In 1979, coming off a 2/14 1978 season, the San Francisco 49ers, then one of the NFL's most pathetic franchises, hired a head coach with no prior experience in the NFL. He was 48-year-old Bill Walsh, a collegiate coach who, while a known commodity in the, was an unknown to the team's beaten-down fans.
Nine years later, in 1988, Bill Walsh would retire, having transformed not only the 49ers into the most successful NFL franchise from 1980 to 2000, he forever changed the style of play in a league once dominated by hyper-basic, run-first offenses. Bill Walsh won three Superbowls not by getting lucky, not by stepping into the right team at the right time; he won because he installed an ethos in the 49ers, from the players to the secretaries, an ethos that demanded commitment to detail, respect for ones fellows and success from ones endeavors. He changed the culture of a team and, in doing so, rewrote the NFL's record books.
In The Score Takes Care Of Itself, Bill Walsh, over a series of interviews conducted a few years before his death, ruminates over his successes and failures, spending as much time on his philosophy of success as he does the glorious history of his time at the 49ers. In words eerily familiar to what one might hear at a seminar on good corporate culture, he expounds on his belief that success is based as much on attitude and deportment as it is on talent, and that people are defined as much by their comrades and coworkers as they are by their own actions.
Here are the thoughts of a good man reflecting upon his successful life, a man who achieved more than anyone could've dreamed before voluntarily stepping away and letting someone else take the glory of his creation. We would be fools to ignore his wisdom. We would be unkind not to acknowledge his goodness. (4/5 Stars)
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