The Michael Knowles Show - November 28, 2024


＂Don't Be A Turkey Person＂ Michael Knowles & Oscar-Winner Bill Courtney

Hosted by
Michael Knowles
Mentioned
Bill Courtney Lane Kiffin Ole Miss HOMETITLELock.com Undefeated Oscar
Ep. 1626 - Trump Triggers The Libs Before Thanksgiving Rules For Life： Michael Speaks with Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

180.95

Word count

2,378

Sentence count

156

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

9

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Bill Courtney is a former college football coach, Oscar winner, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Coach Courtney has built a business that does business in 42 countries and is worth an estimated $80 million. He has been a member of the NFL Hall of Fame for 33 years and is now a certified non-faculty coach at the University of Tennessee.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I'm going to be speaking with my guest, Oscar-winning coach, Bill Courtney.
00:00:07.400 Coach Courtney, thank you for coming on the show.
00:00:10.440 Thanks for having me.
00:00:11.680 So, Bill, you've got an amazing personal story.
00:00:16.100 I want everyone to get into the upshot at this point because I think it's a really good point not to be a turkey person.
00:00:21.380 Which is to say, don't just be the kind of person who hands the bum a dollar looking in the other direction and runs away as quickly as possible. 0.92
00:00:30.980 Don't just do your charity in a selfish way or in a grudging way, but really recognize people's humanity and really fully give of yourself.
00:00:40.940 I love that whole idea.
00:00:42.020 But just before we even get into not being a turkey person, could you just tell our creme de la creme audience here a little bit about your personal story?
00:00:50.320 I grew up in Memphis.
00:00:52.700 Dad left home when I was four.
00:00:55.800 Mom did the best she could, worked hard, but was a bad chooser of mates. 0.96
00:01:02.460 I had five fathers.
00:01:05.380 My fourth one shot at me down a hallway.
00:01:07.960 I had to dive out a window one night to save myself.
00:01:10.400 And I grew up in apartments in kind of a lower socioeconomic environment.
00:01:18.560 And, um, that's kind of where I came from.
00:01:21.560 I got married, had four kids, uh, took $17,000 and started a business.
00:01:27.620 Um, I now have 150 employees and $80 million business.
00:01:32.040 It does business in 42 different countries.
00:01:35.620 The, the good men in my life were football coaches.
00:01:38.560 And so when I graduated Ole Miss, I coached football for a living, had those four kids, couldn't afford it anymore.
00:01:45.380 But in the state of Tennessee, if you go through a bunch of classes, you can continue to coach as what's called a non-faculty, certified non-faculty coach.
00:01:53.360 And so I've coached for 33 years.
00:01:55.580 So I've had this parallel life as a business owner and as a coach.
00:01:59.660 When I started my business, I found out about this school called Manassas, only about a mile from where my property was.
00:02:06.240 And I took an opportunity to coach there, frankly, because it was convenient.
00:02:10.500 I found, uh, 17 kids on a varsity football team whose previous record was four wins and 95 losses.
00:02:17.480 And seven years later, we were 75 kids.
00:02:21.820 We were 18 and two and in an area where an 18 year old is three times more likely to be dead or in jail than he is to have a job or be in college.
00:02:31.040 We graduated 18 seniors those last two years and 17 went to college.
00:02:35.980 And these goofy guys from Hollywood showed up, said they wanted to make a movie that we were convinced we'd see on a Wednesday on channel 422 at three in the morning.
00:02:44.880 And a year later, I'm walking down the red carpet at the Academy Awards.
00:02:50.760 That's quite a story.
00:02:52.720 It's an interesting story.
00:02:54.380 It really is.
00:02:55.420 Yeah.
00:02:56.100 So I want, even before we get to the turkey person, but I don't want people to get the turkey person out of their head because it's a good point.
00:03:03.460 Sure.
00:03:04.080 What impelled you to be charitable?
00:03:08.240 What impelled you to give of your time?
00:03:09.880 You got a successful business.
00:03:11.080 You don't need to be coaching, doing all this other stuff.
00:03:13.080 Was it your rough upbringing that you think, well, I'm going to make sure this kind of stuff doesn't happen to other kids?
00:03:19.920 Because plenty of people have a rough upbringing and they say, all right, I'm going to go get mine.
00:03:24.940 I'm going to go get my sack and forget about everybody else.
00:03:28.060 This is the school of hard knocks and we all got to fight our own way out.
00:03:31.340 What gave you that kind of charitable spirit?
00:03:34.300 Well, in fairness, I did decide I was going to go get mine.
