Most of us strive to find an occupation that we enjoy and have a passion for. Additionally, we hope our workplace and co-workers are just as satisfying. When this combination transpires, you are grateful to have a job and people within that organization you enjoy.

For us to continue to operate at our place of employment at a high level, we engage in many of the values and traits explored throughout the book. An essential trait to add to your repertoire is the ability to prepare for your next steps. This is a widespread concept; the Boy Scouts have used this motto since their inception: be prepared.

But do you really look at this idea and invest the proper amount of time to actually prepare for your day? Most people don't go all in. They tend to half-prepare, thinking they already know the information, and because they are experienced at their job, they figure they don't need to waste time. They aren't willing to go the extra mile and find ways to educate, or reeducate, themselves.

These are the folks who feel pressure, created because they failed to properly prepare. Whether it's a recertification exam required for work, a business sales pitch to a potential client, or a practice for a big game, failure to prepare at 100 percent effort will result in feeling some pressure when the “game” is on. Ironically, the stress and tension that accompanies an unequipped approach to a task is something that each person has control over because they can spend time preparing, allowing them to manage the level of pressure. So there is no excuse to underprepare.

Relationships Lead to Wins

When I first got into coaching at the Division I level, I was convinced the way to win was all about recruiting and teaching. I worked hard to get the most talented players to come to my school, and I worked them very hard to improve. Of course, this will always be true; you do need some strong horses to pull the wagon. However, as times change, so does the role of many coaches in terms of managing those players. This is equally important within the business sector.

Eventually, I learned that an increasingly important role in the coaching world is that athletic directors require coaches to aid in development work, philanthropy, and fundraising. This might be for large capital projects, such as a new stadium, or simply budget relief to help offset costs to run the program. You can't meet an alum or donor for the first time and ask them to invest in you and the program with a financial gift. It takes time, and lots of it, to cultivate these individuals. You have to really get to know them, and likewise they to know you.

A solid relationship has to form. Eventually, if this connection is present, most people will want to be involved in your vision and invest in you. In fact, if you fully invest in building relationships, rather than having to ask donors for money, inevitably they will ask you how they can help. In one form or another, if you want to have success at the Division I level, coaches will engage in some form of philanthropic work. This is the “other” side of coaching that many do not realize is vital to the success of the program.

So, the experiences I have been fortunate enough to be in and the people I engaged with have led me to meet some of the most interesting and successful people in the world. In fact, it is a major factor in why I wanted to write a book. Having the opportunity to meet to an alum who was a CEO of a major corporation or a small business owner who built an empire from ground up, I quickly realized their stories are exactly what I was trying to teach young men and grow them into good, tough, competitive ball players. Their path to success revolved around great values in terms of leadership.

The Alfond Way

One of the first people I met when I took the UMaine baseball job was Harold Alfond. His success story is quite remarkable: he built a major shoe company from the ground up.

In 1956, he purchased an old mill in Dexter, Maine, and founded Dexter Shoe Company, producing shoes to supply stores such as Sears, JC Penney, Spiegel, and Montgomery Ward & Co. Dexter was successful from the beginning, and Harold decided to go into the “branded” business. He developed a line of shoes under the Dexter name, hired a sales force, and began selling to independent shoe stores across the country.

With the growth and expansion of Dexter Shoes, Alfond would be forever credited with the invention of the factory outlet store. Factories sometimes made mistakes in the hand production process of shoe making. The factory-damaged shoes would be sold at steep discounts to workers, who would then turn around and resell them for five times their cost.

Alfond saw the potential in reselling factory seconds and opened up his factory to the general public for sales. Eventually, Alfond folded into the sales inventory shoes that simply weren't selling quick enough. With growing popularity, Alfond began putting up his factory outlet stores throughout New England. Other manufacturers followed suit, building their own outlet stores neighboring Dexter. Innovative thinking, an understanding of business, and a willingness to take calculated risks enabled Alfond in early 1990 to sell Dexter to Berkshire Hathaway for over $400 million in stock.

