
Legendary football coach bill belichick on ‘the art of winning’ | members only
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DO YOU HAVE ANY RULES FOR DEALING WITH LOSSES? After every game, win or lose, we follow the same process. Sometimes you could do a lot of things well and come up short, and sometimes you can
do a lot of things poorly but still manage to win the game. I always try to be very objective and honest with myself, our staff and the players — regardless of the score: What did we do
well, what did we do poorly, what will we do differently, and how can we do things better next week? And whether that was after a big win or a tough loss or anywhere in between, the biggest
thing for me is really improvement. Belichick's "The Art of Winning" was published earlier this month. Simon & Schuster Every day is an opportunity, and every game is an
opportunity for us to improve. It doesn’t matter whether it’s preseason in August or whether it’s the AFC Championship Game. When we walk in the door, our goals are the same every day: Do
your job, work hard, pay attention to details, and put the team first. To sustain success over two decades, you need that kind of consistency. Every day is an opportunity to get better.
YOU’VE HAD TO PUT AN END TO PEOPLE’S CAREERS. HOW DO YOU TALK TO SOMEBODY WHO’S REACHED A PHYSICAL LIMIT THAT YOU KNOW THEY CAN’T OVERCOME? It’s really hard. One of the best lessons I
learned was from [former General Electric CEO] Jack Welch, who taught me that you treat them the same way on the way out as you did on the way up. You show them respect, you appreciate what
they did, you try to help them in any way you can after they leave. And then when they do leave, as bitter as it is or as hard as it is, at least you maintain that dignity, and they’ll tell
their teammates who are still on the team the way you handled it. And that goes a long way for the players who stay on the team who weren’t released, because they know that you’re doing the
best you can for them. WHAT IS THE NO. 1 POINT OF PHILOSOPHY THAT YOU HAVE WHEN IT COMES TO STAYING SUCCESSFUL? One of the chapters in the book is on accountability and saying “I screwed
up.” Everything in this book is about being on a team. And when you’re on a team and something goes wrong, what you want to try to do is identify what happened, and, if it’s your fault, step
up and say “That’s my fault, I screwed it up.” That gives everybody a ton of comfort to move forward and not second-guess themselves. When you’re in the middle of the game, time is of the
essence. Anytime you can identify your mistake as the problem and say, “That’s my mistake, I fixed it, let’s move forward,” we’re good to go. And as the leader, when you say that, it gives
everybody a little bit of accountability. They say, “Well, hey, if he’s going to say when he’s screwed up, I can say that I screwed it up too.” That was the chapter that I really wanted to
include, because I’ve made as many mistakes as anybody. The real question is, did you try to learn from them and not make them again?