Author: Saqib Idrees

The great stoic philosopher and former professional pugilist Mike Tyson once observed that “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” By the time he retired, some 44 lucky boxers were knocked out by Iron Mike’s plan-changing punches.

I watch more sports than the average person but I don’t tend to watch sitcoms or dramas about sports; still, when everyone began talking about Ted Lasso, I found myself immediately drawn to the show. Sadly, as the third season concluded recently, it seems the show – and the many leadership lessons it teaches – is set for reruns.

The LSU Tigers won a national baseball championship this weekend by beating the Florida Gators 18-4 on Monday in game three of the College World Series. And while that’s not in itself as big a deal as it might be had another team won – LSU has won six previous championships – this seventh title offers a business lesson we simply cannot ignore.

It was a moment most people wouldn’t have caught, but it positively screamed the two words that have come to define this year’s NBA Finals between the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets: Heat Culture. Yes, some pundits and T.V. analysts roll their eyes when the two words come up because they think “culture” is a bunch of hooey. But as the Heat’s talismanic on-floor leader, Jimmy Butler, might say via his Twitter account,...

It’s NBA Finals time. The time of the year when everyone tunes in to watch their favorite stars go head-to-head in the series that matters most. The star power can be so strong that even if we have a rooting interest in one team, we want the series to go to seven games just so we can watch a LeBron or a Steph or a Caleb at work!

The deserving Brooks Koepka won the 2023 PGA Championship in Rochester, NY, but the weekend belonged to a far lesser-known competitor named Michael Block, who finished the tournament in fifteenth place. Block is the head golf pro at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, Mission Viejo, CA. Club pros are very good players—likely the best most of us will ever meet—but the vast majority of them have accepted the fact that they are...

There are some people you meet and every time you are in their presence you learn something new. I was in Grayson Stadium in Savannah (GA) on Monday night for two reasons. The first was to watch a baseball game between the home team, the Savannah Bananas, and the visiting Florence (KY) Y’alls. The second reason was to celebrate the release of a book by Bananas Owner Jesse Cole that I had the good fortune to help him...

Every team and every member of a team has their ups and downs, but a leader’s responsibility is to keep his or her downs to a minimum and, more often than not, set the right tone for the rest of the team. Consistency is one of the hallmarks of true leadership (and greatness) precisely because, as we all say, “as goes the leader, so goes the team.”

History was made last weekend, and one person watched it with a different perspective than most of the millions worldwide who followed the NFL Draft. That person was Warren Moon, the former quarterback for the Houston Oilers and 2006 inductee into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.