Think Like A Champion: Building Success One Victory at a Time - Hardcover

Shanahan, Mike; Schefter, Adam

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0066620392 ISBN 13: 9780066620398

Publisher: Harper Business, 1999

Synopsis

Mike Shanahan believes that the game of life is won--or lost--before you take the field. You can't win any important game without a plan for how to win it, nor live a successful life or pursue a rewarding career without a clear outcome in mind and a detailed plan for how to achieve your goals.

 Coach Shanahan knows about achieving big goals. Armed with his plan, he and his world champion Denver Broncos have elevated themselves to spectacular levels of performance. In three amazing years, they transformed a "mediocre," aging" franchise--and their legendary quarterback who just "couldn't win the big game--into the most feared powerhouse in the league; with back-to-back Super Bowl rings to prove it.

 Now, in Think Like a Champion, Shanahan opens his playbook to show the X's and O's of winning, a detailed game plan to help you storm the field with foolproof strategies, confidence, and the indomitable will to win. Shanahan's principles of success are as deceptively simple as they are challenging:

• "Preparation is key." Having prepared for every possible contingency, Shanahan expects to win every game he plays. He's usually right.
• "Whatever the sacrifice, it is worth the price of pursuing your passion." Give every game everything you've got, or don't bother to suit up.
• "Break down the competition's weakness and learn from their strengths." There's a system to studying game films, to observing your competitors on their home field before the big game. Apply it every time you enter a new market, pitch to a new customer, or face a critical decision.
•  "Pick great leaders and give them the power to inspire." There's a John Elway on your team. Give him the ball, and let him lead.
•  "Set huge goals." Hey, this isn't going to be easy. "It's about work ethic and balance." In short, it's about believing that achieving the impossible is all in a day's work.

 Everything in Mike Shanahan's life has prepared him to write this powerful book. He has worked with some of the best and some of the most difficult owners and coaches in the game, and he has coached a roster of players ranging from underachievers to All-Pros. In the ultra-competitive world of the NFL, he is a champion among champions. With his innovative mind, tenacity, and determined leadership, Shanahan has risen to the elite coaching ranks in the NFL. Armed with his vision, and these proven success principles, you can improve your chances on Game Day--or any day of the week.

About this title

Review:

By becoming only the fifth coach in history to lead his team to consecutive Super Bowl victories, Mike Shanahan of the Denver Broncos has certainly shown that he is a winner. In Think Like a Champion, he explains (with help from Denver Post sportswriter Adam Schefter) just how he reached this rarefied level and exactly what it takes to join him there.

Even though Shanahan snared his first NFL head-coaching job at the tender age of 36 and joined its most elite ranks within just 10 years, he did not reach the top without working hard and paying careful attention to the steps he took to get there. And while football fans may find his examples more illuminating and entertaining than those who don't follow the game, chapters based on 16 traits he attributes to his professional and personal triumphs--including preparing, sacrificing, believing, taking risks, and persevering--inspiringly recount his principles and practices in a way that anyone can understand and emulate. In the chapter on setting goals, for example, Shanahan reveals that he is an inveterate list-maker. Each night, he notes, all tasks for the following day are carefully scripted so he can constantly review them, ingrain them into his thinking, and then check them off when they are done. "If you have a plan, and if you have your direction laid out, you can chart your progress to your dreams at each stop along the way," he writes. "And, just as important, all along the way you can see how far you've come." --Howard Rothman

About the Author:

Mike Shanahan has led the world champion Denver Broncos to back-to-back Super Bowl victories in 1998 and 1999. Coach Shanahan mastered the college game over an illustrious career at the Universities of Oklahoma, Minnesota, and Florida. He joined the pro ranks in 1984, and has coached the Denver Broncos and San Francisco 49ers. In the off-season, he gives motivational speeches to organizations, groups, and Fortune 500 companies. He is a native of Oak Park, Illinois, and currently resides in Denver, Colorado, with his wife and two children.

 Adam Schefter is coauthor of TD: Dreams in Motion with All-Pro running back Terrell Davis. A sports-writer with the Denver Post, he is also vice president of the Pro Football Writers of America and a regular football commentator on Denver radio and TV shows.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Business
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0066620392
• ISBN 13: 9780066620398
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224