Jim Olson, president of the Utah jazz, says he was an “average student” in high school. Doing the bare minimum in some classes, he learned how to just get by in his high school education. But how do you get to become the president of the Utah Jazz? According to Mr. Olson, it’s doing your best.
On the second Thursday of November, Mr. Olson spoke during both lunches about doing your best as part of the Ram Fam Speaker Series. He graduated from Highland in the class of 1985 and has had four kids graduate from Highland High. Mr. Olson applied his own advice as he went through the ranks of the Utah Jazz organization for 25 years until becoming the president.
“I was the first person in the office every day,” he remarked.
This insatiable attitude of doing his best is what allowed him to get to where he is.
Highland students have much to learn in this lesson of doing your best. Mr. Olson stressed that the product of learning shouldn’t necessarily be focused on a good grade. Instead, it should be focused on a constant process of learning and growth.
“If you’re worrying about studying and learning and dedicating your time and not selling yourself short, the A takes care of itself. That’s why it’s important to do your best,” Olson said.
If effort is so important for all facets in life, why is it so uncommon? Common answers point to not enough time, procrastination, or lack of motivation.
Olson spoke of another culprit: “I think we’re afraid to fail.”
In his freshman year at Highland, he got cut from the freshman basketball team.
“I had three choices. The first choice was to . . . quit. The second choice was to work a lot harder and try to become a better basketball player,” Olson said. “The third choice . . . was to take the time I spent on basketball to do my best at something else.”
He chose the third option and worked all winter on his second sport, baseball. He made the JV team freshman year and the Varsity team sophomore year. Without the failure in basketball, he would not have been in the position to succeed in baseball.
To underscore his point, Mr. Olson shared a story about what the former Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said to him before the NBA championship series against Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls. “There are players around the country in every city . . . that have every bit as much talent as Michael Jordan,” Coach Sloan remarked. “What they all don’t have is the drive to be the very best.”
