As I noted in my last blog, through my travels, I have been blessed to meet with people from all walks of life. Each of these encounters had served to reaffirm my belief that the key ingredients to success at all levels is your willingness to learn and the relationships with which you surround yourself. Over the next few months, I will be sharing a few memories from encounters that stand out in my life and lessons I have been blessed to learn along the way.
The great Eddie Robinson was a former coach at Grambling State University. At the time of our meeting Mr. Robinson had recorded more wins than any coach in college football history. Still today he stands as third on the all-time list. He loved his job more for the impact it had on his players than for the wins and losses. That is probably why he coached at the college level for 56 years.
As a sales recruiter at Shaw in the early 1990s, I was at Grambling for a job fair, looking for potential trainees. I found out that Grambling was playing at home that Saturday and Coach Robinson was most likely on campus, so I asked one of the organizers of the job fair if I might be able to meet him. How amazing it would be to meet a man who had accomplished what he had in a time and place of such great racial divide.
I got to his office and was disappointed to find that he was recording his weekly TV show. Not wanting to interrupt him, we turned to leave. To my astonishment, Robinson stopped the taping of the show, removed his microphone and came over to meet me. By his actions, you would have thought that he was the one who was excited to meet me. He sent someone to his office to retrieve a poster, which he then autographed. To this day, it is one of my most prized possessions. “Class” - that is the only word I can use to describe this amazing man.
Lessons Learned:
- It is an honor to meet the people that cross your path each day. Make sure they know you feel that way.
- There will always be more to do and more meetings to attend, but this might be my only opportunity to meet the next person that crosses my path.
- Be remembered as a person with class.
