Selfish Egos Will Bring Down Your Business

By Cheval John

The University of Texas has been the innovators in what intercollegiate athletics is all about today.

They were one of the first universities to have sponsorships from major brands like Nike.

They had a strong football tradition of winning national championships under great coaches like Darrell Royal and Mack Brown.

They also have the largest athletics budget in the nation.

Texas is one of the most recognizable universities in the world.

In the last couple of years, Texas has been going through hell.

First, they let go of Mr. Brown, who won them their first national championship (2005) since the glory times of coach Royal.

They were expecting coach Brown to win a championship ever year since they spent millions of dollars in facilities upgrade.

One could say that the struggles of the football team under coach Brown to win another championship since 2005 was the start of the turmoil for Texas.

Next came the retirement of DeLoss Dodds.

Some could say that Dodds was the clue that held the athletic department together.

He was responsible for making Texas a powerhouse because of his innovation and also bringing in Mack Brown as the football coach and hiring Rick Barnes as the basketball coach.

He also stood behind coach Brown amidst the public outcry of people who wanted him to be fired.

The powerbrokers, “a.k.a.” the board of regents hired Steve Patterson as Texas athletic director to stem the turmoil.

Patterson added to the turmoil when he fired Barnes, tried to raise the ticket prices for football games and even mentioned that the city of Austin should put in money to renovate Erwin Center.

And now Mr. Patterson is out as the athletic director.

The lesson that entrepreneurs can learn from this fiasco is to make sure that you don’t bring in people who have egos because it can ruin your business in the end.