[Music] Art Williams has spoken to many business groups throughout the years the following speech was delivered to the 1987 National Religious broadcaster convention and has become a classic example of Arts philosophy on winning in business it is simply entitled do it thank you thank you Jerry and I tell you I don't know if I've been this nervous in a long time this is the most intimidating thing that I think's ever happened to me an old dumb South Georgia football coach speaking to a bunch of TV personalities like many of you many great evangelists in the audience and who put me between Falwell and Swagger on the same night just totally blows me away but uh I'll try to give it my best shot I was asked to talk to you about how to win in business I think it's a good subject for you to think about because I believe business in America is in a crisis situation today all you have to do is read the paper and every month see uh our trade deficit and it's just a very depressing uh situation and uh to speak to you about how to win in business there's a lot of obvious things I could talk about you first have to find a need you've got to feel the need for a consumer out there you've got to have a market you got to have somebody to sell uh your product or your service to you've got it if you really want to get big and win big you've got to have a uniqueness there's got to be something a little bit different from Youth and all the competition out there but by far the most important thing you've got to have to win in business and these United States today is a very unique kind of mental toughness I believe the difference in winning and losing in the free enterprise system is so small it's almost too scary to talk about you can do 99 of the things right in business and yet if you don't possess what I call that Winning Edge that mental toughness folks it's impossible to win I believe the thinking in Corporate America has been screwed up over these last 20 25 years and I believe this screwed up kind of thinking started in our big liberal universities today I believe a college degree in business for most universities today is not worth the Papers written on I just had a son graduate from the University of Georgia a few months ago the reason I think that is because most of these professors in most of these universities today hadn't got enough common sense to get inside the rain they don't have any idea what it takes to win out there in the real world they deal in a bunch of theory these people are trying to fill up Corporate America with this kind of thinking these are the special people if you're born rich if you're born on the right side of the track they rule you the privileged class in America if you're born poor from an average ordinary background like I came from they they say You're supposed to give up all your big dreams and all your big Ambitions and all your big hope if you have have a high IQ they rule you brilliant if you have an average IQ like me they say you ought to drive a truck or be a janitor well bull hey that that ain't the way that ain't the way it is and that ain't the way it ever was they ain't nobody ever designed a test nor will they design a test they can measure the heart of a man or a woman the things that the things that are unique to winning in business in America today are not outside artificial things like IQs College Board scores college degrees and stuff like that the key to winning in these United States is what's inside a person it's your integrity it's your people abilities it's your character I believe in developing this Winning Edge I've got 10 or 12 points that I won't be able to go over with you tonight but let me just give you a flavor of what I think you've got to do to succeed in these United States number one you got to get excited folks I don't believe anybody will ever tell you anything more important than this in winning these United States 90 plus percent of winning in anything you try to do in America today you've got to be excited people in America won't follow or believe in a negative dull disillusioned frustrated dad gum cry baby people want people that are positive and excited and enthusiastic and tough the greatest listen the greatest definition I ever heard I thought about this 10 million times when I wanted to quit along the way of a winner this guy said almost everybody in America can stay excited for two or three months a few people can stay excited for two or three years but a winner will stay excited for 30 years or whatever how long it takes to win in another key to building this Winning Edge and this mental toughness is you've got to become a dreamer again you know I'm a Methodist and we just changed ministers a few weeks ago and our new Minister came in and and the uh church was just packed and the first thing he said he says well it looks like everybody came out to see the monkey perform and the second and second thing out of his mouth he said for a church to be a great church you got to have a dream if you don't have a dream you're dead and boy I sat up and I said man me and this guy going to get along good because he knows what he's talking about see folks I believe in order to win you got to feel good about yourself I I was coaching football for seven years back in Georgia and I had a paddle in my coaching office it was about this thick and this long and in the fat end I had little holes poured in it so you could really get some speed and blister the little butt you know when they misbehaved and and I had a rule on my football team that if any kid said I can't if any football player heard one of my football players said I can he got to bring him in the coach's office and give him three legs and it took me about a month to get all that thinking out of my players every year you know and I I'd have football players knock on my door at recess and at lunch and after school and he said coach he said it coach he said it and I'd make that kid bend over and