Vince Lombardi

Vince Lombardi
Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi was an American football player, coach, and executive in the National Football League. He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight and five total NFL Championships in seven years, in addition to winning the first two Super Bowls following the 1966 and 1967 NFL seasons. Lombardi is considered by many to be one of the best and most successful coaches...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth11 June 1913
CityBrooklyn, NY
CountryUnited States of America
The strength of the group is in the will of the leader, and the will is character in action.
I don't build character. I eliminate the people who don't have it.
We live in an age fit for heroes. No time has ever offered such perils or prizes... The test of this century will be whether man confuses the growth of wealth and power with the growth of spirit and character.
Mental toughness is a state of mind - you could call it 'character in action.'
Character is the direct result of mental attitude. I believe that character is higher than the intellect. I believe that leadership is in sacrifice, in self-denial, in humility and in the perfectly disciplined will. This is the distinction between great and little men.
Leadership rests not only upon ability, not only upon capacity; having the capacity to lead is not enough. The leader must be willing to use it. His leadership is then based on truth and character. There must be truth in the purpose and will power in the character.
Mental toughness is many things and rather difficult to explain. Its qualities are sacrifice and self-denial. Also, most importantly, it is combined with a perfectly disciplined will that refuses to give in. It's a state of mind-you could call it character in action.
Watch your actions, they become your habits. Watch your habits, they become your character.
I've never known a man worth his salt who in the long run, deep down in his heart, didn't appreciate the grind, the discipline... I firmly believe that any man's finest hour-this greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear--is the moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle -- victorious.
The spirit, the will to win, and the will to excel are the things that endure. These qualities are so much more important than the events that occur.
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade he's got to play from the ground up -- from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play. Some guys play with their heads. That's OK You've got to be smart to be number one in any business. But more importantly, you've got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body. If you're lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he's never going to come off the field second.
Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!
Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.
getting to the final is everything, and winning is icing on the cake.