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I’ve been reading The Education of a Coach by David Halberstam which details the career of New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick.

I picked it up initially because I am a football fan and a New England Patriots fan. If you are either, then I think you will probably enjoy it. Halberstam, a winner of the Pulizter Prize, is a master storyteller and his book is a tremendously interesting account of Belichick’s philosophy of coaching and the experiences that shaped it.

With three Super Bowl victories as Head Coach of the Patriots and two as the Defensive Coordinator for the New York Giants, Bill Belichick is arguably one of the greatest football coaches and football minds of all-time. In telling the story of Coach Belichick’s development, two specific passages in the book struck me as insights that are applicable beyond the confines of the football field.

In describing Bill McCabe, an assistant coach (and more senior staff member) with whom Belichick worked with during his tenure as a member of the Denver Broncos coaching staff, Halberstam writes "McCabe always knew who had come through for him, and he was very careful after a game to let those players know they were appreciated, that he knew Swenson had slowed up the tight end at the line of scrimmage, for instance. McCabe understood that the little things were not little things, because it was it was the accumulation of little things that made big things happen."

Just one page beyond that, Halberstam writes "That summer [Belichick] came home and visited with his boyhood friend Mark Fredland and told him he had found the key to success: It was in being organized; the more organized you were at all times, the more you knew at every minute what you were doing and why you were doing it, the less time you wasted and the better a coach you were."

Note: Emphasis Added.