By David Tepera, September 9, 2020

Throughout my youth as a growing athlete, I was involved with multiple team sports as well as individual sports. It was always surprising to observe an extremely talented athlete that wouldn’t listen to his coaches.

Remember, I grew up a coach’s son, so respecting my coaches was second nature, as was respecting all adults.

Once I became a high school coach, one aspect of my job was to mentor and help kids grow into young adults. As my father taught me, the discipline in sports helped students to become more successful in the real world. I took this responsibility seriously. I didn’t just lead with words, but with my actions. I jumped in and led all the drills with my athletes.

Yep, there was always those one or two kids who just bucked up against authority. This wasn’t a time to give up on them but to help guide them in understanding the path to winning championships. Most of the time, I was successful, but of course, some just refused to listen and had to be released because they just weren’t coachable. I was saddened not only because I felt I failed them, but I knew they had a rough life ahead.

You see, once you’ve made the varsity team, there isn’t room for bad attitude, slacking effort, being late to practice, disrespect and so on. This is a team sport, and we are all giving our best effort to win a championship. One bad-attitude player can disrupt chances of winning, so if you won’t step up, you must go.

Now, are you starting to make a correlation to your current day situation? For those who work for others, are you coachable? Do you put in the extra effort to be a team captain? Can your employers count on you to get the job done correctly?

Here’s a thought for you, if you owned the company you work for, would you want to hire you? Only you can answer that honestly.

I told the same story to my kids when they were young. I asked them if they are the kids they would want? Believe me, it made an impact.

Look, we can’t change yesterday, so don’t let that impact you anymore. Today is fresh and you get to make the necessary changes now. Step up your game, listen to your employers and understand the rules and regulations. Make sure you not only fit your job description, but attack work to help win championships because you are coachable.