He clearly knew how to run a corporation. And Harold loved sports. He attended every UMaine hockey and football game he could. He recognized the value of competition that comes from a sporting contest, coupled with the extremely hard work it takes to be a constant winner, and infused those principles into his company. After he sold the Dexter Shoe Company to Warren Buffet for that crazy amount of Berkshire Hathaway stock, he went on to invest in many other companies and projects that built his empire.

That day when he walked into my office to introduce himself and shake my hand, I asked him to tell me his story. How had he become so successful starting with a shoe store in a small sleepy town in Maine? He asked me to take a seat, open up my ears, and get ready for a great ride. He was about to give me a great esson in leadership, a lesson always to keep chopping wood, even when you think you have enough.

“Keep Chopping Wood”

Harold emphasized the importance not only of putting in a day of hard work, but the ability to outwork others.

“You people from away need to understand these winters up here in Maine are cold and long,” he explained. I later found out native Mainers refer to people from out of state as “from away.”

Just when you think you have it all figured out, that's when you most likely will fall short. He explained the importance of practicing, preparing, and overpreparing for every situation you put yourself in. Whether that means coaching a team, running a business, spending quality time with family, and, of course, gathering wood to heat your house, a positive and successful day was more obtainable with good old elbow grease.

“You may think you have enough wood stacked in the garage, but you'll likely fall short. So don't ever stop chopping. Don't ever stop working. Don't ever stop learning,” Harold advised.

Harold's story of the importance to keep chopping wood literally happened to me the previous winter. And boy was he right!

If you've ever lived in the north—especially a place like Maine—you know how long and harsh the winters can be, with relentlessly cold days where the sun rises at 7 a.m. and it's completely dark at 4 p.m. For months many people go to work and return home in darkness. It can be a bit depressing.

But another reality is you get those warm, cozy, snowy weekends sitting by the wood stove. There is nothing like the heat that comes off a good wood-burning stove. It relaxes you, and it can be a huge money saver from the rising prices of heating costs. So, like many, we burned wood to heat our house. The other thing about burning wood is the satisfaction of gathering your yearly supply.

I always found it funny that the big topic in summer and early fall is “Did ya get your wood laid in the dooryard?” (A dooryard is what a Mainer calls the area of the yard near the most-used door of the home.) Now, some take the easy way out and pay premium dollar for something that is right in their backyard, up to $200 for a cord of wood. (A cord is a tightly stacked pile of wood, 4 feet high by 4 feet wide and 8 feet long.) On average, if using wood as the primary heat source, the typical house can burn up to 4–6 cords of wood each winter.

I decided I would rather invest in a quality chainsaw, and borrow a homemade log splitter from a buddy of mine and save some money by doing the work myself. It's also a great outlet for the satisfaction of physical labor.

Off I went to find good hardwood trees to cut, split, stack, and season (dry). Little did I know the number of trees, and the amount of work, it took to get one cord of wood! I thoroughly enjoyed the process, but it was time consuming and laborious.

My first winter, I made the rookie move of getting what I thought was enough wood laid in the garage. Man, did it look impressive! After days and days of hard work, I had about 3 cords. That year, as winter approached, I was excited to fire up that stove in late October, as the leaves were all down off the trees. I was even more excited when the heating oil bill came the next month, and it was practically nothing! My hard work surely helped my bank account. But as the months went on, my wood pile began to shrink.

“When the heck does this Maine winter end?” I thought around February. And in March, it happened. I burned my last bit of wood. Naturally, I couldn't truck though three feet of snow to harvest more; it would not be dry and seasoned. And if you try to burn “wet” or newly chopped wood, all it does is smoke and does not burn very hot.

So I called around to a couple of wood businesses and asked if I could get a cord delivered. Boy were they happy for my call.

“Hello, sir. I saw you sell wood and actually I called you last summer to see if I could get a few cords from you,” I said sheepishly.

“Yep, I'd be happy to bring ya some. I have a few cords left. I can get it out to ya by Tuesday. $800 a cord.”

What! That $200 quote for seasoned, delivered cord I received the previous summer was long gone.

“Supply and demand, my friend” he told me.

