Right about now, you might be saying to yourself, “Hey! She has it all wrong! The correct expression is “the devil is in the details”! You are right. Decades ago that phrase was used to describe situations in which a mysterious and difficult element was hiding amidst the details - something that might have seemed simple at first look, but would actually take more time and effort to complete than expected. Therefore, “the devil” had to be there among the details. While the idiom may have caught on and became part of our vernacular, I refuse to embrace the concept! You see, I am an extremely detail oriented person and I do not think it is the work of the devil at hand when you care enough to focus on getting the details right. I believe that when something matters to you, then you will want to focus on the details and you will put your love and passion into everything that you do. Whether it is a personal project or one for work, attention needs to be given to the details to ensure completion and success.
My son recently showed me a very interesting interview of the newly appointed head football coach at Lipscomb Academy, a private high school in Nashville, Tennessee. He was extremely impressed by the coach’s philosophy and principles and wanted to share the video with me. I loved the interview so much, I watched it three times. Coach Trent Dilfer, who was hired this past January, shows us that there is life after the NFL. He is a former quarterback who won the Super Bowl in 2001 with the Baltimore Ravens. Lipscomb Academy had made the decision to build a premier football program after winning only two games the past two seasons (their record was 35-32 during the past six years). They chose Dilfer, who was a top-ten first round draft pick, played 14 seasons in the NFL with Tampa Bay, Baltimore, Seattle, Cleveland and San Francisco, and finished his career with 20,518 passings yards. Dilfer was the perfect pick, because after retiring from the NFL, he helped coach high school quarterbacks in addition to working as a commentator for ESPN. He says that the decision to take the job at Lipscomb was an easy one because he had been searching for something that would tap into his PASSION and give him PURPOSE in his life. Coach Dilfer’s passion and purpose for his new job are not the only things that make him perfect for the job at Lipscomb...it is also his “love is in the details” approach to life.
In order to rebuild the football program at Lipscomb, Dilfer knew that he had to create a human development program for the students with the same type of resources that could be found at a Division I College or NFL program. He spearheaded the creation of the team’s new indoor training facility, complete with meeting rooms, a barber shop, concert space, several weight rooms, private study halls and tutoring rooms. He hired a nutritionist for the team as well as an academic coach, tutors and an NFL strength and conditioning coach. Dilfer makes sure the student athletes get fed well every day and that their health and well-being are top priority. He and his wife used their own money to purchase the entire program the highest quality and most protective helmets complete with columns inside. He created posters with his personal messages for the team. There is a tremendous life lesson embedded in each one:
“Be the thermostat, don’t be the thermometer” because he wants them to go into a room and raise the thermostat, letting the other team know how hot it is going to be.
“The edge of uncomfortable is where you find greatness” because he believes you cannot touch greatness unless you are willing to be uncomfortable.
“Do Hard Things” because Dilfer says that if you do hard, challenging and difficult things like climbing the mountain with the steepest cliffs and most jagged rocks, the reward at the end of that climb will be much greater than if you had chosen the easy terrain.
Coach Dilfer refers to himself as a “detail freak”. He shares my philosophy that every thing that you do matters and that the “way you do small things is the way you do all things”. He made sure the flowers planted adjacent to the field were the correct color, that the lines painted on the field were done perfectly, and that every spectator is greeted warmly at the entrances to the stadium. He even extends this “love is in details” approach to the opposition, feeding a large meal to the opposing teams after each game. Coach makes sure that all aspects of the program come across his desk so that he may ensure that everything is done to a level of excellence. The team mantra is “Be Set Apart” which serves as a daily reminder that in order to stand out, you must pay attention to your every action, interaction and connections with other people. As you can see, there is LOVE in every detail of the revamped Lipscomb football program.
It remains to be seen if the Lipscomb Mustangs will have a winning season and if Trent Dilfer’s commitment and hard work to his new job will “pay off”. I think you will agree with me, that the young men who are part of this team have already won given the life lessons that are being taught to them by their new coach. They may not remember every play they used or the score of each game, but they will long remember that in order to achieve greatness, pour your love into every detail!