids to be disciplined (19:03) Coach's biggest dream right now (21:40) Which builds more character: winning or losing (24:46) The importance of striving to win in everything we do (26:23) The greatest lesson he's learned throughout his coaching career (29:28) Plus much more

This is episode number 610 with three-time national championship coach and New York Times best-selling author, Urban Meyer. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Henry David Thoreau said, it is not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, The question is, what are we busy about? I am pumped up for this one.

You all know that I am from Ohio. I'm a big Ohio State Buckeye fan. I love the football team. And we have a wonderful pleasure to have Coach Urban Meyer on the podcast. He's someone that I've looked up to for many years and always admired his leadership, his tenacity, his competitive drive, and his will to win. And I really loved connecting with him and learning about how he taps into the heart and the mind to enroll all of his players, all these young guys, to buy into his vision, his mission, and really a vision of excellence and competitiveness and how to be a great leader.

And not only on the football field, but outside of the football field as well and beyond many years after we are done playing football. So I'm very excited about having him on. And for those that don't know who he is, he's the head coach of the Ohio State Buckeye football team. He was the head coach of Bowling Green University from 2001 to 2002, then Utah in 2003 and 2004, and Florida Gators from 2005 to 2010. And when he was coaching at the University of Florida, he took the Gators to two national championship game victories.

Then in 2014, he led the Buckeyes to their first Big Ten conference title under his tenure, as well as the program's eighth national championship title. He is one of three coaches to win a major college football national championship at two different universities. National Championship at two different universities. And he worked as a college football analyst for ESPN as well, and is also the author of the book Above the Line, which was a powerful book that came out actually the same week as my first book, The School of Greatness, and was one of the most inspiring books that I read all year. And I went to the Ohio State facility. We sat right in the coach's room where they talk to all the players and they brainstorm and they strategize. And some of the things that we covered are how to get men with big egos to buy into a new philosophy. How do you get people who've maybe had a lot of opportunities and been the big fish in a small pond all of a

sudden to buy into this new philosophy when they get to the school. What he's seen over the years on how leaders fail. Also, what separates a top coach from an average coach. How to inspire kids to live at a higher standard and whether winning or losing builds more character. Which one actually builds more character? That and so much more in this episode. I'm super pumped. Winning or losing builds more character. Which one actually builds more character? That and so much more in this episode.

I'm super pumped. And if you want to watch the full video interview, you can go to lewishouse.com slash 610 to check out the full highlights on the video, learn more about Coach's book and everything else that we talk about in this episode. But before we dive in, I want to give a shout out to the fan of the week. This is from Kelsey Mead Fit, who said, I came across Lewis's podcast in early 2017, and I've been an avid listener ever since. Lewis has such a charismatic way of engaging with every single guest,

which draws me in and captures my attention as a listener. It often feels like it's just you, the guest, and Louis sitting across the table from one another. Each episode gives me new perspectives, opens my mind to new creative ideas, or reinforces the growth mindset I have been cultivating. Great guests, great host, great content. Hashtag trifecta. So Kelsey Mead fit. Thank you so much for your review over on iTunes. And you, my friend are the fan of the week. All right, guys, I'm super pumped about this. For me, I learned so much from coach urban Meyer. Make sure to take a screenshot of this, tag your friends, let them know about it. Tag me on Instagram, tag coach on Twitter,

and let us know your thoughts. I'm super pumped to introduce you to the one, the only, Coach Urban Meyer. Welcome, everyone, back to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about this. Our guest is the legendary Urban Meyer. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule. We're in the off-season, but unfortunately, there's never an off-season here. So we got a few minutes with you, and I'm very excited to be here. You know, the last time I was in this facility was 13 years ago. I did my pro day at Ohio State.

Yeah, I heard that. I was playing at Capitol, and for whatever reason, they let a D3 guy come in here during the pro day with Santonio Holmes and A.J. Hawk and Bobby Carbentone and those guys. It was probably the most nervous I've been in any football setting, seeing as Ohio State was a dream of mine. But I was kind of a late bloomer. Didn't really develop until my sophomore, junior year in college. But some good memories here. Running that 40 on that sprint turf was a challenging time. But it's good to be back, and I'm glad to connect with you.

