Commitment and Enthusiasm

Dear students,

I am not a big pro football fan, but I lived in Kansas for several years while doing my doctoral degree at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, and my husband Ben, a native Kansan, grew up a Kansas City Chiefs fan. The Chiefs will host their third straight AFC championship game on Sunday. When I told Ben I was writing my first Dean’s Corner of the semester, he suggested I write about Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, because Patrick’s poise and success at a young age are things we all can take inspiration from and apply to our daily lives. (In fact, he helped me write this post.) Even if you don’t care about football, Patrick Mahomes embodies what being a good leader is all about.

In a Monday Night Football game between the (world champion) Kansas City Chiefs and the Baltimore Ravens, we both came away very impressed with the play of Mahomes, the Chiefs’ 25-year-old quarterback: he passed for four touchdowns and ran for another, accounting for all of the Chiefs’ points as they beat the Ravens 34-20. Evidently he is worth every penny of his new 10-year, $500 million contract! But what impressed us more than his long arching bombs for two touchdowns were his short lobs for the other two, because on those, Mahomes simply outsmarted the defense. What makes Mahomes so dangerous to opponents is that he is always thinking and adapting to changing circumstances. And what makes him so valuable as a leader is that he never gives up—the Chiefs were losing by double digits in all three of their playoff games during last year’s Super Bowl run, but each time they came from behind to win, something that had never been done before.  

We can’t all display the athletic heroics of someone like Patrick Mahomes, and there’s probably not a $500 million contract lurking in our future ☹, but we can model ourselves after his infectious enthusiasm for what he does, his creative thinking in key situations, and his positive attitude no matter the circumstances. In doing so, we can be winners in our own way. So, remain positive and maintain your commitment and enthusiasm for everything related to life, academics and work at WMU. If you do that, you will come out ahead.