#106 Bill Walsh (The Score Takes Care of Itself)

**David Senra** (0:00)
I want to tell you about a one-time only limited event that I don't think you're going to want to miss. I am doing a live show with Patrick O'Shaughnessy from the Invest Like the Best podcast in New York City on October 19th. Patrick has interviewed over 300 of the world's best investors and founders for his podcast. I've read over 300 biographies of history's greatest entrepreneurs for my podcast. We'll be talking about what we learned from seven years of podcasting, sharing our favorite ideas and stories, and doing a live Q&A. There will also be special event-only swag. If you live in New York City, I think it's a no-brainer. But if not, I think it's a great excuse to fly in. I've already heard from a bunch of people that bought tickets, they're flying in from other cities. Some people are flying in from other countries. That's setting the bar really high, so I will have at least four shots of espresso or four energy drinks before or during the show so we can make it a night that you'll never forget. If you're interested in attending this unique live event, I will leave a link down below. I highly recommend you get your tickets today, and I hope I get to see you in New York on October 19th.
The Fujian province of China is known as the Venice of Asia because of the superb stone sculptures created there over the centuries. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of years ago, stone sculptors worked in a time-honored and time-consuming way. When their sculpture was completed, the artist immersed it in a nearby stream, where it remained for many years as the waters constantly flowed over it.
During this period, the finishing touch was applied by mother nature and father time. The gentle but constant flow of water over the stone changed it in subtle but profound ways.
Only after this occurred would the sculptor consider it complete. Only when time had done its work was the sculpture perfect.
I believe it's much the same in one's profession.
Superb, reliable results take time. The little improvements that lead to impressive achievements come not from a week's work or a month's practice, but from a series of months and years until your organization knows what you are teaching inside and out, and everyone is able to execute their responsibilities in all ways at the highest level.
I believe that every organization has a cultural conscience that it carries forward year after year. That ethos may be good or bad, productive or unproductive, but it exists, and it is guiding ongoing personnel and informing new arrivals as they come on board.
The attitudes and actions I installed, including the inventory of San Francisco's football plays, were the results of the same guys doing the same thing for years and years.
Subsequently, it became almost routine to execute at the highest level when the heat was on.
Excellence in every single area of our organization had been taught and expected from the day I arrived as head coach.
The big plays in business or professional football don't just suddenly occur out of thin air. They result from very hard work and painstaking attention over the years to all of the details related to your leadership.
Talent, functional intelligence, experience, maturity, effort, dedication, and practice may not be perfect, but they will get you so close to perfection that most people will think you achieved it.
And the results will show it.
It takes time to develop the standard of performance. It's not just a seminar or a practice or a season's worth of seminars and practices, but thoughtful and intense attention over years and years.
This is a powerful force to have within you.
I was filled with an appreciation that what these players and members of our organization were doing was a work of art, one that had been created over many years, similar in a way to the sculptures in China.
It was a thing of beauty.
I believe it's true in your profession.
Your effort in the beginning is part of a continuum of effort. Your standard of performance is part of a continuum of standards.
Today's effort becomes tomorrow's results.
The quality of those efforts becomes the quality of your work.
One day is connected to the following day, and the following month to the following years.
Your own standard of performance becomes who and what you are.
You and your organization achieve greatness.
Alright, so that was one of my favorite excerpts from the book that I read this week, and the one I'm going to talk to you about today, which is The Score Takes Care of Itself, My Philosophy on Leadership by Bill Walsh. So this is one of, for years and years and years, this book, this is probably one of the most recommended books in startup land.