You had a book come out a couple years ago, actually the same week that my book came out. That's called Above the Line. If you guys don't have this yet, make sure you get this book. I rarely read many books. I have researchers that read for me when I'm interviewing people and give me the notes. But this was a book that I bought myself and read almost all of it. Super inspiring. Make sure you go get this book. Very powerful. I'm just really grateful for who you are and who you've become as a human being. You know, you've had an incredible career as a coach. Joshua Harris is a buddy of mine that I used to train with.

Wow. 13 years ago at some facility where the Columbus Destroyers train at. We would train for about six months together. And I texted him last night. He said, tell him he's the greatest and I love him very much and wouldn't be where he is without you

as a coach at Bowling Green. And you've had an incredible career as a coach and you've transformed your entire mindset, which is what I'm really excited about. From being obsessive about things that hurt your mind and I think that hurts your health into now being obsessive about things that hurt your mind, and I think that hurts your health, into now being obsessive about things that help you and help your team. So I'm really inspired by your transformation, Coach, and congrats on everything you've done. Well, first of all,

welcome home. Yeah, thank you. We did our homework too, and I can say that I had my research team research you because we get asked to do a lot of things. And at this point in my life, and we talked about this a minute ago, you said, what kind of interview or what kind of podcast we do? If this can help someone, let's do it. If it's not, if it's just about football or who's going to play quarterback, I'm busy. We got things to do. But especially with what's going on in this world right now, and I watch news like everybody else, Sometimes I wonder where we're at. What time period are we in and what in the world is going on? Then you've been given a mission statement to or a responsibility to coach 120 guys

that the next 40 years are going to be dependent upon what goes on for these next two or three. That's strong. And so we devote the majority of our time to making sure that the people in this room, our team room, that we're making an impact with these people. Yeah. And you're big on leadership and developing leaders. I heard that you have nine captains coming up this year. Is that right? It was last year. Last year, nine captains. And we haven't done the captain thing yet. It was a very unique team we had a year ago. It was all, as I say, very well earned. And I think when you restrict the number

of captains, then I don't believe in that at all. We've always had the number of captains according to how many leaders we have. Yeah. Now, I asked Josh if there was one question that I should ask you, what would it be? He said, let me get his exact words. He's ridiculous amount of focus, his belief in his system, and then obviously his ability to get a bunch of strangers to quote unquote buy in. So your ability, you know, you went to different schools for a year or two, a couple of years, each Bowling Green and then Utah. You were there for two seasons. How do you get guys to buy in who are complete strangers, who are 18, 19 with big egos, think they've got it all figured out, have been courted their whole lives, everything handed to them. How do you get them to buy in to a philosophy, a belief system,

and to this obsessive competitive nature that you guys cultivate and get these kids to believe? You know, Tim Kite, who's my leadership consultant, and he's very instrumental writing that book. It was after our national championship season. And I used to live by this quote that, or my own definition of leadership was, it used to be set a standard and demand all live up to that standard. And then you start thinking how shallow of a, that has nothing to do with leadership. And I never believed that because there's much more to it than just set a standard. so the one that is in the book and that we talk quite often about i teach our players leaders and i teach our coaches and it's non-stop is the job of a leader is absolutely first and foremost is to earn trust you can only push and lead a person as far as he can trust you yeah so the first thing i've done at each and i look back now because you know i've been doing this for a while is the first thing I've done at each, and I look back now because I've been doing this for a while, is the thing that we've done very well, and the best group of coaches that I've had,

the best thing that we've done is we've earned their trust because they understand we care deeply about them. I didn't say anything's going to be warm and fuzzy. I didn't say anything's going to be easy, but we care deeply, I mean like deeply about them. And once you start to get those relationships with Josh Harris, John Madsen, the young man you know in Utah, the players here, that once those players realize that you care deeply about them, now you can really expound upon that definition of leadership. So the first part is earn trust and then be with extreme clarity, set the expectations and inspire and equip the people to fulfill those expectations. But before you can do anything, you have to earn their trust. That's where I think a lot of leaders fail.

Coaches fail because earning trust put a timetable on that. When does that, sometimes it takes years to earn trust. And sometimes you only got a player for, so earning trust is the key. How do you do that in two weeks of the most grueling boot camp that they go through? You don't do that then. I think that's just understanding that they know that this is going to be very hard. We want you to commit. We want you to invest. But it takes much more time than that.

