I loved Ronnie Lott as an NFL football player and hall-of-famer. Now Guy Kawasaki has interviewed him as part of his Remarkable People podcast. There is a lot of great content here on how to live greatly.
After his football career, Ronnie Lott became a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley with 49er teammates Harris Barton and Joe Montana. He also owns a Toyota and a Mercedes dealership.
Ronnie Lott drops many names for football players and coaches, basketball players, and other athletes. If you’re under twenty-five or so, you may have never heard of them, but suffice it to say that when Ronnie drops a name, the person was pretty remarkable in their time.
Some main tips you can draw from this podcast:
- We all have rituals. We all have moments — all to get into the presence of a game.
What do you do to help you get in the mood for writing? How have you set up your writing space to make it easier for you to write fast and well? Do you have any rituals to get you into the moment?
- Surround yourself with great people. Some of the people who are great are mentors, teachers, examples of how you can live a good life. I try to model the people who were successful.
Successful authors do the same thing: They surround themselves with other great writers. They learn from the best. They constantly work to improve their writing, their knowledge, and their marketing.
- How an athlete becomes legendary: Play as hard as you can play.
Do you want to be a legendary writer? Play hard. Write hard. Work hard.
- Some players really loved their sports. Some players loved it even more—a kind of love that is really special. There is something more about how they play and how they live.
Do you love to write? Do you have to write? Do you need to write above all else? The most successful authors breathe their writing.
- Have the Navy Seal level of commitment. Give your best effort.
Don’t let writer’s block defeat you. Make a commitment to a Navy Seal level of excellence.
- Everybody is trying to give their best efforts. Appreciate the flavors and colors of their spirits.
All your fellow authors are working as hard as you are in writing their books and marketing them. Help them out where you can. And don’t be afraid to ask for help from them as well.
- Some people will always find a way to make something possible. Don’t count them out.
Don’t let anyone count you out. Not editors. Not agents. Not distributors. Not booksellers. Not book reviewers. Not anyone.
- Focus on being your best.
Do your best. Write your best. And you will never go wrong.
- You should want to know a lot about a lot of different people.
If you want to be successful in anything you do in life, you need to create relationships with others, especially successful people in your field and the top influencers in your subject area. But any relationship, no matter how small it might appear, can make a big difference in how successful you become. Your most important relationships are with fellow authors and with your readers.
- How to transition from sports to business, or from the arts to business: You have to find ways to evolve. You have to find way to get better.
You should always be working to improve your writing, your marketing, your knowledge, your relationship building. Find ways to get better at everything you do.
- Survival does certain things. Justice does certain things. … A lot of times in this world you have to have the right compass … your belief and feeling in what’s right and wrong.
You will always be a better writer if you have strong beliefs, strong feelings, and a strong sense of what is right for you and your world.
- That’s how I live my life: trying to make plays. There are a lot of plays I’ve missed, but in what he has given me to do, I still have a lot to do to help a lot more people.
You should always have a lot still to do to help a lot more people. The more you serve people, the more successful you will be—and the easier it will be to write more books.
- To win a Super Bowl, you just have to be in the right huddle with the right people.
To write and publish a bestselling book, you need to have the support of a lot of other people. Seek out that support. Don’t try to do everything on your own.
We can find ways to get back, to find ways to fulfill our opportunities to try to be our best selves. — Ronnie Lott
About John Kremer
John Kremer is author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, the Relationships Matter Marketing program, and many other books and reports on book marketing, Internet marketing, social media, and book publicity. -- John Kremer on Book Marketing.
