A Simple Thank You
Jun 19, 2012Posted by james
Coach Bruce Weber had a simple message for the Illinois fan base that helped run him out of Champaign earlier this year. He was fired one day after Illinois was eliminated from the Big Ten tournament, causing the team to miss the NCAA basketball tournament for the third time during the past five seasons.
His message: “Thank you.”
Coach Weber has since been hired as head coach at Kansas State. But before he started his new job, he delivered a personal message to Illinois fans in a full-page advertisement in a Sunday edition of the Champaign News Gazette.
The ad featured the Illinois and Kansas State logos separated by a basketball. It also included his heartfelt words: “Thanks to everyone in the Illini Nation for a memorable nine years. GO ILLINI & GO CATS! Coach Bruce Weber.”
This advertisement showcases the character of Coach Weber. Not many coaches would have used personal finances to run this kind of ad after leaving a program on good terms. Coach Weber did it less than a month after he was fired.
During a long career in business, it is possible that a person will be embarrassed, disciplined, or even fired for a mistake, for failure to deliver results, or for poor judgment. Sometimes a person will be wrongly selected as a scapegoat.
While we can’t influence everything that occurs around us, we certainly can control our responses to negative news. In the case of Coach Weber, whether his firing was fair or not, he decided that his reaction would focus on the positive.
Should you find yourself in a similar situation, remember to thank the people who helped you along the way along with those who befriended you. Consider all that you learned, both the good and the bad. Find ways to land on your feet and showcase your new success, proving to those you left behind that they might have been wrong about you.
Most of all, be true to yourself. If you were wrong, learn from the mistakes. If not, be confident that you had it right all along and bring this spirit to your next opportunity.
Jim
by james on Jun 19, 2012 |
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By RICHY ADLMAN, June 20, 2012 @ 7:15 am
Jim,
I admire you for taking to time to “Give Back”. With all of your success you haven’t forgotten the path you walked to become a great businessman, son, brother, uncle and friend to so many people.
Congratulations!!
By Peter Lee, October 6, 2012 @ 11:48 am
A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.- George Bernard Shaw