Work As If You Were A Pro Football Player

When I started out in life, all I wanted was to be a football player," says Jack Kemp, who ended up in the pros for 13 years.

Today Secretary for Housing and Urban Development, Kemp recalls the encouragement he received from Payton Jordan, his coach at Occidental College in Los Angeles: The coach called me into his office and said, "Of all the people on this team, I really think you have it. I want you to work just as if you were a pro-football player."

When I left that office, I would have run through a brick wall for Coach Jordan. Several years later, at a reunion, I found out that the coach had told all my teammates that same thing. I was furious! For only a minute. Then I realized that Coach Jordan had made every one of us a little bit better, had helped us to struggle a little bit harder, to reach our potential.