We're very instrumental in getting to know the players' families, getting to know what their dreams are after football. And once the players know, wait a minute, this guy can really help us, or this staff can really help us, that's when the trust takes place. When you're recruiting or cultivating a relationship with a young kid out of high school, what are you speaking into most of the time? Are you speaking into their time at Ohio State, the future, what's possible for them? Or is it more speaking into the vision of their dreams after Ohio State? I did. I felt guilty. I think intercollegiate athletics have used players for many, many years, and I'm not going to get into do they get paid or not get paid, because that's a topic for a much

different conversation or different time. But it all changed when my daughter was a very successful volleyball player, and I would go on unofficial visits with her and listen to these coaches talk, and I'd be like, wow, do I really sound like that? You know, they're talking about locker rooms, they're talking about jersey numbers, they're talking about music and I don't care about any of that. I care about what are you going to do for my kid? And so when I start speaking and recruiting to players now much deeper than what I have in the past, we're looking much further beyond getting a degree. We're looking much further beyond getting a degree. We're looking much further beyond holding a national championship trophy or whatever, or the first round draft pick.

We're looking much further beyond all that. We're looking into what do they want to do. With their life after football? After football. Because this football thing is going to come to an end. For some people, it's in two years, three years, four years. If you're very lucky, it's maybe eight, but it's going to end for everyone. And we try to push that as hard as we can. We don't try. We push that as hard as we can. And that's one of the first pieces of conversation I'll have with people that we're starting to recruit. Yeah. You were able to recruit top athletes at these less desirable schools, let's say, than Ohio State when you were coaching at other schools. What's the difference between you and other coaches? What's the difference between you and other coaches?

What's the things that you're talking about that separates you to want to go to a Bowling Green or a Utah as opposed to being recruited somewhere else? Those are great questions. I'm not sure they did. I think, you know, I had some great evaluators, you know, Kyle Whittingham, the head coach of Utah. I'll never forget. We recruited players that were not wanted.

Yeah. But we had such a good plan on how to identify who those under-the-radar players are. Eric Weddle was a perfect example. One of the best safeties in the NFL in the last 20 years was a guy that was unrecruited. And we go to Utah, and we weren't trying to beat people for him. That was more, when you're at a Bowling Green in Utah, a smaller school, the premium is placed on evaluation as much as anything. Evaluation and projection because you're usually looking at an undersized guy like you. Yeah.

What's the visual of this in two years? Because you're not going to go beat Ohio State. Right. When I was at Utah, our staff would get mad at me when all of a sudden USC came and offered them. Oh, no, what do you think? And I said, go to USC. That's what I do. And don't hold that against them.

Yeah. We have to do a much better job of identifying the under the radar guys. Yeah. Joshua, I also want to ask you about your philosophy and how it's changed or stayed the same since your first head coaching job to now, the different schools you've been at. Have you evolved your philosophy or has it always been what your mentors have taught you?

No, it's evolved. The Josh Harris had a 36-year-old nut job that was a head coach. And thank God we didn't have cell phones back then or we didn't have. It was wild. And I took over a program that had a great coach named Gary Blackney. There was a lot of drugs, a lot of other issues that the program kind of slipped a little bit. The leadership on the team was non-existent and we had to make some changes. When you go two and nine and you're getting pounded, obviously there's guys there that shouldn't be there. So we went in and cleansed it.

We made it so hard that we had 18 to 20 players quit within the first couple weeks, and they should have. Division I football wasn't for them. But the ones that stayed, we went from two and nine to eight and three, and one of the best turnarounds in college football history, and still to this day, maybe the best group of seniors I've ever had. They were so appreciative. Their whole goal was let's find a way to have a

winning season. And we ended up having a heck of a year. You guys were top 25, I think. Weren't you 24, 23? Well, we got up to 16 the year after that. The first year, I don't believe we made it to the top 25. The second year, we got up to 16. That's pretty impressive. What's a non-negotiable for you every single day that you must do in order to be at the top of your game? Non-negotiable is I start my day with a Bible study that Tim Kite puts on that I have to do that. I have to get... Is he the one that texts you the quote or Bible verse? No, Chris Spielman does that. Okay. And then Tim Kite, it's an email. And we'll go through the book of Galatians. We'll do something. And I have to get that 30 to 40 minutes of that my time.