I'd give that other kid the board he'd bust him three times and folks it didn't take long you couldn't create a word game okay to get one of my my kids to say I can't bring it home a little bit more personal in April a little art were just this little he could understand words every time they said I can I made them do three push-ups folks there ain't nothing you can't do in America if you want to bad now another key in building this Winning Edge is folks you've got to stand for something people in America the good people in America are fed up with here with these dadgum fence sitters and mealy miles uh Corporate America has an especially black eye uh in business today most people in America think you can't find a company they think you can't find a salesperson that'll tell you like it is and stand behind the word they think these companies will sell anything say anything just to make a sale just to make a profit well you know what folks if you want to win in a free enterprise system in America today you gotta stand for something and another and another Point thank you is you uh it is yes you're gonna be controversial folks if you want to win in these United States today just get ready you're going to be controversial the only way not to be controversial is to be average and ordinary they just call me anything but but average and ordinary now I know some of you might say well you know I don't think I like Art Williams you know he sounds like an old tough butt to me well folks I'm telling you you can be good and tough at the same time I bet nobody's ever talked to a religious broadcasters [Applause] another key to developing this winning this winning attitude that'll give you a chance to do something great in American Business is folks you've got to make a total commitment to what you're about do you know almost the American people have lost their toughness they've lost their ability to make a commitment see folks in trying to win in business you're just gonna have so many false starts you think you get it going Time After Time and you're just getting knocked back to ground zero and it's your ability to compete to pick yourself up off the bat one more time to go for it one more time that's going to determine success or failure you know we've got a divorce rate in America some 50 percent right now you know it just seems like that people that go in business today they have an attitude well I'm almost I'm gonna stick my toe in it if I start making all this money get all these promotions then I'll I'll see this thing through folks that's not the way it works the first step to winning in business in America today is you've got to make a total commitment total commitment gives you that little extra ounce of courage you need to fight back through the tough times winning in business demands the same kind of commitment that winning in marriage demands you know I fell in love with my wife in the second grade only girlfriend I ever had we ran off and got married our freshman year had both of our children before we we left College we're true business partners in marriage we go everywhere together I spend more time with her been married to her 26 years now I got two grand babies love her more today than I ever have but I don't like her all the time there's a bunch of there's a bunch of times every day that I don't like her you you know uh I I'm a Nut about brushing my teeth you know if I can get the toothbrush I'll brush my teeth uh three or four five six times um a day and Angela's always forgetting everything you know and she always leaves the cap off the toothpaste you know and we're not going there to brush my teeth the Caps off I got that hard little crust around the edge you know it just burns me more than I can tell you know and I and I get on uh I get on Angela's nerves about a lot of things you know we were having uh dinner last week and every time we get through Angela kicks me under the table you know it gets me back my room and says R you ain't got no class do you know I wish um I wish um I wish art you could learn to eat with your mouth closed you know foreign folks if you want to win in business everything's not going to work out like you want it to but you got to be committed I want to have great kids I want to have a wonderful relationship I want to have tremendous uh grandbabies another key in building this Winning Edge in business is you've got to learn to treat people good another things that these universities pollute America corporations with is this attitude you better not get to know the employees you better not become friends or get to get to know the spouse or the children of the employees because you might have to fire them you might have to reassign them and if you're close friends you can't really you can't manage people in a tough-minded way bull folks the only way to manage people and get the most out of people is treat them good learn to love them and care about them yes it hurts from time to time but it's the only way you know everybody you work with in business you've got to look at them and pretend there's a there's a flashing sign on their chest and everybody's asking you make me feel special make me feel important say something good to me I want to be somebody another key of winning in venison America today is folks you got to establish the right kind of priorities first company I went with 15 years ago was ITT when I was out there struggling dying every day wanting to quit and go back in coaching a thousand times my first heroes in this business were Vice Presidents at ITT making forty or fifty thousand dollars a year and I said man if I could ever get to be that kind of person it'd be a dream come true I couldn't want any more out of lie a few years later I earned the right to get promotions to that level and found so many of my heroes in business their personal lives were a disaster her there were alcoholics and divorced three and four and five times I just read an article by