SUCCESS STORY
George Steinbrenner: the Reason for Yankees’ Success
By Erik Holmquist | Accounting and Finance Major, Leadership Minor
It was a happy and quite day. Everyone around the office was all smiles and the room lit up with joyfulness. It was a perfect seventy-five degree day outside, and a nice, crisp, cool 68 degrees inside. Flowers surrounded the office for the new owner of the organization. He walked in took one look at the cheerful office workers, and gave a crunched face of annoyance.
‘“What the hell is this? Is it flower day? Secretary’s day?” he asked.
“Isn’t it wonderful, Mr. Burke got them for the office?”
Later that day George Steinbrenner fired Mr. Burke from the Yankee’s organization’ (Golenbock 106). When George Steinbrenner bought the New York Yankees, he said that he was not going to be a hands on owner. That did not last long. Steinbrenner was a man of many moods and a man who worked for his success. He spent hours learning how to make a baseball team and business side successful. His opportunities, ten thousand hours of hard work, and ideas from Malcolm Gladwell, are the reasons for Steinbrenner’s success within the business and on the baseball field.
It is the crack of dawn, three o’clock in the morning with a thin layer of fog just covering the tops of the grass and the gardens. The cool breeze hits the tired but determined face keeping their eyes open. Shoveling dirt between their fingers, they prepare the soil to bear food. This is what a Chinese farmer does before most open their eyes for the morning. It is a type of style or religion to their families, the farmer and family members get up to work and harvest their rice paddy fields. They do this from early dawn to the end of day, without anything less than a hundred percent. This type of culture lingers into other areas of the Chinese people’s daily lives, such as their studies of education. The Chinese culture always seems to have the smartest people when it comes to any academic excellence. This seems to be a stereotype but it is much more than just that. The Chinese culture has this stereotype because of the hard work that is put into everything they do. Just like the rice patty farmers, the amount of effort and work that has to be put forth to be able to maintain and grow this crop is tedious. This mentality plays into the other aspects of life, and this is where the Chinese culture gets their hard work from — their family and their legacy.
George Steinbrenner also had family legacy. His father was a hardworking man, and he taught George a lot about how to do and run things in life and in business. Steinbrenner’s father learned his ways of a hard work ethic through his many years tedious work as a college track athlete. Just like his father, George went into a track and field career, gaining a tedious work ethic as well (Golenbock 17). George’s father also taught him to have a strong work ethic through their family-owned shipping business. Not only was his dad’s family legacy a big impact on George’s life, his mother also showed him what it meant to work hard. Steinbrenner’s mother was an immigrant from Ireland. When she came to America with her family, she had to learn a whole new world. She had to work hard to get a job, and also figure out how to live in this different type of culture. George’s family legacy, like the Chinese culture, gave George the advantage latter on in his life to know how to work and what has to be done to be able to achieve your goals.
Let’s take a look at an inspiring and successful man who started a successful business Microsoft, Bill Gates. Gates has a secret to the amount of his success, no not his intelligence, but his many opportunities. Gates encountered many opportunities to be at the success level where he is today. Gates was given the opportunity to change schools, because of not being challenged enough, and the new school that he attended possessed a computer (Outliers, 52). Gates was at the right place at the right time. This was the start of Microsoft. As time went on, Gates moved out of his school and heard that the University of Washington, which was down the road from his house, had a computer lab that was available to rent to the public. Gates took advantage of this opportunity and began to clock more and more time into his work on the computer (Outliers 55). This allowed him to understand and create ideas for programming computers. With the opportunities of his first school owning a computer and living down the road from a computer lab the he could use, Gates quickly became an expert in the computer language through logging in his hours work. Gates being young and having the time to put in studying and working on computers, Gates was able to start a business of his own working to bring computer usage into everyday life. Just as Bill Gates had his opportunities with schools and location of living, George Steinbrenner had his fair share of opportunities presented in his life to make him successful.
