Team Insight

I have the honor and pleasure of being a member of the Sport- ing Goods Hall of Fame Committee, a group that annually sifts through piles of supporting documents on nominees and then determines who will be inducted into the prestigious Hall of Fame the following year. The Committee itself is an eclectic collection of industry vet- erans and I can honestly say our annual meetings are one of my more interesting few hours every year. This past May we had the pleasure of inducting two individuals who, each in his own way, have had a tremendous impact on our world of team sports. No one can argue about the contributions made by both Under Armour founder Kevin Plank and Larry Aasheim, of Universal Ath- letic, one of the true legends in the team dealer community. Despite the obvious differences in these two men and their impact on our business – one heads a multi-billion dollar brand powerhouse, the other recently retired from one of the largest remaining indepen- dent team dealers in the country – I was struck by similarities in their acceptance speeches as they were inducted into the Sporting Goods Hall of Fame during the NSGA Management Conference and Team Dealer Summit. They offered many of the same themes, each of which can serve as a beacon for any individual or company that seeks to follow their path. Teamwork. Yes, Plank gets the press (sometimes good, sometimes not so good) as the face of one of this century's most prominent success stories, but he found time to give a shout-out to his first partner, his bank and his thousands of UA teammates as the reason for his success. Aasheim has said more than once, including in the pages of this magazine, that the smartest moves he has ever made involve hiring good people. Passion. You can't get up every day and put in the hours to be successful without being passionate about what you do. Aasheim has done it for more than 40 years, Plank for about half that time, and both used the word more than once in explaining their success stories. Family. Not in the traditional sense, but rather in fostering a culture that allows everyone to be comfortable working together, arguing with each other and, at the end of the day, striving for the same goal. Fun. Universal's unofficial motto seems to be "one keg, one customer and one roll of tape at a time." That's a true recipe for success for a team dealer, as is Under Armour's involvement in some of the country's marquee sport- ing events in the past decade. Humility and Confidence. Yes, you can have both. We all have our own personal Halls of Fame — selected by our families, our companies, our friends or our industry. We all need a team and a family to help us get there, a passion to strive to constantly improve, an ability to have fun doing it, and both the confidence to get it done and the humility to share in the rewards. Above all, it is vital to enjoy the journey. Not everyone will get to stand in front of a room full of their peers and be recognized for outstanding contributions to their world, but each of us will someday be recognized for what we accomplished — and for how we went about our business. Q MICHAEL JACOBSEN In Search of Fame We all have our own personal Halls of Fame — selected by our families, our companies, our friends or our industry." Two new Hall of Fame inductees show the rest of us the way forward. 6 Team Insight / July 2017 teaminsightmag.com TI0717 STAHLS.COM | 800.4.STAHLS MAKE THE RIGHT CALL with STAHLS' PRE-CUT NUMBERS Stock up on letters and numbers at tinyurl.com/stahls-precutnumbers - Easy & cost-effective - Decorate on demand - Available in the #1 athletic material - Stahls' Thermo-FILM ® NUMBER STYLES FOR EVERY SPORT The editor with Hall of Famers Larry Aasheim (left photo) and Kevin Plank.

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