"Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care"

We had a really neat opportunity last night in our MBA class. We had a guest speaker come in and talk about persuasion and motivating people, in line with our classroom learning. That guest speaker:

Dan Hawkins, head football coach at CU.

The topic of discussion for the week was persuasion, prepped in part by 80+ pages of readings around structuring a persuasive argument and different strategies around communicating your message along with focusing on your audience (and making sure you understand what they are looking for, not just what you are looking for). Very interesting and applicable stuff based on how it applies to business in general and our everyday lives.

Coach Hawk jumped into class and after getting a quick intro from the prof and a question to get him started, he was off to the chatter. It was a very passionate and enthusiastic speech, hands down the best class/lecture/speech/interaction I have seen before.

He talked about several things, notably the importance of having a vision and drive. Find what you are passionate about and have a driving vision and focus on including people in your mission that share your drive.

Surround yourself with good people. Reminds me of my football coach "you hang out with turds, you turn into a turd". You are only as good as the company you keep. Very true statements for any part of life.

Take chances and challenge yourself: taking a chance and getting out of your comfort zone is very important in life and in business. He created a great vibe around Boise State when he was there. He thought CU was a great opportunity and yet another chance to step out of what was becoming a comfortable situation and challenge himself.

That feeling in your gut when you fail or feel you are failing, take that feeling and use that negative experience as a learning experience and grow from it.

And probably my favorite line from the night: "Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care." It seems very applicable to many walks of life; whether it is philanthropic endeavors, business, your life and family or your friendships with others.

The overall talk with Coach Hawk lasted 45 minutes and covered a variety of topics such as "how do you walk into a players living room and persuade them to play for CU?", "How do you manage expectations amongst your staff and your bosses?" and "How do you go about persuading the school administration, the faculty, the students, the community and the state on your agenda as football coach?"

I wish I had had a tape recorder last night. It was a very candid discussion that left the entire class excited (I was pumped for a few hours and stayed up late studying and typing this because there was no way I could go to sleep).

Go Buffs! And as one of my classmates said last night "despite the fact I lit a fresh candle in my Coach Hawkins shrine this morning, I was very impressed with Coach Hawk but even objectively I'm sure I would have found endless business value. Totally worth the price of tuition, I can fail out a happy man."