Really? I have to. Or I'm sick about it. And we have a coach on our staff, Greg Sciano, that will all go into his office. He'll come into mine. And we'll actually, we're getting ready to play USC in the Cotton Bowl. And we're going to have a conversation about that. To say I've always been like that, I've tried to be good about that,

but not to the point I am now. I'm non-negotiable, as you put it. Every morning. I have to have that every morning. Is there a certain time or does it? Six o'clock, 6.30, right between the six and 6.30. Really? Have to do it.

And how many times would you say you'll miss a year? Or do you not miss in the last 365 days? Well, I'll miss once in a while, but then I catch up throughout the day. You know, if we have a mat drill like we did today at 6 a.m. when the whistle blows because he doesn't send it out early enough, then I'll get it right afterwards. But I don't miss.

Really? Yeah. And what happens to your day when you do miss? I'll find time to go get it. No matter what, you'll do it. I have to go get it. Yeah. Wow.

Because I feel empty without it. Do you meditate as well? I like to use the word prayer. Yeah. But I think it's very similar. And I think it's time to get your, it's actually part of what we train our players. There's times you got to get your mind right. And some people, unfortunately, the below the line behavior, getting your mind right is drinking and acting like a fool and doing college stuff or

doing other stuff, which I've done. I've also tried to learn and be disciplined and learn from great leaders on how to get your mind right. And meditation, prayer by yourself or with someone like a Shiano, someone like like-minded people, that's how you get your mind right. And it's a must. How do you get kids who want to live the life, you know, they're getting stuff thrown at them all the time. They live a little bit below the line, right? Little? A lot, right? Some of them a lot, some of them little. How do you get them to want to say, you know what, live above the line. Don't have fun, essentially. You're telling them not to have fun in their mindset, right? Don't go out and party. Don't go do this with girls. Don't do drinking. How do you get them to say, you know what, don't have any of that fun

is what they're thinking and live above the line at 18, 19. I don't say don't, don't, don't. God created the way we are. And I think as long as you live the disciplined life, you can still have a lot of fun in your life. And I certainly don't want to preach at you because like I said, thank God there weren't camera phones back when I was 18 years old. However, I always like to say you're here, everybody's here, and you want to be here. The fastest way is draw that straight line and stay away from anything that pulls you off of that straight line. Now we can start talking for this alcohol, whether it's a bad relationship, whether it's obviously drugs, those are the three big things that you deal with in college right now.

You want to get pulled off that line, those are the three quickest, well-known ways to do it. But don't, there's a great quote actually right over there that says, do your habits reflect your dreams and goals? And if it's not, then change. That's too easy. And when I have my son, I changed that quote. It's behind my son, has it up in his bedroom, right next to his bed. If your habits don't reflect your dreams and goals, change your habits. And then I added, or change your dreams and goals. Don't lie to yourself. I hear people say, I want to go play in the NFL, but you're acting like this. You lie to me, it's fine. But don't lie to yourself. And that's when people start to think, wait a minute now. I get where I'm not going to tell everybody exactly

what I'm doing. But then you got to look in the mirror and say, do I really want to be a first round draft pick? And I'm doing this? And that's when usually it hits home. Now if you're dealing with someone that is really that far off the beaten path, then it's going to take years. But I've seen a lot of transitions pretty quickly when they start saying, I want to do this, but don't lie to yourself.

Yeah. How important are having big dreams for human beings, do you think? Do you think it's important that we go after big dreams? I think you know the answer. I don't know if I've ever met a person that didn't have great dreams. What do you do then? What are you just looking for the next sandwich or looking for the next meal?

God created us to have these great dreams. So I would say I don't know if I've ever met a player or person or human that's not had great dreams. Some are a little more serious about achieving them. Which that's what makes us all so different. What's your big dream right now? My dreams have changed over the years. There was a long time to go win a national championship, and we did. My dream right now is to be a grandfather. I want to be the best possible grandfather there is and really time to go win a national championship. And we did. My dream right now is to be a grandfather. I want to be the best possible grandfather there is

and really support my family. But my professional dreams now is I want to see this room of 120 people have a 100% effective rate of having a job offer waiting for them when they're done. When they finish Ohio State University, we're close to that right now, that they're so well prepared for life after football.

What we talked about earlier, you want to see any group of people, any group of people. I don't want to get into black, white, Polynesian. And when I was at Utah or Southern, Northern, Eastern, Western, it doesn't matter. Any group of people. And you take away their hope and you take away their opportunity, it's combustible. It gonna blow up and I think it's my coach's job and our job in

this university's job to make sure that we can't control some what's going on in this world but it's our job to make sure there's hope and opportunity for every player that comes through this program yeah that's powerful you're really developing like a leadership center for kids it's not a football program it's a leadership center that's where what's not a football program. It's a leadership center. That's where we've changed. Right? We have really changed.