The Yankees organization is considered one of the most successful sports organization in all sports (The House of Steinbrenner). George Steinbrenner and his opportunities in his own life is a reason for why the Yankees are so successful. George Steinbrenner had many opportunities presented in his life such as his ability to buy his families’ shipping business. George also had the opportunity to learn from one of the most historic college football coach of all time, Woody Hayes. As Steinbrenner was back at school, getting his master in physical education, he worked under Hayes as an assistant coach for the Ohio State Buckeyes (Golenbock 52–53). As Steinbrenner was with the football program, the Buckeyes went undefeated and won the Rose Bowl. This opportunity of being able to learn from Hayes gave George the knowledge on how to run an organization correctly and successfully. George took this knowledge to New York and began to run the Yankees in the same way that Hayes ran his team. Just as Gates had with computers and the University of Washington, Steinbrenner had Woody Hayes and the Buckeyes. Without these few opportunities that both possessed, neither of these names would be what they are today. Not only were the opportunities the reason why George Steinbrenner was successful, he also had to take those opportunities and put them into hard work.
Mozart was never a great composer, the early works are not outstanding at all (Gladwell 40). His work was not considered masterful until he was twenty-one: by that time Mozart had already been composing concertos for ten years (Gladwell 41). Michael Howe studies of Genius Explained is the study of how to become a master of something. Through Howe’s study he began to find that the most important thing to become a master is to put in the hours (4). Within Howe’s study, he took violinists at a young age; he followed and analyzed them until the violinists reached a professional age. Through this study of the violinists, he noticed that the ones that were professionals and considered to be masters were the ones who practiced day in and day out. After some of the violinists were at an expertise level, he learned that these players practice over ten thousand hours. That is where Howe began the statement, “rigorous practice, or training, is the mechanism that a genius masters the knowledge and mental skills required for high achievement, attains a high level of expertise, and then creates his or her own opportunities to discharge these creative capacities” (2). Howe goes on to say that though practice leads on to mastery, mastery does not mean that you are a genius (3). Mozart’s early years of composition were not level that they were towards that end of his career, which is all because he had not put in his ten thousand hours. Overs those years and years of making bad pieces, he was still creating good work because he was putting in his hours to make himself a master at it. Due that he did get those hours in at a young age, Mozart became one of the youngest and most well-known composer of his generation and of all time.
Just as Mozart had his hours of work put in, George Steinbrenner did the same. Steinbrenner had two locations to put in his hours, he had the business world and he also had the sports world. Steinbrenner, at a young age, was able to get in his business hours by working for his family shipping business. This family business is where Steinbrenner learned how a business works and runs, and where George learned on how to become the boss. George took over his family business at a younger than most owners. He bought the business from his father when there was a dispute between the two on how the money should be handled (Golenbock 25). Therefore, George took the money that he had made, then made some investments and bought the company. He then, just like he did the first day as the Yankee owner, got rid of the things he did not want in the organization. George fired his father and began to run the shipping business by himself (Golenbock 26). George got his ten thousand hours in business quickly, becoming the new owner at a young age. He learned about what had to be done to make money and how to get the best production out of everything that he could. This is where Steinbrenner became a master at owning and running a business. Steinbrenner also had his fair share of time within the world of sports, where he learned how to run and operate a successful team. Right after Steinbrenner graduated from college he went against his parents’ wishes and went in the direction of his love; sports. He bought the Cleveland Pipers, a professional ABL basketball team from the sixties (Golenbock 72). Here George learned not only how to run the business side of sports, but also learned how to make changes to bring wins to the team. Under his ownership the Cleveland Piper were the ABL champions of Steinbrenner’s first year of ownership (Golenbock 89). After a season the ABL league folded up and no longer existed. Though his time as the owner of the Pipers was short, it was what was needed for Steinbrenner to get his hours in to become a master at owning a sports organization, and knowing what to do to become a champion. Just a couple years out of college George Steinbrenner had already become a master at the business world and also the sports world. Steinbrenner’s work of getting in his hours in business and sports, the Yankees are able to be considered of the most successful and dominant sports organization ever.
