Bill Walsh: Stand Up and Fight Again

I recently re-read an inspiring story from “The Score Takes Care of Itself,” a leadership book by the great football coach Bill Walsh of the San Francisco 49ers. Walsh led his team to 5 Super Bowl championships in 14 years, one of the greatest achievements in sports history. Walsh wrote about the low point in his career, and how he was able to get past it to stand up and fight again.

“We were preparing to play the defending AFC East champions, Don Shula’s powerful Miami Dolphins… We had lost seven consecutive games. Our year was imploding.

“A loss to Miami on Sunday would be our eighth in a row and likely have enormous consequences, including the possibility of my being terminated... Conversely, I recognized that a victory against the Dolphins would stop the hemorrhaging and provide hope for salvaging the last part of our season, which, in turn, could have a positive impact on the following year. Huge stakes were on the table.”

The stakes were clearly high for Walsh, both for his season and for his career. Unfortunately, Walsh and the 49ers ended up losing that game in a narrow defeat.

“It was a horrible and numbing defeat, overwhelming for me because of its potential impact — a job I had worked for my entire adult life was in jeopardy…

“Coaches aren’t supposed to cry, but I’m not ashamed to admit that on the night flight back to San Francisco I sat in my seat in the first row of the plane and broke down sobbing in the darkness. I felt like a casualty of war being airlifted away from the battlefield.”

Walsh knew that he needed to pull himself together.

“In my mind — or gut — and in spite of the pain, I knew I had to force myself to somehow start looking ahead — to overcome my grief over the debacle in Miami — or it would severely damage our efforts to prepare properly for the battle with New York…

“I can say with some pride that by the time we landed at San Francisco International Airport at 3: 15 A.M. after a six-hour flight, I had pulled myself out of the hopelessness and begun working on the strategy we would employ against the Giants when they arrived in a week. I was wobbly but back up on my feet again.”

He was able to pull himself together because he stopped beating himself up about the loss, and he started thinking about the future.

“Those awful feelings brought on by the events in Miami were in retreat because I was able to summon strength enough to pull my focus, my thinking, out of the past and move it forward to our next big problem. It does take strength to shift your attention off the pain when you feel as though your soul has been stripped bare…

“NFL football is no different from any professional endeavor, boxing or business or anything where the stakes are significant and the competition extreme: When knocked down, you must get up; you must stand and fight. When the inevitable setback, loss, failure, or defeat comes crashing down on you — losing a big sale, being passed over for a career-making promotion, even getting fired — allow yourself the “grieving time,” but then recognize that the road to recovery and victory lies in having the strength to get up off the mat and start planning your next move.”

In this dark moment, Walsh was showing signs of resilience. Optimists (who are resilient) think about setbacks as temporary, specific, and external. Pessimists think about setbacks as permanent, pervasive, and personal. The only way that Walsh was able to get up after being knocked down was to tell himself that:

• This was a temporary situation — this would not permanently cripple him or his team, with no chance to recover.
• This was a specific loss to the Dolphins — he and his team were not “losers,” condemned to losing to every other team in the future.
• There was nothing inherently wrong with his team — he and his team were not weak or unskilled.

“Unbeknownst to me, we had hit rock bottom against the Dolphins. Sixteen months after I spent part of a transcontinental flight experiencing an emotional meltdown, the San Francisco 49ers became world champions, defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 26–21 at the Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, in Super Bowl XVI.

“During the ensuing fourteen years, the San Francisco 49ers won five Super Bowls. It happened only because at the moment of deepest despair I had the strength to stand and confront the future instead of wallowing in the past. Many can’t summon the strength; they can’t get up; their fight is over. Victory goes to another, a stronger competitor.”

Walsh uses his example to inspire all of us to stand up and fight again. At the moment when things look the bleakest, summon the strength within to get up and fight. As Olympic gymnastics medalist McKayla Maroney said, “Looking back isn’t going to help you. Moving forward is what you have to do.”

“Competition at the highest level in sports or business produces gut-ripping setbacks. When you’re fighting for your survival professionally, struggling when virtually no one else knows or cares, and there’s nobody to bail you out, that’s when you might remind yourself of my own dark night of despair. When you stand and overcome a significant setback, you’ll find an increasing inner confidence and self-assurance that has been created by conquering defeat. Absorbing and overcoming this kind of punishment engenders a sober, steely toughness that results in a hardened sense of independence and a personal belief that you can take on anything, survive and win.”

Walsh ends his story by urging us to remember his devastating loss when we are struggling with our dark moments, our big setbacks, our professional “fights for survival.” If he could survive such a high-stakes loss — if he could stand up and fight again, and then lead his team to a Super Bowl victory just 16 months later— we just may be able to overcome the setback we are facing, even if it seems crippling or unsurmountable right now.

He also observes that people who have been through these incredible setbacks, but who have shown the resilience to get up and move forward, develop a “steely toughness” when they face other challenges in the future. They have the inner confidence that they can overcome setbacks and can take on any new challenges that come their way.

So even though something seems incredibly devastating right now, keep pushing. Remember the story of Bill Walsh and his crushing defeat to the Dolphins. Stand up and fight again. If Walsh could do it, so can you. When you come out on the other side, you will be mentally tougher and more confident as a result.