And I'm glad you said that. Yeah. That's a big part of what's in there. That's why I thought it was so important to get that on paper. Because after the 2014 season, it was illogical for what happened that year. We lost our starting quarterback a week before the first game. That's crazy. The starting quarterback was a registered freshman. He gets hurt in the rivalry game. And then the third string quarterback takes game. That's crazy. The starting quarterback was a redshirt freshman. He gets hurt in the rivalry game,

and then the third-string quarterback takes us on a three-game journey for a national title. It was unbelievable. And when I heard him say one of the number one reasons is he didn't want to let his teammates down, now you know that what we're teaching around here was working that particular year. Yeah, and I love that you guys have, you know,

it's all about playing for each other, playing for your unit, right? You have nine different units. Is that what I've? Nine units. Nine units. Yeah, I was debriefed. Everything's about playing for one another, but also competing at the highest level.

And I heard from Quinn that you guys track everything. Everything. Is that from, like, who sits down the first in team meetings to catching passes to competitive it's any competitive environment we're actually that's part of our mantra right now for the 2018 season is that you know it's unfortunate it's unbelievable i looked one day during a season last year i just was very upset we lost a game and it wasn't just because we lost a great team but i didn't feel our team and i didn't feel the competition. So I looked. I just hit on my iPad competitor, and I was so disappointed what came up.

One of the definitions I saw, someone who takes part in athletic events. And I can't disagree more. That's not a competitor. That's a take-parter. That's a guy that conforms, and he does what he's not competing. And then so I just started playing again, and then I looked up fierce competitor. And that's what I want. That's what we all need to be.

And a fierce competitor is a refuse to lose. Basically, I added this, when they keep score, we're going to try to win. And we try to teach that throughout this whole program. As long as someone's keeping score, we're going to do our very best to go win that. And that's why we train so hard. Yeah.

What do you think builds more character? Those that win a lot or those that lose a lot? I'm going to be politically correct here, but I just, I don't buy that losing builds character. I don't. I think losing just teaches you, hopefully that teaches you, that gets you that feeling that we all have that you may want to work harder so you don't want to lose. Yeah. A winner loser, and we use this around here quite often, just because you lose, you shouldn't be tagged a loser. If winner or loser, and we use this around here quite often, just because you lose, you shouldn't be tagged a loser. If you accept losing, now you're a loser. If you accept it and say, that's okay. In this line of work, I'm talking about college football, and I think

I don't know many professions that aren't like that. If you fail to win, that does not make you a loser. It just makes you want to work that much harder and never let that happen again. And that's going to happen. We're going to get knocked down. But a competitor gets right back up and finds a way to win it next time. Yeah. Wow. What's the biggest loss you've ever had in sports and in life?

Well, I lost my mom and dad. And that was tragic. Not tragic, but my mom lost her at 63 years old and far too young. She never got to experience, never got to see me coach a game, and she used to always talk to me about that, being head coach. My father passed away in my arms two weeks

before I took the Ohio State job. Oh my gosh. And that was tough. I have a great family. Those are off the field losses. That was very tough. Yeah, and what about in sports? Biggest loss, whether it was a player, coach?

In the games, there's several that stick out, you know, and we had a tough one this year, but it's hard for me to quantify which was the hardest. It's not fair, probably. Some come to my head. Yeah, of course. I'm just not going to share them. Yeah, of course.

How important is it that we develop a winning mindset and that we strive to win at everything we do? Not from a sense of needing to be right and needing to win to hurt someone else, but just that competitiveness. How important is that that we strive to win in everything we do? I think it's essential. I think it's, once again, I think we're created to do that. Why do you think that? I think God has essential. I think it's, once again, I think we're created to do that. Why do you think that? I think God has a plan for us.

Just believe that when not many people don't have that burning desire to go win, and those who haven't, I would imagine, just haven't had that euphoria, that feeling of, and not so much for yourself. That's why I love football. My daughter's played volleyball. The euphoria of winning isn't say, I won. The euphoria is for me to hug my teammate and say, we found a way to accomplish something. And I think that's what's the greatest fulfillment that I have to this day of in that locker room after a win.

