Dare to Prepare: How to Win Before You Begin by Ronald M. Shapiro & Gregory Jordan

Author:Ronald M. Shapiro & Gregory Jordan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2008-01-07T14:00:00+00:00

Joe Ehrmann

Joe Ehrmann was a captain of the Baltimore Colts, a standout defensive lineman, a mountain of a man. He also grew up tough. His father was physically and mentally abusive. His beloved brother died tragically. His life had a bunch of pain, and he wanted to take its lessons to teach others. So after football, he became a minister, a high school football coach, and a teacher. Parade Magazine in a cover story even called him “The Most Important Coach in America.”

Joe formed a new entity, Building Men for Others, and went anywhere anytime to deliver his message of empathy, service, and love. He set out to reform the notion of masculinity by emphasizing the importance of relationships and caring communication.

When people would ask him what he charged, Joe would say, “What can you afford?” When he did quote fees, he gave the same answer to the corporate world as to the needier nonprofit world. This might strike you as naïve, but if you knew Joe at the time, you would realize it was simply pure. Joe was so consumed with his need to help others and continue to help himself that he forgot about core financial strategies.

So Joe was out there across the country giving speeches and seminars—for huge discounts compared to what the market would pay. The result was that he might not only have been the best coach in America, but also the lowest-paid and hardest-working speaker in America. Everyone was tapping into his compassionate vein; Joe has such boundless compassion that he even disregarded his own livelihood.

Then the book Season of Life came along and Joe became the subject of a bestseller. While Joe helped promote the book by speaking around the country, he wasn’t participating in royalties from increased sales of the books. He even promoted the book by signing thousands of copies although he was receiving zero royalties.

One day his wife, Paula, grew so concerned about the toll all his travel and teaching was taking on his health that she intervened. She called me and asked for a sit-down. I had been Joe’s agent during his playing days, but we had largely lost contact except for seeing each other at community events and literally passing each other in airports. So we got together and developed a new strategy to help him take into account his financial needs and his family.

“I didn’t even think about strategy,” Joe said. “I just thought about delivery. So I had to look at the things that prevented me from being strategic—my own pathologies and unresolved issues. The idea of success, of making money, of having an audience kind of overwhelmed me so I postponed all the strategy stuff and just tried to deliver.”

Paula and Joe could have rushed into it: corporate advisers were courting Joe with ideas to “commoditize” his image and message. They were really using words like that. They wanted him to structure a business that would build a fortune around his newfound success. But Paula and Joe had learned from their mistakes; they didn’t rush into the strategy this time.

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