Lou Holtz: "It's Not Just One Smooth Ride to The Top."

Lou Holtz delivers a powerful message on resilience, accountability, and the mindset required to win. Success isn’t about avoiding failure — it’s about refusing to stay down. When you choose not to accept mediocrity and keep getting back up, you build the strength and belief needed to achieve greatness. Want Ad-Free Episodes? Join QOD Club and hear zero ads inside our Circle community. Plus, book clubs, mentorship calls, weekly business trainings, and new likeminded friends. Get started for only $9. Source: Lou Holtz competition is ourselvesHosted by Sean CroxtonFollow me on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:08Speaker 00

  What are you gonna do when you get knocked down? Because that happens to all of us. There isn't an individual that's ever achieved success that doesn't have a story about being knocked down, about getting up. Everybody's got that story. You have it here in this company. And you have a story yourself about times you've had to overcome obstacles and problems in order to be successful. Because it's not just one smooth ride to the top. What are you gonna do now when you get knocked down? We had an All-American at Arkansas, a young man by the name of Billy Ray Smith. Great football player. He was an All-American not because he never got knocked down. He was an All-American because he wouldn't stay down. You knocked him down, he got up, took the shortest route to the ball carrying, arrived here in a bad mood.

• 0:53Speaker 00

  Now here's a great athlete, he played tennis by himself, and I found that impressive myself, but... Everybody gets knocked down. It's just part of life, but it's a question when you get up. I don't ask our athletes at the University of Minnesota how many want to win. I'm not gonna ask you how many of you want to be successful. Everybody wants to win. The question I ask is, can you live with losing? Can you live with failure? Can you live with mediocrity? Because if you can live with mediocrity, or losing, or failure, that is exactly what you're gonna get out of life. A belief in yourself, a belief in what you're doing. But the fact that you've got to get up off the ground, I think, is ultra-important.

• 1:37Speaker 00

  And anything you do, whether it be in business, or whether it be involved in athletics. Next time you get down and you get depressed, I want you to remember a couple names. Remember the name of a young man by the name of Peter Gray. That played outfield for the St. Louis Browns with only one arm. Hermione Stratton or Lou Brasi, pitched in the major leagues with one leg. Remember the name of Bob Altman. A young man that earned two letters. At the University of Pennsylvania, won in wrestling, won in golf, and yet he was blind. Remember the name Jack Robertson. A paraplegic that came within 800 yards to swim in the English Channel. Or Bobby Morrow. Bobby Morrow, at age 8, was a national poster boy for polio. All over the country, his picture was seen, on crutches.

• 2:23Speaker 00

  And embraces. And yet in the 1956 Olympics, that same Bobby Morrow, won two gold medals. So don't tell me about the problems you have. Don't tell me how tough this situation is. Because I'll show you for every person you can show me has had a tough time, I'll show you 10 that's really overcome obstacles and got up off that ground and achieved success.