What are you afraid of?
Many people equate courage with a set jaw and a steady gaze–being able to suppress a moment of fear and press forward in the face of a threat. When it comes to our careers, however, courage is a steady commitment to maintain perspective and refuse to compromise your principles and goals.
Mike Gundy is a football coach at Oklahoma State University. One of his players, a quarterback that has struggled so far this year, was essentially attacked in this article written by a local columnist.
Gundy, who has himself taken heat for the team’s poor play so far this year, was unashamed in coming to the defense of his player. Keep in mind, picking a fight with the media when your job largely rests on the favor of public opinion takes courage. Doing it with guns blazing, whether you agree with it or not, demonstrates absolute conviction.
If you haven’t seen this yet, you’ll probably find it entertaining in how uncomfortable the level of confrontation is. Beyond that, though, think about what it means to the young man he is defending and what it says about the coach willing to put himself out there so completely for one of his kids.
I’m not encouraging you to yell and scream at your boss. However, when faced with a decision between being safe and taking a risk for something worthwhile, he sets a pretty good example for us.
Go out on a limb: that’s where all the fruit is.
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2 responses so far ↓
1 Angela // Sep 26, 2007 at 10:13 pm
I read that Carlson article and, as a football fan and a newspaper editor, I can tell you, that article was complete B.S. Gundy earned my respect.
Anyway, I told my boss off the other day when, for no reason, he screamed at me, “OPEN THAT IN PHOTOSHOP!” I said, “Do NOT talk to me like that!” He apologized. Not sure if that’s what you meant, but yeah, I stood up for myself at least.
2 Chuck Westbrook // Sep 27, 2007 at 8:55 am
@Angela– Yeah, that certainly falls under the scope of what I was going for. Other examples would be refusing to do something wrong, standing up for someone else (as Gundy did), and even being brave enough to pursue a better option if you’re in a bad job.
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