00:03:37.940 Um, I, I, you know, I never had a, I never had a, I never owned a, I never cut grass with a lawnmower until I bought my own house with a yard, bought my own lawnmower, you know?
00:03:49.740 And I wanted my children to have opportunities and things available to them that I didn't as a child.
00:03:57.100 And so I went to work hard.
00:03:59.200 Um, I don't know why the Lord has decided to bless me with this business and my marriage of 33 years and four delicious children who are now all gainfully employed, doing well all over the country.
00:04:15.000 But he did, and I believe fundamentally that, uh, a requisite, um, a requirement of those blessings is to give back.
00:04:28.140 And, and my way of giving back is again, when I was growing up in a lot of dysfunction with a lot of pretty bad men in my life, I had some coaches that had they not invested in me.
00:04:42.380 I'm really not sure where I'd end up and the very fundamentals and tenants and values that operate my life with my personal life, my philanthropic life, my professional life, my entire life with, or the lessons I learned from those men, those coaches.
00:04:56.820 And so I saw an opportunity as a coach to, to, um, meet that requisite requirement to give back with a skillset, uh, and a passion that I have, which is the lessons that football can teach young men.
00:05:15.940 And so I enjoy coaching football.
00:05:18.940 I'm competitive as hell.
00:05:20.240 It was an opportunity to give back.
00:05:21.680 It was a place that I had a passion and a discipline.
00:05:23.760 And so they all kind of met at opportunity.
00:05:27.060 And, um, that's, that's kind of the story.
00:05:31.900 So what's a Turkey person?
00:05:34.260 My first year at Manassas.
00:05:36.000 Remember when we showed up, we were inheriting a team that was four wins and 95 losses over the previous 10 years. 0.97
00:05:42.700 It was garbage.
00:05:44.680 So halfway through the season, we're three and three. 0.98
00:05:47.860 And now I think three and three is pretty average, but when you've won four games in 10 years, they thought I was a fat redheaded version of Lane Kiffin or somebody.
00:05:55.860 And so I, uh, when I first got there, I also learned that athletic ability was there and losing was not really about tackles and scoring touchdowns.
00:06:08.100 It was more about a lack of fundamentals of things like character and commitment, integrity, the value of indignity of hard work, the importance of showing up on time, civility, um, the core values and tennis that your grandmother should have taught you.
00:06:23.840 You know, and so I started teaching those as well and holding kids accountable to those.
00:06:28.580 Well, halfway through the season, we're three and three.
00:06:31.000 And while the whole team, because we're winning and there's no equipment and stuff, they're buying into the football, but only half the team is buying into the important stuff.
00:06:39.680 The other half, the team, while respectful on the football field, the minute practices and games are over, they're back into the streets, engaging in the same type of behavior that metaphorically got them to four 95 in life.
00:06:51.140 And so I was losing it a little bit, real frustrated.
00:06:56.000 I went to my guy, every coach has a guy, especially a first year coach.
00:06:59.580 You really got to have a guy.
00:07:01.180 And I said, Hey man, what do I got to do to get that half the team to buy an important stuff like your half the team?
00:07:06.680 And this is a guy who was always real open with me and always had real conversations.
00:07:10.840 And he just said, coach dismissively, just keep doing what you're doing.
00:07:15.280 If you have children, you know, the tone.
00:07:17.840 And I'm like, no man, real talk.
00:07:20.680 And he said, coach, I don't want to hurt your feelings.
00:07:22.600 I said, you are not going to hurt my feelings. 0.97
00:07:24.800 I'm a grown ass man. 0.98
00:07:26.000 And he said, all right. 0.97
00:07:27.900 I said, why can't I get that half the team to buy into the important stuff?
00:07:32.060 Like your half the team, y'all are all in on football, but the important stuff that's going to serve you long after the days of football are over.
00:07:38.420 Or I can't get them to buy in.
00:07:40.540 And he said, coach, you're trying to figure out if you're a turkey person or not.
00:07:44.360 And I got to tell you, bro, I learned a lot of vernacular and phrases my first four months at Manassas that I'd never used or heard in my life.
00:07:51.820 But that was not one.
00:07:52.940 And I looked at him kind of like, what are you talking about?
00:07:55.720 And he said, coach, everything's given in Christmas.
00:07:58.700 People roll into our neighborhoods and they give us hams and gifts and turkeys.
00:08:02.980 And we take them because we ain't got none.
00:08:04.900 But then they leave and we never see them again.
