Setting Goals and Taking Risks

As a marksman, Matt Emmons has won world championships. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, he was competing in the 50-meter three-position rifle event with a commanding lead going into the final round. He fired three rounds that hit the target, but the automated scoring system didn't give him any points. He stood there perplexed. He summoned the judge, and the subject was brought in to determine the exact nature of the incident. There was no one there. Perfectly solid.

On the other hand, the target in the opposite lane featured three more holes—holes created by Matt's shots. He dropped to seventh place in the standings as a result of his error. The moral of the story is that you can't realize your full potential until you have a goal—your own goal, not the aim of another else. God has great plans for your life, but you won't be able to realize them until you follow your heart's desires.

Setting Goals

Instead than focusing on numbers, I try to achieve more qualitative goals. Instead of focusing on winning a certain amount of games, my goal has always been to build a championship-caliber team full of outstanding individuals who will serve as positive examples in the community. Every year as I looked back on our season, those were the things I considered. Since there is no other realistic metric to use, I evaluated our teams based on how well we did in comparison to our potential.

In my own life, I make an effort to get better every year. I aspired to become an excellent defensive coach and assist my players in reaching their full potential when I was a young assistant. A secondary goal was to keep growing as a player and coach in the hopes of one day being considered for the position of defensive coordinator. The real reason wasn't until much later on when I was trying to position myself to become a head coach.

Taking Risks

A certain level of risk-taking is sometimes necessary to achieve such objectives. "You can't steal second with your foot still on first" is a wise adage that applies to both baseball and life. My Tampa Bay crew lost a great coach when Herm Edwards departed to join the New York Jets as head coach. Thanks to our accomplishment and the limited number of slots available (there were only 32 in the NFL), we had a lot of candidates.

A relatively young coach from the University of Cincinnati named Mike Tomlin was hired by me. I hired Mike despite his short tenure at the university because I was impressed by his enthusiasm as a teacher. It may have seemed risky to some that I was replacing an esteemed veteran NFL coach with someone who had never coached in the NFL before.

On the other hand, Mike was the daring one. With his present coaching position, he felt secure in Cincinnati. Still, he stepped outside his comfort zone to join a staff that was going through some changes; this was a group where rumors were flying around about whether or not we would all be let go if we didn't make it to the Super Bowl. If Mike had come with us, he might not have had a job the next season. Coming to the Buccaneers from the University of Cincinnati may have seemed like a no-brainer to some, but Mike had to weigh his options and take a chance.