Bill Belichick & the New England Patriots taught me these leadership lessons!
Watch NowHey everybody! Welcome to "You Know Ted" for NFL fans. This week, one of the greatest coaches of all time, Bill Belichick, parted ways with the New England Patriots after 24 years at the helm. You might think, why does this news matter to our channel? Well, since I live on the west coast, I don't usually broadcast too loudly my affiliation with Pat's Nation. But today, in honor of the official end of the Patriots dynasty as we know it, I thought it would be appropriate to share four leadership lessons I learned from the greatest team of all time in NFL history, and two that I don't actually agree with. Stay tuned at the end to see what those two are. Before we begin, remember to like, subscribe, and share this video. This really helps me create better content for you in the future.
So first, how does a kid from the West Coast become a Patriots fan? For context, if you asked anyone I grew up with, Ted Lau was anything but a sports fan. I was the creative, artsy type with colored hair, punk rock shows, and I might have dabbled in a few things we're not going to talk about. But a few years into the business, I had this big biotech client. She was somebody that I found out was a huge Patriots fan, and thus to build that bonding rapport, I embarked on learning a bit more about this team just so that we had something to bond over. I have to say, my homework watching NFL games on Sundays, especially Patriots games, I actually fell in love with the NFL. Not necessarily the NFL as you would think, sitting on the couch and drinking beer and watching the game. Sure, I do like those things, but I fell in love with the marketing machine. Say what you will about their scandals and controversies, but like NFL films, storytelling, the branding, the graphics, the messaging is all top-notch. It's surgical, but it is emotive at the same time. They're able to speak to hundreds of millions of people in varying demographics, and that's a pretty amazing feat.
And how big of a fan did I become? Well, here are some pics. In 2018, at the season opener, I finally got to visit Foxboro and watch Tom Brady throw football. It was amazing. This was kind of my voyage to Mecca, as it were.
Okay, you're probably thinking, great, he's a Pats fan, big deal. What are the leadership skills that I learned as a Patriots fan that I put into my business? Well, here are four:
Lesson 1 - The Importance of TEAM: Being someone who is very independent, learning that the team is bigger than the sum of its parts was a very important lesson. This is more evident than ever today in the time of BR and Belichick. They had nine Super Bowl appearances, six of which they won. That's actually two dynasties. Brady might have won two or three Super Bowls on his own, and Bill Belichick maybe another one or two, but together they made that magic happen.
Lesson 2 - The Patriot Way: In our little way, Ballistic Arts has tried to mimic something like that. For us, it's a combination of our core values, our company mindset, the processes we have.
Lesson 3 - Being Contrarian: I think they were the first team that opted to receive the football in the second half so that they could double up on points. This is why, you know, Ballistic Arts has been successful because we ended up marrying creative and data to help our clients actually get leads, as opposed to the traditional creative agency making you look good, or the digital marketing agency that is getting you likes and followers. For us, we found some blue ocean, as it were, in order to have us grow. And I think that contrarian thinking really helped us get there.
Lesson 4 - Determination: That attitude of never giving up. This is an actual core value at Ballistic Arts. Learning to compartmentalize failure, doubters, and uncertainty, and just move on is something that I found very refreshing and something that I wanted to mimic and incorporate into my own company. Famous lines like "We're on to Cincinnati" after being blown out by the Kansas City Chiefs, or that Super Bowl that everyone remembers where they were down 28-3 late in the third quarter to the Atlanta Falcons, and my daughter comes in like, "Don't give up, daddy, they're going to make it." And oh my goodness, they had a .1% chance of winning that Super Bowl. Best Super Bowl ever, I guess, as a New England Patriots fan.
So those are the four leadership lessons that I learned, but what about the two that I don't agree with? Take these two with a grain of salt because I don't have any intimate knowledge of the organization other than what I see in the media.
2 Things I Don't Agree With:
Number one is this kind of vindictive grudge-holding thing. Lots of examples come to mind, however, one that really stuck with me was this running back by the name of Jonas Gray. He came out and had the game of his life, hero for the day, and then he was late for practice because he slept in, and then Bill Belichick just benched him, and we never heard from Jonas Gray ever again. I'm not really sure that someone having a little bit of a mistake like that can be so unforgivable that their career is now shut down after they had a blowout game. Again, I don't know the circumstances in the organization, but as an outside viewer, that seemed a little strong.
And number two for me seemed like there was a lack of empathy, communication, or understanding that these are folks that kind of brought you to the dance, yet they kind of just got led out the door. For example, Malcolm Butler, who was the hero in one of the Super Bowls, making the best interception of Super Bowl history, and then the subsequent one got benched for no apparent reason. Apparently, Malcolm Butler himself still doesn't know why he was benched. Or Lawyer Milloy, apparently a great player on the team, and then just kind of got left to the wayside. I mean, that seems a little weird. And finally, Tom Brady. I mean, come on, this guy brought you six Super Bowls, nine Super Bowl appearances, broke all sorts of records, and you didn't decide to reward him and pay him and just have him play out his career as a New England Patriot? I mean, he ended up going to Tampa and winning a Super Bowl that year, so to me, there was something of a misjudgment. I don't know if it was a lack of empathy, communication, or maybe just forgetting that these are the folks that brought you the success as a team. I know they say that the NFL is a business, but yeah, I mean, all businesses are businesses, but from afar, this just seemed a little cold.
But hey, I'm never going to win any Super Bowls, so what do I know?
Before the end of this video, I do want to say thanks to Robert Kraft, Coach Bill Belichick, and Tom Brady. As a fan from afar, it was a ton of fun while it lasted, and I just want to say thank you very much.
These are the leadership lessons I learned as a Pats fan. At the end of the day, I became a Pats fan for business reasons and still watched the team with a business lens. So, if there are any New England Patriots fans out there watching, what do you think? Put it down in the comment section. And if you liked this video, please remember to like, subscribe, and share. Thanks for watching. I'm Ted Lau, your New England Patriots fan, and this has been "You Know Ted." Bye.