Not saying, I won. Look what we did. We put all the egos, all the selfishness, all the other stuff out of the way, and we went and got something done together. I think we're created that way. Yeah. When you guys start the season, I remember playing in high school.

I played sophomore year in high school. It was the first time I played football. That's why I was a late bloomer. I didn't really understand the game until I got into college. Even then, I was still confused. They just said, here, go run here and catch the ball. But I remember the coach had us all sit down and talk about the vision the first day.

What's the vision for this season? What do we want to create as a team? Do you have a process in either the first day or the first kind of day like that where you talk about your vision as a team or what the team wants to create together? Sure. We're not a big goal team. You won't see around here like win the national championship. That's too abstract. There's too many variables involved. And what happens if you lose one early? Do you just not play? You give up. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's a nine strong. I want to maximize every unit on our team. It's a militaristic model that we use around here. And that is that what's our goal every year? And that's to be nine strong. And that means every unit within our team, and it's what we call small unit cohesion, is that every unit performs at their maximum capacity. And the way we recruit around here, the great players we have, if we're performing at maximum capacity, you're probably not going to lose.

You won't see, let's go win the national title. Let's go do this because there's too many injuries and there's too many, you're counting on committees to pick you to go play any games. But you know what? It's all very comfortable, or not comfortable, but it's all fulfilling if we can look in the mirror and say, you know what?

We were nine strong. We maximized who we are. And I'm not just talking about on the field, but that's our goal. That's a big part of that year too. I learned so much in the last probably seven, eight, nine years of my career that we don't talk so much about the end all. We're talking about how to get there. And the end all that we're all shooting for is nine strong. I love that. What's the greatest lesson you've learned throughout your coaching

days? Oh, no question. One that I've shared with my son and my daughter is I have three athletes in the family. And the one thing is athletic teach you that it's not about you. And that's why I love team sports. I wasn't much into the individual sports, not for on purpose, but never forget that my son in Florida, we started a seventh grade high school or a seventh grade football program. Yeah. And so I was helping him out. I was a consultant. I didn't coach, but I was a consultant.

And I would go there. I wanted to make sure that everybody's teaching the game correctly. And the first couple days of practice, it wasn't football. It was the most disgusting display of whatever they were doing. It was a bunch of kids running around, falling down and all that. But what I saw happen, and the coaches were outstanding, but every day they got better. Every day they got doing. It was a bunch of kids running around, falling down and all that. But what I saw happen and the coaches were outstanding, but every day they got better. Every day they got better. And I'll never forget my son, Nate was playing safety and he goes and football is a tough sport. Yeah. Tough, tough sport. And this big running back came through and he goes up and he, you know,

had no choice. He's because if he had a choice, I'm not sure it hit him. And he kind of turned into the guy, the guy ran him right over. And I was right there looking at him. And he looked up at me. And he had water in his eyes, little tears in his eyes. And I said to him, I said, get up. Because football and sports teach you to do what? If you're going to get hit, get up.

And the good thing in team sports, rarely do you have to get up by yourself. There's always a hand. Someone's going to help you. And I think that's what's family. That's what my family's all about. That's what this program's all about. And you tell me where else to learn that better than on the football field or my daughter's in volleyball. You get knocked down when you reach your arm up. What's going to happen? Someone's going to grab you. They're going to pick you up, dust you off, and let's go again. Yeah. A couple of final questions for you. I just want to respect the time. What do you think is the biggest weakness that you still get to improve on, either as a

human being or as a coach? I regress. The win at all costs. College football is very competitive. When you lose a game, I just take three steps backwards sometimes. And you have to get your 6.30, get your mind right time, and you have to get everything back in order. So sometimes I disappoint myself with that, not near the extreme that it was before, but that's hard not to fall back into that when it all costs mentality. Yeah. Yeah. This is a question I ask at the end to all my guests. It's called the three truths. So imagine this was many years from now and you got to pick when it was your last day on earth. It's your last day.

You're 100 and however old you want to live. And you say, you know what? I think it's time. You've written many New York Times bestsellers. You've coached as many teams as you want to coach. You've achieved everything you could imagine. More national championships. You've done it all.

