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Book Review
Winning Every Day
&
Wins, Losses and Lessons
Author: Lou Holtz
Review by Paul Hopkins
2/4/2008
In this review, the Diner decided to review two books by Lou Holtz, former college football coach and current ESPN panellist.
I’ll be honest. When I saw these books were available I was a little intrigued. Holtz clearly had a storied career which deserves chronicling but it was the other aspect of Holtz which particularly intrigued me. That of the motivational speaker, and that is where we will start, with the specialised book aimed at driving you to the top of your professional and personal life or so the back cover says.
Picture Lou Holtz. There he is, with Mark May on a Saturday talking with a lisp, his hair looking slightly dubious and his teeth looking like they’re teetering on the brink. We’ve all see his infamous pep talks, which usually end with him tearing up the newspaper he’s clutching whilst muttering something about everybody having a job to do. It’s humorous stuff. But clearly motivation is something Holtz knows all about. His resume of motivational speaking is testament to that.
In this rather short, punchy book, Holtz covers everything that you would need to do. It’s not so much about self-promotion but instilling confidence in yourself, being focused to achieve what you want to. Not about being ruthless to the detriment of others, but to the betterment of yourself, as a person. It is a rather short book, but that helps it. You don’t want to be reading pages and pages where Holtz rambles on (like on Gameday!!). Instead we get punchy key messages (to slip into motivational speak!), sprinkled with insight of these at work from Holtz’s career, sometimes in the form of how he learnt this, sometimes in the form of how it was applied. But, you can clearly see from the book how Holtz succeeded in various and different situations using these strategies.
Whether the tips Holtz provides in this book do get you to the promised land as stated is unknown (I’ve only just started to apply this myself check back in 6 months!), but in terms of a good read which actually provides an excellent insight into how a college coach has, over a period of twenty years motivated and succeeded with many young people.
 
Diner Rating 8/10
In ‘Wins, Losses and Lessons’, Holtz reverts back to the traditional autobiographical account that we are all very familiar with. The occasional motivational tip still seeps in. You just have to read the chapter headings on the contents page to see he is simply keen to relay his message. I guess he just can’t help himself! But rest assured, despite first impressions, it is an autobiography.
And it’s honest. Unlike many books where people set out with the agenda to paint themselves in the right light and revise history, Holtz simply tells his story. The skinny kid with a lisp to college football legend is quite a tale and Lou has a way with words which make it interesting from start to finish.
In reading this book after his motivational guide, you begin to see where his messages have come from. Clearly grounded in his experience, its not hard to argue that from the various circumstances he has found himself in and applied these principles in, it does actually work.
From reading both of these, you get the feeling that above everything he accomplished, Lou Holtz is simply a very good and decent man. A great read into the kind of person that makes it in college football, often at lower profile schools but occasionally at the big ones like Holtz did, but you suspect wouldn’t be able to cut it in the more ruthless world of the NFL. An excellent read.
Diner Rating 8/10
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