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Becker Private Equity & Business Podcast
The Best Coaches Money Can Buy: A False Narrative 8-2-25
00:03:47
In this episode, Scott Becker challenges the idea that success is primarily due to having the best coaches or tutors, arguing that natural talent, hard work, and preparation play a much bigger role than often credited.
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This is Scott Becker with the Becker Business Podcast and the Becker Private Equity Podcast. Today's discussion is the Best coaches Money Can Buy A False narrative. So here's one of the things that's going on in judging the merits of college students, of people for jobs, of all kinds of things. There's this concept of dismissing achievement because somehow or another somebody had more coaching than somebody else. And this is not to understate the importance of good coaching because coaching is very important. But this concept of that someone who did really well on a test or does really well in school because they or their parents use tutors or others to help them along is itself, I think, an extremely overstated and false narrative. And here's why. Why I think this is so ridiculous. It's become so out of line. And I'll tell you why. You could take the same person in different activities and give them coaches. I'll give you an example. I probably took a test prep course when I was going to law school or business school. Didn't have specific tutors or any of that sort of. And I knocked it out of the box without great coaching, without any great prep. I just did fantastic on all my tests, all the way through a test prep course. But largely self guided test prep versus true coaching. In contrast, I have had the best coaches money could buy for one of my sports, which is golf. And regardless of the best money, the best coaches that money could buy, I am still a very average to awful golfer regardless. And I could tell you I have worked with the coach that Tiger woods works with. This is not a cheap endeavor and a great coach. I've worked with other great coaches in regardless of how much effort and time I put into it. I don't hit the ball 300 plus yards. I don't have a natural apt to aptitude to it in this concept that well, no, maybe I don't suck as bad as I used to. That might be true because I've had good coaches. But. But so much of talent and greatness is. Is somebody good at something? Are they smart? Are they working hard? Have they been prepared well? Not have they had the best coaches? Because I feel like I'm living proof you put the best coaches into my golf game. I still suck. You put okay coaching into my academics and I did fantastic because I was naturally gifted at that. So it's narrative that some of these privileged kids are doing well because they had better test strategies than others. Yes, there's some truth to it, but yes, it's also vastly overstated in a horrible sort of indictment against people that want to try hard and the parents that want to invest in coaching for their children, God bless them for wanting to do so. That's part of the American dream, that you want to help your kids thrive and do great. So this concept that somehow that's a bad thing that somebody got coaching or tutoring or anything else, it's to me, the biggest crock of garbage that's out there. Don't judge a kid poorly because he or she got coaching. I got coaching and things, and I suck at them. I got coaching and other things, and I do great in them, but a lot of it's on me, not on the coaches. Thank you for listening. Certainly the failures on me, not on the coaches, certainly that's the case. The success, it's probably a mix of coaches and me. Anyways, thank you for listening to the Becker Business Podcast, the Becker Private Equity Podcast. I'd love your thoughts on this. 773-766-5322. Thank you very, very much.