Rookie mistake. So, all the money I saved in heating oil I just gave back for two extra cords.

Mr. Alfond taught me a valuable lesson that day in my office. He shared the story of his success to make sure I would not only take advice, but would listen to the experiences of others. I only wish he told me his “Keep chopping wood” story when I first moved to Maine, and not after my first winter. I would have saved a bundle of money!

I knew how important Harold Alfond was to UMaine athletics and all he had given in gifts. I also knew he did not support just UMaine, but many other programs as well. Heck, there must be a dozen Alfond arenas or stadiums around New England and even in Florida! When I had that valuable one-hour meeting with Harold, I asked him a simple yet important question. “How did you make Dexter Shoes so successful?”

Keep chopping wood, he told me. Just when you think you've done enough, something will happen that you could have been prepared for. A long winter. A friend in need. An employee requiring guidance. Many things will come upon you as you navigate through daily trials and tribulations within the workplace. What he was telling me was to keep working.

Just when you think you've done enough, something will happen that you could have been prepared for.

You may think you have it figured out, or have gotten in front of the job, then your competitor outworks you. Outcompetes you. Learn to compete with yourself. Challenge yourself every day. Just as important, Harold taught me the lesson of self-reward. How fulfilling is it when you finish a hard day's work, to step back and evaluate the rewards. That huge pile of wood in the shed from six hours of chopping really makes you want to crack open a cold one, sit back, and stare at your masterpiece. And this becomes addictive. You want to top what you did the previous day. You strive for more success. Become enthralled with the competition within yourself, and certainly your competitors. Use any setbacks as motivation to go forward. Like we said earlier, fall forward with failures; setbacks and obstacles act as great lessons.

So, as Harold illustrated that day though his story of success, it's essential to keep working hard. Never lose the persistence it takes to get better, especially when you think you're on top of the world. There are many quotes and stories about hard work. But simply put: keep chopping wood. Your employees see it. Your players see it. That work ethic is contagious. They will follow your lead as their leader.

“Sharpen Your Axe”

After that wonderful day with Harold, I next met probably the most important person in relation to Maine baseball, Larry Mahaney. Harold and Larry were very close; they saw their respective businesses grow in the same era. Their families intertwined, and they quite frequently vacationed together. The baseball complex at UMaine was named for him: Mahaney Diamond, Mahaney Dome, Mahaney Clubhouse. In fact, like Harold Alfond, multiple sports fields in Maine are named for the Mahaney family.

Larry was a tremendous athlete in his days as a high school football, basketball, and baseball player. He was raised about as far north in Maine as you can go, in Aroostook County—potato-growing country. Larry grew up on a potato farm, working for his family. He went on to become a very successful coach at Brewer High School in the 1950s, winning many championships. His tough, blue-collar style motivated many young athletes to be their best. He eventually left coaching and entered the business sector, working for a very successful heating oil company, Webber Energy Fuels. Eventually, through his tenacious work ethic, management style, and leadership, he rose to become the president and CEO of Webber.

Soon after my visit with Mr. Alfond, a stocky, fit man in his 70s walked though my office door. Larry was quite different than the soft-spoken Harold Alfond. He seemed almost like an oil tycoon from Texas! He introduced himself, sat across from me, and threw his feet up on the front of the desk.

“I heard my good buddy Harold stopped by to visit with you. Well, he and I are heavily invested in UMaine athletics, and we want to help you be successful,” he explained.

Some young coaches might let their ego take over and resist being told how to do their jobs. But I recognized the amount of success both Harold and Larry had, and realized I should shut up and listen. Larry warned me that he was a longtime baseball coach at Brewer and, unlike Harold, he knew about baseball. “Get ready for me to critique your coaching!” Great, I thought. I certainly had to be respectful; after all, his name was plastered all over the building and field.

He laughed. “Listen, I only want to help you, so don't get your panties in a bunch. Okay, now let's chop some wood.” Chop wood? What the heck was he talking about? This had to be Harold's story he was about to tell me.