00:08:08.100 And it makes you wonder, are they doing that because they really care about us or they're doing that to make themselves feel good?
00:08:14.700 And he looked me dead in the eyes.
00:08:15.860 He said, coach, really, man, what the hell are you doing down here in the hood with us?
00:08:20.580 And I got to tell you, Michael, the truth is it pissed me off.
00:08:24.680 I was given my time, my money, my effort.
00:08:27.560 And I immediately went to the old default.
00:08:31.360 You can't help these folks.
00:08:33.060 If I'm doing all I'm doing and they still wonder if I'm a turkey person, you just can't help, quote, these folks.
00:08:41.260 And then I started thinking about it, that I really was enjoying the back slaps.
00:08:46.600 I was enjoying the way it was exalting me among my peers.
00:08:49.900 I was enjoying the press.
00:08:52.560 And all of a sudden, this effort, I was starting to enjoy what it was doing for me and what it was about me.
00:09:00.220 If you serve soup in a soup kitchen or you give turkeys away on Thanksgiving or hams at Christmas or any of that, man, the story is that's a beautiful thing.
00:09:11.100 People don't need to quit doing that.
00:09:12.700 But we do have to check ourselves and ask ourselves very honestly this.
00:09:16.560 What's our motive?
00:09:17.260 Are we motivated by the simple exaltation of another person who's not as blessed as us, who's not as fortunate as us, or are we doing it because it makes us feel good or it exalts us among our contemporaries?
00:09:31.220 If you are doing it for the latter, the people will take what you have to offer and they will say, yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am, and smile at you. 0.83
00:09:39.520 But the minute you turn and walk away, they were still darts to your back because you are a fraud.
00:09:45.180 Philanthropy is about helping another person for the value of that other person, not for yourself.
00:09:52.780 And so the danger in being a turkey person is simply motive and consistency.
00:09:59.000 And if we will be consistent and be motivated by the very people we are trying to serve, motivated by actually celebrating and someone else becoming better as a result of that service and back up from it and let them have the limelight of their successes as a result of the little bit of work you're putting in,
00:10:20.760 then you avoid being a turkey person and true servant leadership happens and amazing things occur.
00:10:26.940 If, on the other hand, you want to take the credit because it makes you feel good, well, you'll give away some turkeys, but you're not going to make any damn difference.
00:10:34.900 Right, right.
00:10:35.520 Because people can see that.
00:10:37.000 I mean, to your guys' observation, they can tell 100%. 0.99
00:10:40.360 Don't think poor people are dumb. 0.98
00:10:42.880 And I'm going to tell you something else. 0.99
00:10:44.480 In some ways, they're a hell of a lot more astute than you and I are.
00:10:48.280 And they see through that because that's common.
00:10:53.000 We have to be uncommon.
00:10:54.840 We have to serve for the value of the other people, back up from it, and relish in their success, not our own.
00:11:01.820 And if you do that, beautiful things really can happen.
00:11:04.960 Right, right.
00:11:05.620 I like that basic definition of love, that love is willing the good of another for their own sake.
00:11:12.500 Not willing the good of another so that you get a trophy that you can put on your wall or something like that.
00:11:17.280 But really for their own sake, that you dissolve a little bit out of it.
00:11:21.440 A really, really important point that is not only classically, ethically, and morally true, but that any person can see in real life when you actually engage in it.
00:11:35.600 It's just a radical difference.
00:11:37.900 Bill, where can people find the movie, first of all?
00:11:40.280 Well, Amazon Prime bought it.
00:11:42.060 So, Undefeated is on Amazon Prime if you want to watch that.
00:11:45.560 You can read about that and all these tenets in my book, Against the Grain.
00:11:50.840 And there's plenty of stuff on all that.
00:11:52.860 And where we came to you from is you can go to turkeyperson.com, which will link you with my podcast, An Army of Normal Folks, where we highlight every week normal people doing this exact work for the right reasons.
00:12:07.480 Which we're trying to inspire people to use their passion, their discipline, at points of opportunity and get involved in the communities for the right reason and be consistent with it and maybe change the trajectory of our culture right now.
00:12:22.900 Beautiful.
00:12:23.520 Coach Bill Courtney, thank you, sir, for coming on the show.
00:12:27.180 And thank you to all of you for watching the show.
00:12:28.940 I'm Michael Knowles.
00:12:29.460 This is The Michael Knowles Show.
00:12:30.160 We'll see you tomorrow.
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