The Hidden Step
www.necouncil.org/the
hidden
step
“The way to be nothing is to do nothing.”
— Nathaniel Howe
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-the-time thing. You don’t win once in a
while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time. Win-
ning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing. Winners play from the ground up—some
play with their heads. That’s O.K. You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any
business. But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fber
of your body. If you’re lucky enough to fnd a person with a lot of head and a lot of
heart, he’s never going to come off the feld second.
I believe that a person’s greatest hour, in fact, his greatest fulfllment, is that moment
when he has worked his heart out for a good cause and lies exhausted but victorious
on the feld of battle—whenever, wherever that feld of battle may be—in your busi-
ness, in my business, wherever.
Success in life is a matter not so much of talent and not so much of opportunity but
rather of concentration and perseverance. The man who succeeds above his fellow
man is the person who early in life clearly decides his objective and towards that
objective he directs all of his powers.”
This is an excerpt from a speech given by the late Vince Lombardi June 22, 1970, in Dayton, Ohio. Aweek later, he
entered a Washington hospital suffering from terminal cancer, which claimed his life on September 3, 1970.