Ryan Stephens Marketing

This post was originally published on the Key 2 Sports blog. Key 2 Sports is an organization that dedicates itself to supporting the people that support and develop young athletes. The company has unparalleled spirit apparel and accessories. Their management team is working on some really cool, really impactful projects for 2010.

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University of Texas head football coach, Mack Brown recently leapfrogged other prolific coaches Pete Carroll, Urban Meyer, John Calipari and national title opposing coach Nick Saban to become the highest paid collegiate coach.

Which begs the question? How much is enough?

In Seth Godin’s most recent ebook, “What Matters Now?” (a great read by the way), writer, speaker and thought-leader Merlin Mann shares his thoughts on enough:

How do you know when you’ve had enough?

Not everything, all the time, completely, forever. Just enough. Enough to start, finish, or simply maintain.

Unfortunately, foodbabies only appear after it’s too late. And, if your satiety’s gauged solely by whether the buffet’s still open, you’re screwed. Like the hypothalamus-damaged rat, you’ll eat until you die.

Before the next buffet trip, consider asking “How do I know what I need to know – just for now?”

Then savor every bite.

UT professors certainly think the salary is ‘unseemly,’ citing it doesn’t make sense with some lecturers, teaching assistants and staffers facing job loss.

It’s a fair criticism I think.

The opposite end of the coin would argue that Mack has helped build the nations’ highest earning athletic department.

“According to university officials, football revenues have quadrupled under Brown, from $21.3 million in 1997 to $87.5 million in 2008,” (ESPN.com)

Others will argue that coaches live and die by their performance, and that it’s easier to rally around a stalwart football program than things like academic research.

This is probably a reasonable juxtaposition.

Back to the question we started with…

How much is enough?

Does Mack Brown need $5 million dollars? Wouldn’t you expect that you could live a pretty luxurious lifestyle on $3 million a year? What kinds of things could you do with the additional money? Is pride a factor? Have you ever envied your neighbor? A fellow classmate who got a higher starting salary?

I’ll leave you with two articles to think about in context with this discussion.

Sports Illustrated’s Chris Ballard writes this gem speculating what would happen if LeBron signed somewhere in 2010 for the league minimum. Not only would it generate world-wide buzz, but the team signing LeBron could get at least two other high impact players. If LeBron was saddled with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade is that not a guaranteed NBA title?

And then there’s CEO Derek Sivers who sold his company, CD Baby, to charity. Take a second to read about how he created a charitable trust to benefit music education. He had what most people will never have, enough.

I’ll leave you with this anecdote from another of Sivers’ recent posts, coincidentally entitled ‘enough’:

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut tells his friend, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history.

Heller said, “Yes, but I have something he will never have: Enough.”

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