We went out to his old beat-up truck, and in the back was an 18-inch-diameter piece of wood, about 15 inches tall. He asked me to take it out of the truck and set it on top of another smaller piece next to it. So I put both pieces on the ground with the large one on top. After handling the wood, I noticed my hands all sticky with pine tar. Maine pine is very wet and sappy. In fact, no one burns it because it is too wet and burns too fast and does not put out the heat that a good hardwood like oak, cherry, or maple does.

The other thing to know about wet pine is that splitting it with an ax is very tough. Larry handed me an old, rusty, dull axe that looked like the person who swung it had missed many times—the handle by the axe head was dented and broken almost in half. “I bet I can split that piece of pine before you can.” He boasted. Now, I was just past my 35th birthday, and probably in the best shape of my life. Larry, on the other hand was in his mid-70s. Naturally, I took the bet.

I took the axe, centered my body to make a huge overhead blow to the log, and made sure I squarely hit the middle of the piece of pine. Wham! I hit it perfectly. As I looked down, that axe stuck right into that piece, buried right up to the wooden handle under the blade. No split. Just a piece of wood with an axe sticking out of it. “Take another whack at it,” he instructed me.

So I began the lengthy, tiresome process of freeing the axe from the wood. I pulled. I tugged. I even banged the piece of wood on the ground. I tried to kick that axe out of the log. A good five minutes later, I was able to free that darn axe. Now I was sweating and breathing heavy. Blow number two. I figured the trick was to turn the log and hit in in an X pattern to split it in two. Whack! Same result. Five more minutes to free the axe, and now I was really starting to tire.

Larry then said he wanted a try. I didn't want this to end badly, with him getting hurt or even worse, having a heart attack. How would he accomplish something that I could not, and I was 40 years younger!

Larry went to the front of his truck and pulled out a case, which he set on the tailgate of his truck and opened. As I peered into that case, the sun hit a shiny object so bright that it blinded me for a bit. Larry pulled out a beautiful shiny hatchet. It looked like something from a museum or a very expensive item at L.L. Bean.

“I spent the past week not only hand sharping this axe, but polishing it as well,” he told me. He then demonstrated how sharp it was by rubbing the blade up his arm, shaving off some of the white hair between his wrist and elbow. “Hours and hours. I used different sharpening stones, oils, and techniques my father taught me to sharpen tools.”

He positioned the piece of pine with my huge X mark. After getting a good grip on his hatchet and taking a practice swing, he pulled it back ever so gently and made a downward swinging motion on the top of that wet, sappy log. Whoosh! He hit it square, with much less force than I did, and on the ground lay two half pieces of that log. I couldn't believe it. Did I “loosen” it up for him? How was it that my force could not get it done, but his short, swift tap easily split that piece of pine?

“Always sharpen your axe,” told me. “Sharpening an axe can take a long time to get it right, but it will do wonders, saving you much more time, effort, and energy.”

What Larry taught me that day was to make sure you are prepared, and practice, practice, practice.

Make sure you are prepared, and practice, practice, practice.

Not all of life's obstacles are predictable, but we can be as prepared as possible though practice, hard work, effort, and thinking things through. Larry demonstrated that being prepared reduced the time, workload, and energy to get the job done. When it was go time in our bet, he was prepared and I wasn't. I did feel a bit of pressure to split that log, and he was a cool as a cucumber. In other words: keep your axe sharp at all times.

Those who feel pressure are those who are not prepared.

This was the message I learned that day with Larry Mahaney: those who feel pressure are those who are not prepared. We've all been in pressure situations. Yet, when we've been successful in these instances, we had the ability to be calm, make sound decisions, and focus on performance.

With the Right Mindset, You Are Capable of Anything

We all know the saying that if you put your mind to it, you can do anything. Another example of this was a personal challenge I made with myself. Sometime around 2012, I became very involved in leadership within my organization, and was speaking to many businesses around the country on the topic. A great friend of mine, Chris Farley (not the comedian) was a highly successful financial advisor in Maine. He was one of the most caring and giving people I have ever met, always there for you if you needed him and constantly had a positive outlook.

