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And I'm Elahe Azadi. Martine and I are the hosts of Post Reports. The show comes out every weekday from The Washington Post. You can follow and listen to Post Reports wherever you get your podcasts.
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Call 1-888-842-6328 for details about credit costs. Learn more at NavyFederal.org. This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories. And we tell stories about everything here on this show. From the arts to sports and from business to history and everything in between. Including your stories. Send them to OurAmericanStories.com. They're some of our favorites. And it's time for our On Leadership series where we hear from coaches, leaders in the military, leaders in business and leaders in communities across this great country. And this edition is with Bill Koch whose company Oxbow Carbon has over 1,200 employees and $4 billion in annual revenue.
Bill has also led America to a victory in the world's premier sailing competition, the America's Cup, and did it on his first try. But today he brings us some formational leadership stories from his younger days starting at his high school, Culver Academy. At Culver, my first year, I got beat up a lot and rassed a lot. And when I was at Culver, some of the advisors told me that I couldn't get into MIT. And then when I got into MIT, I said, well, you're at the bottom of the class.
I don't think you'll make it. And then I found out that if I wanted to do well, mainly to impress my father as well as mentally to develop my own skills and my own accomplishments, so I just would work very, very hard. You know, if I had to go to the bathroom, I'd take a book with me. So I worked really hard. And then I graduated with top honors and then got my doctorate degree from it. And I've always been seemed to be told that I can't do something, you know, being harassed and told I was dumb, an idiot, some other things. So that has become a big challenge for me. I mean, it can have two effects. Either you stay a nerd the rest of your life or an idiot the rest of your life or you take advantage of it.
In fact, you know, I probably have a little OCD. And I looked at it and said, well, that could either kill me or I could use it to an advantage. So I used it to work very hard. And surprisingly, I got more honors than all my brothers put together.
We just made a couple of them pissed. But I wanted to play basketball. I thought the sport was terrific. But in our freshman year, the varsity one won one game. But we as freshmen couldn't play on the varsity in those days. Now they can't.
Then you couldn't. And we were a bunch of nerds. And MIT went out and got this one coach from Methuen High School.
It was a northern mill town that was dying in northern Massachusetts. And he had the longest winning record of any high school in the country. So MIT recruited him. And when we became sophomores and were playing on the varsity, we also won only one game. And the coach took a while to learn out the MIT system to learn what nerds we are and how clumsy and awkward we were. So I wanted to play more on the varsity. So I went up and went to a summer camp that he had so I could practice all summer. And also that avoided me going out and working on the ranch.
And I could possibly chase girls even though it was in Methuen. But anyway, he told me he had a new plan and he came up with a new play. But he came up with only one play because he said we weren't smart enough to learn more than one.
These nerds from MIT. And he was also afraid that if we all had different plays we'd get too confused. And then he just drilled us over and over and over in that same play so we could do it in our sleep.
So it was habitual. Then he started giving us variations off the play, which was great. But the most powerful thing he did was that he put people in the right spots to minimize their weakness and maximize their strengths. And he defined jobs. And he said, OK, your job is to bring up the ball and dribble it and dribble it up and set up a play. And then your job is to get rebounds and block shots and put up pivots. And then he said to another guy, all right, your job is to go after the best shooter on the other side and rough him up a little bit.
But he made it very succinct. Well, anyway, in our junior year, we won over half our games. Our senior year, we had the longest winning streak in the country and the least points scored against us. And so I looked at that and said, you know, I sat on the damn bench, but it was terrific. I learned it because that was one of the best lessons I made.
I ever learned at MIT how important teamwork is and focus. And well, the guy also told us, you guys are winners. You know, if you think you're going to lose, you will lose.
You know, if you think you're going to win, at least you have a 50-50 chance of winning. And I said, that's terrific. And he said, you all work together.
I mean, it's remarkable because not one of us could have even got in any other college. In fact, we probably wouldn't have even made intramural teams and relied upon your teammates, you know, and not be a star. I think Ren Auerbach said, any of you guys on the pro team, if you want to be a superstar, any one of you can score 30 points a night. But if you do, we're going to lose. And instead, we've got to work as a team.
And if we win, then we're all heroes. And that's so true, and Ren Auerbach is one of my heroes, one of my dad's heroes. My dad was my coach. I was a point guard on an all-state team. And my goodness, learned a lot of these lessons about knowing your job, being accountable to the job, too.
If your job is to rebound and block out that guy, rebound and block out that guy, and your teammates are depending on. And what lessons learned, Bill Koch's story, his leadership story, and a coach's story, and the impact that man had on those boys who turned into men, here on Our American Stories. Folks, if you love the great American stories we tell and love America like we do, we're asking you to become a part of the Our American Stories family. If you agree that America is a good and great country, please make a donation.
A monthly gift of $17.76 is fast becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to OurAmericanStories.com now and go to the donate button and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's OurAmericanStories.com. The following is a high-five moment from Hi5Casino.com. I won! Private, put down your phone! This is the Army! Sarge, Hi5Casino is a social casino.
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