the author of in search of excellence and I saw where he says I can't find evidence of any successful business person America that's not tunnel vision that just doesn't give everything to business folks I I said back then 15 years ago that if that's the price you've got to pay to win in business it's not worth it 15 years later a multi-millionaire folks I can stand and preach to you that you can't separate your personal life from your business life God's got to come first your family's got to come second and business has got to come third and I believe if you have a lousy spiritual life and a lousy personal life long range it's going to be devastating to your business another thing in building this this winning attitude another another thing in building this winning attitude in Venice you you know I see tall people make it big and venison short people dumb people and smart people fat people and skinny people but if you cut open the winners in business I see a heart of a champion and all these people are competitors and they don't quit I believe desire and will to win is everything I don't know why I'm like I am but my butt's always burning there's always something say art dad gum that you're supposed to go for it all right Dad government you're supposed to be somebody you're supposed to make a difference with your lie what does the 500 000 year person do the fifty thousand dollar your person doesn't do you look at the outside and study those two individuals everything seems to be the same they both are the same sex they both of the same age they have the same training the same positions the same contract the same fringe benefits they both are successful they work hard they're good family people make tough commitments but what's the difference what does the 500 000 a year person do the fifty thousand dollar your person doesn't do he pays the price and a little bit more he works hard and a little bit more he's loyal to the company a little bit more he believes in a little bit more he makes money and a little bit more he saves money a little bit more if you want to win in these United States you got to be tough and you can't quit the last thing I'll talk to you about today in building this Winning Edge is folks if you want to win in business you got to be a leader leadership is everything you show me anything in these United States that win I'll show you a leader at work you show me a successful Church Boy Scout Troop Club football team business I'll show you something a run by a leader see I I thought at one time in my life you had to be smart to win I used to have these smart people that dress so pretty and talk so pretty and use these big words they just intimidated me and I said Arch you can't ever be that good why don't you just throwing the towel and going back and coach football for living and I found two things out about smart people I think it's almost impossible for a smart person to win in business in America today because I find smart people spend their whole lifetime figuring things out they always trying to figure out an easier way in a quicker way and another thing I found out about smart people is they just don't get around to doing nothing and see somebody like Art Williams everybody said well he can't do it at somebody like that can't do it but he does it see folks I want you to know almost everybody in America almost does enough to win they almost get there they almost are over the hump they almost have it going they almost in everything they do almost as a way of life to almost everybody in America but the winners do it what do they do you they do whatever it takes to get the job done they do it and do it and do it and do it and do it until the job gets done and then they talk about how great it is to be somebody they're proud of we need leaders in America who can do it if you want to become somebody do it if you want to go in business for yourself do it if you want to become financially independent do it I hear too much talk in these United States everybody can talk a good game we need people in America who can do it I go all over this country with AO wins and I have people say art you you can count on me wonderful just do it all right I guarantee this is my last stop I'm gonna win now super duper just do it or if I could just have one good month and get the ball going I know I could make it big super just do it or if I could just pay off this debt I could really go great just do it a heart if I could just sell my house do it but houses ain't selling do it anyway a hard I'm not making any money what can I do you just do it hey do what art you do it and do it and do it all right I guarantee I'm gonna win this Contest Super Duper just do it all right I'm over the hunt now watch my smoke great just do it all right I want to make it so bad I can taste it what I do you just do it all right I'm a vice president now can I quit doing it no how hard I don't know if I can keep on keeping on I'm really hurting what I do you just do it and do what art you do it and do it and do it hard all my life I want to be somebody important well what do it then all right I'm Gonna Save money so I don't have to go through this again great just do it all right I don't feel like I've had enough training what I do you you just do it all right my manager don't give me no help what I do you just do it a horse you don't understand I was Mr everything in my former company you don't mean I I have to start off down at the bottom and do it do you yep you really got to do it all right what's the primary difference between winners and losers the winner the winners do it they do it and do it and do it and do it until the job gets done and then they talk about how great it is to finally have achieved something unique and how glad they are that they didn't quit like everybody else and how wonderful it is to finally be somebody they're proud of and make a difference with their life thank you [Applause] [Music] [Applause]