As the tears fell like rain drops in a storm, the gathering of people all around mourned their lost. It felt as if everyone’s own father had passed away, the tears were endless. George Steinbrenner passed away on July 13, 2010 (The House of Steinbrenner). He had passed away from a heart attack just nine days after his eightieth birthday (Golenbock 221). Crowds of people poured in from all around the country to come and say their goodbyes to “the boss”. “If it wasn't for George Steinbrenner, we (the Yankees) wouldn't be making any money and the name (the Yankees) wouldn't be what it is today” (The House of Steinbrenner). As more and more crowds of people came and mourned the boss, the Steinbrenner family came in and took over what their father had created. George’s son Hal Steinbrenner continued on for his father and began just where he left off. “The most challenging thing for me is probably what my dad excelled at the most, you know, he was certainly more extroverted then me and he absolutely knew how to promote the organization” (The House of Steinbrenner). Just as Hal said it, George was a guy who knew how to promote things, get things done, and accomplish them the correct way. He knew how to do this because of his many hours that he put it, and the opportunities that he took advantage over. George Steinbrenner changed the game forever, because of the way that he looked at the game, and the way that he operated his team (George Steinbrenner).
George seemed to have all the things that he needed to become successful, such as a family business, opportunities which lead to hours of mastery, and his family legacy. George could have easily not have been successful at all if he did not take advantage of everything that was in front of him. Without the path that he chose to take, the Yankees organization would not be what they Yankees are today. Along with that, if George Steinbrenner did not work towards his goals in the way that he did, the Steinbrenner name would not be the name that it is known for today; as well, he would not be the boss. George helped to make baseball what it is today…a multi-billion dollar enterprise that brings people together each and every season.
Work Cited
“George Steinbrenner.” Bio. A&E Television Networks, 2015. Web. 30 Apr. 2015.
Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers. New York: Little Brown Company, 2008. Print.
Golenbock, Peter. George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, 2009. Print.
The House of Steinbrenner. Barbara Kopple. Perf. George Steinbrenner and Hal Steinbrenner. ESPN, 2010. Documentary.
Howe, Michael. (1999). Genius Explained. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.bethel.edu.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erik Holmquist, a freshman at Bethel University from Cottage Grove, MN., seeks for an internship at ESPN as a accountant. Holmquist likes playing and watching sports, watching and preforming musicals, and learning new things each day.
WHAT I'VE LEARNED
I have learned through this class, on how to be a great writer.
Within this class we learned the steps that are necessary to make an enjoyable paper for the reader. Some of which involve appealing to the five senses of seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and tasting. These are which are used in dropping people into a moment.
Dropping people in a moment draws people in by describing the scene rather then saying what is going on.
I learned that this can be used in any type of writing, a creative paper or a research paper.
As well great writers begin and end their stories or papers at the same place. In Malcolm Galdwell’s Outliers, he starts by describing a scene of someone like the Beatles, and goes on saying how their success was achieved, and then finishes his idea by going back to that story from the beginning relating to what he talks about. This makes it easier for the reader because they can relate to the story better and it is easier for the reader to remember how the idea matches with the story.
A great writer also goes into detail, or describes the dog.
Describing the dog means naming it or going into detail and being specific enough that the read knows exactly what you are saying.
Within GES110 I learned how to be successful and how other people have creative success for themselves.
I got these ideas from Malcolm Gladwell, in his book Outliers. This book gives ways of how people such as Bill Gates obtained their success.
One way that I have learned how success is gained is by the hard work that you put in and the amount of that work. This type of method of gaining success is called 10,000 hours. This is the estimate time that it takes for one to obtain a mastery level in something.
I learned this method of success and many other ways to obtain success through the many books that we read through this class.
Not only did I read Outliers, I also read a prequel to Outliers called Blink. Blink discusses the importance of understanding the importance of making split decisions.
Split decisions is the act of making the correct decision in any field. This type of decision making is used by many athletes. For example tennis players. Tennis players make a split decision every time the ball is hit, whether or not they should they should make a play on the ball or not. Their quick decision is a skill that can make or break their career.
As a class we all were apart of a writing covenant. This covenant was a non judgmental and supportive group. We encourage people to read what they have written aloud, snapping at the end of it no matter if it was the best thing ever written or one the worst that anyone has every heard.
As the warm seventy five degree room was still and silent, with the hearts racing in everyone’s chest, the class waited. We sat their as only seconds passed which felt like an eternity. Sweat dripping down the scared and nervous faces. As the loud noise of silence couldn't last any longer the I opened my mouth, taking a deep breathe, preparing myself to be the first one to break the silence. With the first word to the last was pure nervousness, but at the end hearing everyone’s fingers snapping together gave the nervous and sweaty student the feeling of accomplishment.
