Baylor Men’s Basketball is in the Sweet 16!!! This may not mean a whole lot to you if you have not followed Baylor sports over the last decade, but let me see if I can refresh your memory. In the summer of 2003, one of the Baylor basketball players went missing and after all of the cards were on the table, it was discovered that another player had killed him and that there were several other problems with the program, including coaches playing for players, ignoring drug use by players and etc. etc.
The team was essentially non-existent when Scott Drew was hired to run the program in 2003. Sanctions (self imposed and NCAA) included a couple of seasons without post season play and scholarship limitations. Or, as one writer put it, ”The program was broke – ethically, morally, athletically. A player was dead, a teammate charged with his murder, their coach exposed in a cover-up.” (David Teel, Daily Press, Newport News, Virginia)
Fast forward to the 2009-2010 basketball season. Baylor was picked to finish 10th in the Big XII. After a strong non-conference season, the conference play had it’s ups and downs but the Bears were awarded with a 3 seed in the NCAA tournament and as of today, they are in the Sweet 16.
Why am I writing about this, you may ask? Because it is a great story of new beginnings. The Baylor Basketball program was done just seven years ago. There was even talk about whether or not the program would ever be allowed to play again–or even discussion about a “death penalty” type scenario. Yet, the program fought back. They hired a new coach, he implemented his recruiting program, he implemented his system and here we are in 2010 . . . with a Sweet 16 appearance.
Think about your business or personal life and the times when you felt like you were down and out. What did you do to pull yourself or your business out of this situation? Did you implement a new program? Perhaps you scraped and crawled and took each step day by day. Maybe you set small goals and achieved them each day, week or month until you were out of the miry pit in which you had found yourself.
In my life, I find myself down from time to time. When I do, I set goals. Most of them are easily attainable, and some of them stretch me quite a bit. Once I start to get back in the groove, I begin to enhance the reach of my goals. I encourage you to do the same thing. There is something in your life, whether it is in your business or personal life that needs improvement. Set goals and start to work your way out of it.
Collin W. Harbour
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