Don Yaeger's speaking calendar is updated with eSpeakers.com. You can always rest at ease knowing the schedule you find here is always the most recent and reliable.
Connect with Don today to schedule your next event with
the Speaker of Champions!
Your Daily Dose of Greatness
You have a very powerful mind that can make anything happen as long as you keep yourself centered.
Wayne W. Dyer
Every morning Don sends out a motivational quote from some of the greatest minds of all time. Don't let another day go by without your Daily Dose of Greatness!
Don's Latest News
-
The Greatness Newsletter
Latest News
-
Chasing Greatness Blog
Latest News -
Success Magazine
Latest News
A Greatness lesson live from Duke and Coach K!
Inner Fire
They Use Adversity as Fuel
I know this newsletter is about developing Greatness in our hearts and minds, but this month it is about the Greatest birthday gift I've ever received. As you read this today, I am in Durham, North Carolina on the campus of Duke where Coach Mike Krzyzewski is running me and a group of 79 other business people through drills on the floor at famed Cameron Indoor Stadium. The trip—a dream for me—was a birthday gift from my wife!
Coach K and a slew of his former players are here teaching us fundamentals of a game I love...then coaching us old guys as we play against one another through the week. The fundamental I'm most enjoying, though, has nothing to do with dribbling or passing. It is Coach K's love of the phrase "Next play." And trust me, Coach believes that developing this mindset IS a fundamental.
A Great Taste
When it comes to competition—whether sports or business—the tendency is to completely dominate. In the computer industry, Microsoft wants to do more than just take a bite out of Apple. In the basketball world, the San Antonio Spurs want to send the Miami Heat into a deep chill. In the hockey realm, the Boston Bruins want to do more than just win the Stanley Cup—they want to obliterate the Chicago Blackhawks. The mindset of eliminating all opposition is ingrained in most people we call “great competitors.”
That was my impression until I took a trip to the Wine Country of California a couple of weeks ago. My wife Jeanette and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary there. Little did I know that a brief vacation would unlock this week’s lesson on Greatness.
The lesson was courtesy of the name Regusci—more specifically our new friend Jim Regusci of the Regusci Winery. The facility is on farmland that’s been in his family since the 1930s. Generations of the Regusci family have cultivated that nearly 200 acres of grapes into one of the top wineries in Napa Valley. While the legacy is Great, the lesson was even sweeter.
Tony La Russa's Game Plan
Retired Major League manager Tony La Russa proves that in baseball (as in business), preparation and personal relationships give you a winning edge.
Tony La Russa is considered among the best in his business. Yet nearly half the time he led his organizations into competition, they were defeated—2,728 wins, 2,365 losses. That’s one of the great oddities of baseball: Success is relative. A hitter who fails 70 percent of the time at the plate is a potential member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and many World Championship teams lose more than 70 games during their title-winning seasons.
In that quirky world, the reclusive La Russa’s 33 years as a Major League manager have all but guaranteed him a place in the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was named manager of the year four times and won three World Series Championships, including the St. Louis Cardinals’ 2011 title. Then, with acclaim for that achievement still rolling in, La Russa stunned the sports world by retiring.