Whatever you want to do, you've done it. All those big dreams. But for whatever reason, all the information that you've put out there, your spoken word, the videos, the written content has been erased for whatever reason. Hypothetical, right? So no one has access to your information anymore. But you have a piece of paper and a pen by your bed before it's the last moment. And you get to write down three things you know to be true about all of your experiences you've had in your life, your lessons, things like that. And I call it the three truths question. So these would be the lessons that you would then give to the world. This is all they would have to be remembered by you as your message to the world. What would you say are those three truths? There is a God. We're created by a great God.

The second thing is family is everything. And then that is an all cost. You protect your family at all cost and teach them, prepare them. And the final thing is that team is stronger than me. That group of people, if you get the right group of people, you tell me what you can accomplish. And you get the right group of people, you tell me what you can't

accomplish. And you get the right group of people in the right setting, you can move mountains. Yeah. And that's an absolute truth. Yeah. Those are great. I like those. Before I ask the final question, I want to make sure you guys get a copy of the book. Go get this right now. I'll have it linked up. Powerful book. Great message. If you want to build leadership in your company, we have a lot of entrepreneurs that watch this. So if you you want to build leadership in your company, we have a lot of entrepreneurs that watch this. So if you're trying to build leaders in your company, your team, if you're a teacher, a coach, get this book. It's very powerful information.

They're great equations that you guys talk about. What is it? E plus R equals O, right? Experience plus- Events in your life. Events plus response equals outcome, right? Yeah, powerful. You've got it on there.

I'm going to have to get one of those, too, if you have an extra one. I'm going to steal one. So make sure you guys go get this. And you're pretty active on Twitter, or is that someone on your team? Someone on my team. Someone on your team. But maybe you jump in there right now, and then make sure you go follow Coach on Twitter. Is there anywhere that you do hang out online if people wanted to reach out and leave a comment somewhere to you?

Twitter, I do. I go through it myself. Let's check it out. Okay. I have a team, but I also spend time with them. Yeah, yeah, of course. So make sure you guys go follow it myself. Okay, let's check it out. Okay. I have a team, but I also spend time with them. Of course. Yeah, of course. So make sure you guys go follow Coach on Twitter. We'll have that linked up. Before I do get to the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Coach, for your incredible authenticity as a guy that loves Ohio State

football and just sports in general. You're such an authentic leader and human being, and I love witnessing everything that you've transformed into, like I talked about in the beginning, and how you continue to evolve as a human being to be there for your wife, for your kids in a more powerful way, to be there for all these young men who are constantly learning so much and evolving, and for your coaching staff, for everything. You're a blessing to Ohio, and you've brought a lot to one of my favorite places in the world. So I acknowledge you for all the information that you put out there and your competitiveness as well. It's very powerful and inspiring.

Great to be with you. Yeah. The final question is, what is your definition of greatness? Greatness to me is you maximize. you maximize your gifts that were given to you what's if i'm supposed to be a 4.0 student become a little bit better than a four-point student so you're maximizing your if you're a 2.2 student and that's your maximum capacity push a little bit further so greatness to me is you're operating at maximum capacity coach urban thank you so much thank Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. There you have it, my friends.

I hope you enjoyed this episode with the legendary Coach Urban Meyer. If you enjoyed this, please take a screenshot of this right now. Tag me on Instagram at Lewis Howes. Post it over on Twitter. Again, the link is lewishowes.com slash 610. Share it out with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, all over the place. I want to make sure we get this one far and wide because Coach doesn't really do many interviews like this where he dives into the mindset about competition, leadership, and what he's really building there. So I think this is extremely valuable information to have from one of the top coaches to ever coach in college football. So again, share it out. LewisHowes.com slash 610. And all of the resources, the full video interview is back at that link as well. So you can get all the links that we talked about. And make sure to pick up a copy of his book as well above the line if you want to learn how to compete at the highest level, no matter what industry you are in. Oh, my friends,

I am so excited for this episode that we just did and so many good things coming to us. We've got some big interviews and episodes coming up. So if this is your first time here, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so you can stay tuned every single Monday, Wednesday, Friday, we release new episodes. And the whole intention is to help you unlock the things inside of you that you know can support you with a world of possibilities. Unfortunately, some of us get trapped, get insecure, get held back, feel stressed and overwhelmed, while others of us use the other things that we have available for us. Joy, passion, vision, excitement, competitiveness. All these things are available for us. You get to choose every single day the life you want to live. This is your opportunity in every single episode. We try to bring you the most inspiring people in the world to help you unlock those opportunities

for your life. I love you so very much and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.