Harvesting The Seed (part 1): A Q&A conversation with best-selling author, Jon Gordon
In an exclusive two-part interview, we were able to talk to Jon Gordon about his connection to the Clemson University football team that is vying for a National Championship title on January 11th, his connection to Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the journey that led him to become a world renown author and keynote speaker.
CF: How did you get connected with Dabo and Clemson University?
JG: So what happened was a really cool God-story. Chad Morris was coaching at Tulsa about 5 years ago and at the time he was going through a tough, personal time and he walked into a bookstore looking for a book and he said Training Camp just popped out at him. He saw the whistle, ‘Training Camp’, the football, and excellence and thought, ‘I’m all about that’, with no idea what the story was about. So he picked it up and started reading it.
Well Dabo (Swinney) hired him as the offensive coordinator at Clemson not long after, and Chad loved the book and the themes throughout so he gave it to Dabo to read. Once Dabo read it, he started to use a lot of those principles in terms of ‘The Best’ such as ‘The Best is The Standard’ and that’s where Dabo began to create the whole concept of ‘The Best” in what we’re going to do but at the time, I had no idea. Funny how God works, every time I’d turn on the TV on Saturday and flip the channels, I’d seem to find a Clemson game.
I started watching this team, granted I had never liked Clemson before but I started watching and I thought ‘wow I like these guys, there’s something about them that I just liked.’ So I literally started watching every game, having no clue that they are using Training Camp and a different principle every week that season and that was 4 years ago. Following the 2011 season, I got a direct message on Twitter from Chad Morris saying how much they liked the book, how they were using it and then he proceeded to ask me if I’d be interested in coming to speak to the team during training camp the following season. So I did and that began my relationship with Clemson and Dabo.
CF: Since connecting with the team, how have you seen them grow and mature?
JG: Well I can say from the outset since I’ve met Dabo and company, they’ve made me feel like part of their family. I can’t say that I’ve necessarily seen them grow but rather just seeing Dabo’s principles that he leads with and guides that program and building that culture take hold. He knew the kind of program he wanted to build, he knew the culture he wanted to build, and everything he’s done has been built on those foundations. He hasn’t wavered, he hasn’t sacrificed principles, he’s got key coaches in place to run the great offense and defense that they do as well as the right players.
This team is more united as a team, the difference between this team and other ones is the fact that they are very connected. They’ve always had talent, just like at the wide receivers they’ve had in years past, look at the defense they had last year, which was probably better than the defense this year because of guys like Stephone Anthony. But this team is definitely more of a connected team.
CF: What tends to hold teams back from being that connected unit?
JG: Things like selfishness, personal agendas and putting yourself before the team. Being me-first instead of team-first. It’s not really knowing your teammates and not spending time with them. One of the things that Dabo did which I love is he has a thing called the “safe seat”. A friend of his brought him back a chair from one of these villages where guys would just sit around and talk on these stools and chairs and Dabo put it in the middle of the room and a guy would sit in it and he would ask the player a question which gave them a chance to really get to know the player.
They would find out personal things about the player, struggles, challenges…and that creates vulnerability. Vulnerability and authenticity are the pathways to meaningful connections so as a guy shares, you get to know that player and as you do, you build the bond and the walls start tumbling down. The relationship becomes deeper and more connected, and after each practice in training camp they’d have a new guy sit in the safe seat and ask him questions. I do think the “safe seat” is a powerful exercise that causes a team to bond and can make all the difference. Sometimes you get a team that just enjoys being around each other and that’s something you can’t manufacture, that’s just happens at times with great teams.
Dabo’s sayings and culture are the epitome of optimism and faith. In Galatians 6:9, it says ‘Let us not grow weary in doing good but at the proper time, we’ll reap a harvest if we do not give up.’. Dabo built his Clemson football program on that very scripture.
(…part 2 of the interview can be viewed HERE)
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