What does a movie has got to do with career advise?
Jim White (acted by Kevin Costner) was expelled as a coach of a college football team due to his bad temper and causing an injury to one of his players in a locker room. He moved his family to McFarland to teach. McFarland is a small town and many are farmers living off the land. Mr White thinks he won’t stay long in McFarland. He had always wanted to give his family a better standard of living. Hence, he was looking out for better job opportunities. Even the teachers in the school, don’t think he will stay long in the school.
After an incident with another coach in the McFarland school, Mr White was taken off the school’s football assistant coach job. He was told to coach the school running team. In the movie trailer above, the principal asked, if he had experience in coaching the running team. He said no. Then principal asked, did he ever participated in a school running team. Again he said no. The principal remarked. “Perfect”.
In this segment of the film, I’d like to draw a comparison to the jobs we started to work with. Many of us did not have experience doing the job we are working now (similar to Mr White inexperience in coaching the running team). We relied on our school education to give us some knowledge on what to do at work. More often than not, we gained our knowledge through actual work experience. It is the hunger which we desire to do more that makes us grow. While we can expect job promotions and higher pay as we gained more experience, it is not necessarily the reasons we stayed and worked hard in the company we worked in.
After Mr White took on the running coach job, he saw the potential in the running team. Then he found out there is a running competition event that the school had never participated. He decided to get his running team in this competition. This was their first running competition and they came in last.
Mr White saw the issue. He knew the team felt bad, but he also sees what they lacked. Mr White bought some video tapes on running to learn more about running, what strategy is used, how to coach runners and the different terrains that runners faced. Coaching a small town running team is difficult. Many of the kids lived off the land. Besides school, they have to farm all day. This has resulted in some of his students who had to stop running, due to the need to farm their crops. Mr White even went to the farm himself to help out. He wanted to know how to help his students to keep on running.
How many times, do we see ourselves helping out the rest of team members at work? We need not be managers or leaders in our company. We can just be colleagues looking out for one another. Normally, everyone is busy with their own jobs that we don’t bother with what others are doing. In my work, I did helped out my colleagues. Sometimes, I helped by staying overnight to work on tasks they needed help. Other times, it was over weekends, that I put in that extra effort to help. I did not asked for promotions or rewards. My motivation was to help make our workplace, a better place for everyone.
When Mr White running team begin to train more, they became better. They started to win more running competitions. Mr White did not just focused on running. In fact, he handed out SAT textbooks to his runners and told them they are expected to go to college. Many students of the running team did not believe it is possible for small town farmers to go to college. However, because of running, their confidence in their ability increased. They studied hard even after school. One teacher cried as she read a poem to Mr White from one of the runners who wrote about his feeling in the running team. She told Mr White, running has changed these students’ lives. She believed that Mr White has done so much for them and she hoped he will continue with his good work.
Did you experience that feeling at work, where you felt you had done more than what you think you can do? All of us have our own biaseness and limitations. We think we can only do so much. Yet, when we overcome the odds to accomplish our tasks, we have a sense of accomplishment. As such we have to continue to learn and be better. Learning should never stop. Whether at work or at your own personal time, we can only improve ourselves by learning more.
After winning several running competition, Mr White was torn between providing for his family and coaching the running team. He was offered a better paying job at a prestigious school to coach their running team with better facilities. At the same time, there was an incident in McFarland, where his daughter was caught in a gang street fight that affected his decision to stay in his current job.
In the final scene, the school participated in the State running competition. This competition is where the US best runners in that state competes. Many of the people in McFarland turned up to support. Never did the runners believe that running can bring honour and recognition to a small state like McFarland. In fact, one of the runners cried as he saw his family and friends came to support him. Another runner who knew Mr White went for an interview for a new job expressed his disappointment that Mr White is going to leave them. Emotions ran high before the race. Will the McFarland boys wins this race? Will Mr White leave the McFarland school? What will happen after the race and the lives of each of the runners? Did they go to college or did they continue to farm?
Indeed, all of us have to face with the decision to stay in our current company or do we leave for greener pastures, at one time or another in our working careers. Each of us has our own decision to choose how we lead our lives. Mr White wanted a good life for his family. Just like many of us who strives to do well at work to provide for our own family. However, sometimes we have to think beyond just the pay, status or growth opportunities in our jobs. Are we making an impact to better the lives of others in our workplace? What did Mr White choose to do at the end of the movie? Will you choose the same path as Mr White? If you wanted to watch this movie, it is available in disney plus. I have learnt much from this movie and had to record down my thoughts to reflect my own career choices. I hope my sharing can help you to make your own career move. Do connect with me on linkedin linkedin.com/in/chewlinkiat on more articles like this.
