Deion Sanders.
Flavor of the month? Or story of the year? Time will tell…
His name is in just about everyone's mouth and everyone's got an opinion on him.
I'm not here to tell you he's good or bad.
I don't pass judgments like that until I actually know somebody.
In my previous life, I would have already told you if I liked him or not, whether he was good or bad.
Now, to the people that I haven't met, they're just useful or not useful to study.
Deion Sanders is useful to study.
And before you go, “Drew, I don't know… I've listened to a lot of people and some of them have credibility stamps so I'm more likely to listen to them and believe them when they say he's selfish, he's just doing it for Deion, he's just doing it for his kids and.. When something better comes along, he'll go.”
I'd encourage you to just think for yourself. And if you don't know the guy personally, study the useful, throw away the not useful, but keep the fucking opinions out of it.
Because they don't matter.
And before you accuse me of dick-riding the guy and, “Oh, Drew, you're writing an article singing his praises too.”
The thing that I want you to focus on and the thinking point for this week is one thing I’ve taken from Deion:
Can I work less?
After two years with a junior team with limited resources, I threw everything I had at it and then began to become an online entrepreneur in hopes that I would eventually coach again somewhere… I started to notice that…
There could be more balance.
And I could work less and better.
There are a million places to study businesses and people that are doing this.
If you want a place to look, you can read anything that Sahil Lavingia has published on his company Gumroad. That's a rabbit hole I'd encourage you to go down.
Deion Sanders has probably done 97 interviews this week. That's not an exact number. Don't fact-check me on that.
He has been on Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, and 37 other podcasts this week as the team starts 3-0.
And I made a joking tweet about that with the thought experiment for the week.
The question is, can you work less?
If he's doing all this media stuff, and I get that he has Division One resources…
I get that he has a huge staff around him.
I get it. Seriously I hear all of your cope…
Relatively speaking, the question remains, can you work less?
Can you be just as effective in fewer hours?
And instead of gallivanting around doing media, because if you're a Level 1 Coach at a division three school, 97 media outlets don't want to talk to you every week.
But if they did, the thought experiment becomes, how would you operate?
How would you still get what you need done if everyone was pulling for your attention and that attention helped your athletes out in the long run?
How would you do it?
So in conclusion, don't think of Deion Sanders as good or bad.
Think of how can I study this person?
He's doing a million other things in different aspects of how he coaches, how he leads, and his style and preferences.
I'm sure some of you are aware of that already.
If not, feel free to take your own dive on him.
Related Pod:
Also Intrigued by Deion-mostly to see how the new energy he has given Colorado can be transformed into a sustainable culture that lasts season after season.
In regards to working less and being productive- I've had a mindset that stems from childhood that 'hardwork'=success. I've been challenging that the last year with 'smart work'= success. Sometimes its hard not to fill the space with activities that make me feel productive.