So, one night while sharing a beer, I told him of a presentation I had just made that week to a group of credit union people about leadership. I boasted about how with enough preparation, you can do anything. He wholeheartedly agreed and this prompted him to challenge me to a bet. He agreed to pay for me to take an online class to study for the health and life insurance exam, something every college grad must do when entering the financial world. If people passed and still wanted to work on that field, they would go on to take federally regulated tests to become full-fledged financial advisors.

I told him he was crazy—I didn't have the knowledge. Here I was with a physical education degree and a masters in educational leadership, not knowing the first thing about insurance. But Chris was such positive guy, he convinced me to take his bet.

So I studied in my “down” time—bus trips, plan rides, and the like. It took me almost six months to watch these lessons and do the practice tests, but I actually started to understand: whole life versus universal, fixed annuities, Medicare, and so on. I kept taking the practice exams and scoring higher and higher. Then, once October hit, I pulled the trigger and signed up for the actual test!

The day of the exam, I walked into the test center, and I must have been 20 years older than everyone else. Clearly, they were all recent college grads looking for their first job after this exam. Ninety questions in two hours, that was the task. Everyone looked nervous, but I felt really good about this. Once the test started, I was cruising through it. For many of the questions, I knew the answer before I even finished reading.

My 90th question came at just over the hour mark. I hit the send button on the computer, and my score popped up: 88 out of 90. As I stood up to leave, I saw others with that look on their face—like I cheated! Nope, just took a bet with a friend of mine about preparing.

Days later, in the mail, I received my certificate from the State of Maine. I was now licensed to work as a broker. Crazy to think that could happen, but the preparation was what got me to that step.

How did a baseball coach pass a life insurance exam? As crazy as this sounds, it's all about putting your mind to the task at hand, no matter how difficult it may seem. Finding a way to convince yourself you can accomplish a task, with a positive mindset and no negative thoughts allowed to creep in, can be a powerful tool for your success as a leader.

Taking Chris Farley's challenge motivated me to prepare for this once seemingly difficult task. If a baseball coach, with no experience in the insurance field, can pass a certification exam, think of how much you can accomplish in your own field of expertise. You need the proper frame of mind to approach the challenge.

Tackle Crisis Management Head On

We have to make sure the people we are influencing and mentoring every day understand that we have a difficult time being successful at “go time” if we don't prepare. I tell our players every day that we have to practice like we want to play in the game. If we practice with 50 percent effort, then that's how the game will go. Even if you think you're smarter and more talented than your competition, it's not possible to be consistently successful.

What we are striving for as leaders is to surround ourselves with talented individuals who value preparation—and not just with the obvious tasks, but the little things that make a group great. Do you take the extra time to practice the tasks at hand? Are you aware of your surroundings and (as we discussed earlier) your image? When this value becomes part of the culture within our organization, we start to be prepared. Sit back and analyze why this is important.

Simply put, as leaders, we are preparing ourselves and our people for crisis management.

If we prepare for this, we can handle it when it happens. And it most certainly will happen. As a coach, you'll find that one of your players inevitably gets into trouble and you have to be consistent in your discipline.

Say you own a chain of coffee shops. All in the same day the ice machine breaks at one location, a shift worker doesn't show up at another store, and you get word from the main office that a manager is skimming off some profits and now not only do you have to fire that person, but you can't rely on them when you are short-staffed!

How about the ever-constant string of lawsuits business owners face? Every one of the many managers and business owners I have met, live with this threat hanging over their heads. They know it's coming, so best be prepared.

Crisis management.

The ones who are best prepared for it will be more successful when it happens. Think about the training that soldiers, firemen, police, EMT, rescue, and others do. Their preparation in a crisis can mean life or death. In the workforce, we surely do not have that type of pressure, but we still have the responsibility to deal with day-to-day work emergencies in the best possible way.

How you behave as a leader through your words, deeds, and actions will ultimately give you what becomes the “culture” of your organization. This is a monumental task, and many more fail at it than succeed. But those who can grind though the failures, and be best prepared for the trials and tribulations, will ultimately see success within their organization.

Those who feel the most pressure are those who fail to prepare.