What Does Elon Musk's Purchase of Twitter Have to Do With Building a College Program?
I actually didn’t care much about who did or didn’t own Twitter when all the fuss started about Elon Musk promising to buy it.
I’ve used it since right after it became a thing, actually, and have ever since. For college coaches, @dantudor is a great place to send advice, strategies, new articles, college sports and breaking recruiting news, and even some random life stuff I end up talking about.
(I just looked, and I’m up to more than 35,000 tweets. Which is impressive and sad, at the same time).
So anyway, back to Musk:
It’ll be interesting to see what he does or doesn’t do with it, and how it changes the conversations we all have on the platform. I stick to recruiting and helping coaches be better at their jobs, and stay away from the controversial stuff that others run to, so I don’t think it’ll change much for me (or for you, if you follow me for recruiting advice).
But I think the whole process has been interesting, and I’ve come away with a few key recruiting and program development lessons I feel like coaches should take away from the process.
Elon Musk just doesn’t care what you think of him. Easier for him to feel that way when he has a lot of money to buy stuff like Twitter, but the overall attitude could be adopted by a lot of you reading this. Of course, making sure you’re carrying out the mission of your program, and your campus, is key…but so many coaches are so concerned with not deviating from the path of their predecessors or coaches that they watched recruit, and it’s not helping them in a world (and a group of recruits) that is completely different than the world you grew up in as a rising college student-athlete. Remember, you’re reading ‘Honey Badger Recruiting’, and you know that ‘honey badger don’t care’, so I think when it comes to your approach and attitude and facing the challenges you face - as well as the critics and cynics who secretly want you to fail just like they have - it’d be good to not care so much about the world around you. Be more fearless.
Elon Musk had a Plan B. He didn’t reveal what it was (turns out he didn’t need to, the Twitter board took his offer for more than $40,000,000,000) but he had one. Most innovative leaders, generals, entrepreneurs and electric car inventors do. But what about you, Coach? Do you have a Plan B for all of the scenarios you face as a coach? Do you have a Plan B for a budget reduction? For a recruit you were sure would say yes who just told you no? For a missed program target? Do you have all of that in advance of the problem arising? You should. Come up with a scenario that can be plugged-in immediately if Plan A goes down in flames.
Elon Musk didn’t listen to his critics. He established a goal, focused on the goal, tuned out the noise, didn’t care what people thought of the idea of him buying Twitter, had a Plan B ready, and reached that goal. There’s your simple formula for success in coaching, Coach.
Elon Musk believes he is doing it all for the right reasons. Like with most things in our world now, some agreed with those reasons and some didn’t (and still don’t). And that’s o.k….that’s part of being fearless. But I think it’s also worth noting that from the sound of things, he has some altruistic motives at least partially behind his desire to own the platform. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn’t…time will tell. But What about your motives, Coach? What are you doing all this for exactly?
Just some things to keep in mind as you go after your goals and take over your world, Coach.
I’ll leave you with my all-time favorite quote from the inventor of the artificial heart that has powered me through building my little enterprise over the last two decades. Feel free to steal it: