I am excited to fullfil the duties of the daily attitude email sender on this Tuesday the 23rd of November! Sorry that this is so long…but I hope that you read it through today!
OK…here it goes…
As you all know, I travel for HTG peer group meetings once a quarter. Often, I get the opportunity to see and hear some pretty awesome speakers and presentations. I constantly find myself wishing that the rest of our team could have some of those same experiences…some of them are very profound.
My latest trip was to Orlando for 3 days of HTG meetings and 3 days of the ConnectWise IT Nation conference earlier this month. CW typically puts together a pretty awesome event and this one was no different. For me, the highlight was getting to hear a presentation by Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger. Do you know or remember Rudy?
They made a movie about Rudy’s life.
In August of 1948, Rudy Ruettiger was born in Joliet, IL. He lived in a fairly poor household and was one of 14 children. He was viewed by others as a very “below average” child and teenager based on the standards of his generation. Although he tried very hard in his classes, Rudy always earned poor grades in school because he had an undiagnosed case of dyslexia. Physically, Rudy wasn’t blessed with size. He loved sports (especially football) very much, but was only 5’7″ tall and weighed just 165lbs.
Not very smart…
Not very big…
Not much money…
The odds were seemingly stacked against him.
Rudy had HUGE aspirations. He wanted to attend the University of Notre Dame and play football. If you don’t know, admission to Notre Dame is very difficult…and roster spots on their football team are reserved for only the most gifted and talented players in the country. Notre Dame has a rich history of producing top-notch educations and national champion-calliber football teams.
To make his situation even worse, no one supported Rudy’s dreams and aspirations. Throughout his life, people reminded him of his deficiencies. In an effort to protect him from failure, his family attempted to shift his focus to goals that were more “realistic”. Friends and outsiders simply thought he was crazy and would tell Rudy that he would never succeed.
During the presentation in Orlando, Rudy said that these people constatly put “dumb things” in his head….and mentally, they were incredibly hard to overcome.
Luckily, Rudy’s biggest asset was his HEART.
Rudy refused to give up on his dreams and he worked tirelessly to prove everyone wrong.
After three rejections to Notre Dame, Rudy was finally accepted as a student n 1974. Rudy attempted to walk-on the football team and was eventually granted a spot on their “scout team”. The scout team is a practice squad that helps the varsity team prepare for games. Through sheer will and determination, Rudy was beginning to fulfill some of his dreams.
However, Rudy was constantly ridiculed and taunted about his size by other football players. Again, his peers were surrounding him with negative thoughts and feelings. Despite these nay-sayers, Rudy gutted it out and worked even harder to prove them wrong. Eventually, Rudy began to win the support of some of the players and coaches.
In his last opportunity to play for the varsity team, Rudy was asked to dress for the final game of the season against Georgia Tech. Inspired by his heart, a few of the players asked him to lead them out onto the field in front of a packed arena. Again, Rudy was defying all odds.
With 23 seconds left in the game, Rudy was inserted into the defense. In the last play of regulation, Rudy broke through the line of scrimmage and sacked the quarterback of the opposing team. In appreciation and celebration for what Rudy had accomplished, the stadium began to chant his name and the Notre Dame players carried Rudy off the field on their shoulders.
Since 1975, no other Notre Dame player has been carried off the field.
I absolutely love this story and am thankful for the opportunity to hear Rudy speak in Orlando. It reminded me that we can truly accomplish ANY goal we set for ourselves.
I’d like to think of Mavidea as the “Rudy” of the IT industry. Sure, there are bigger players who are more experienced, more skilled and more affluent than Mavidea, but we have something very special and powerful…we have HEART.
Each one of you were asked to join the Mavidea team because you were viewed as someone with a huge heart. We recruit for that in our interview process. As a result, I have no doubt that we will meet the aggressive and lofty goals set by our management team.
It’s simple…believe in ourselves like Rudy believed in himself.
Get rid of the “dumb things” that others put in your heads…
Here’s a video that sums it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmzDL61oME
I’m honored to work with this team of people with true HEART,
Erik Barnlund
