"Notes" of An Elder ― To Be a Trailblazer

Since September 2020, our Friday editions of The Daily Coach have featured “Notes” of An Elder—a treasured collection of insights, wisdom, and life lessons from our co-founder, the legendary "Coach" George Raveling, now 87.

This month, Coach Raveling and The Daily Coach team are using “Notes” of An Elder to give our readers an exclusive first look at the insights and stories from his highly anticipated book, What You're Made For—co-authored with his friend and modern philosopher Ryan Holiday, releasing March 4.

February 7 ― "Notes" of An Elder ― 10 Steps to Living More Fully Right Now
February 14 ― "Notes" of An Elder ― Forging Your Own Path

Let’s dive into this week’s preview from What You're Made For: Powerful Life Lessons from My Career in Sports—exploring what it means to be a trailblazer.

…

When I got into coaching, the legendary Bob Knight gave me this advice: “George,” he said, “if you’re going to survive in this profession, you have to become the foremost expert in some phase of the game.”

When people early in their careers come to me for advice, I often tell them something similar: Be a trailblazer.

Find an untrodden path and blaze a trail. Find a void and fill it. Find a critical skill or area that most people are overlooking and become the foremost expert.

Whatever it is—a skill, a service, a demographic that’s underserved, a phase of the game that’s overlooked—if you become the foremost expert at something, you make yourself indispensable. You set yourself up not just for personal success, but for creating new possibilities for those who come behind you. For the kind of pioneering impact that can change another person’s life, an industry, or even the world.

But this is not just a strategy for professional success. It’s a fundamental aspect of being part of the human race.

Where would we be if Harriet Tubman hadn’t forged a path to freedom for hundreds of enslaved people through the Underground Railroad when most saw no way out? If Rosa Parks hadn’t sparked the Montgomery bus boycott and civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat, courageously defying unjust segregation laws? If Mahatma Gandhi hadn’t led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India, inspiring millions to fight for independence peacefully?

Being a trailblazer often means venturing into the unknown, where the way forward isn’t always clear. You’ll encounter dead ends, false starts, and paths that seem promising but ultimately lead nowhere. This is all part of the journey.

Each setback and wrong turn is not a failure, but a lesson that brings you closer to finding your true path. The key is to keep moving, keep exploring, and to learn from every experience along the way. While your specific path will feel at times like a deserted wilderness, you have plenty of company.

Take heart: you are not alone. The pioneers, the innovators, the outcasts, the people who dared to be the first, to break from convention, to hope and dream of a better future and beat down the path to get there—it is a long and profound lineage of trailblazers you are joining.

So, yes, know that it won’t be an easy path. But also keep in mind that it will be uniquely yours. That with each step, you take your place in the long line of trailblazers who have paved the path of history. That you come from sturdy trailblazer stock.

That you were made to be a trailblazer.

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1  George Raveling and Ryan Holiday, What You're Made For: What You're Made For: Powerful Life Lessons from My Career in Sports (New York: Portfolio, 2025) 1–13.