VIDEO: Who Are You Encouraging Today?

A year-old clip re-emerged on Twitter last week of ESPN’s Marty Smith offering encouragement to a young TV reporter — and it’s a tremendous lesson to us all.  

Reporter Jack Patterson stumbled on his words last November performing a stand up following an LSU-Alabama college football game. That’s when Smith swooped in.

“Don’t let nobody tell you it ain’t, man,” Smith tells the starstruck Patterson. “The hardest part of our job is what you’re doing right now. The taped stand up, I hate ’em, man. If you’re live and you kind of mess up, whatever, you just keep on digging. This thing, you want to be just perfect.”

“Keep plowing,” Smith adds. “You’re doing a good job.”

Smith showed kindness. He showed humility. He showed true leadership — and it clearly left a major impression on Patterson.

How often do we as leaders get so caught up in our own work and crossing items off the to-do list that we neglect everyone around us?

We advance up the mountain after a struggle, then lose all empathy for those just beginning their climb.

Smith is a household name to ESPN viewers who has achieved remarkable success over his career, but here, he’s just an ordinary guy trying to make someone’s life a little better.  

Let’s think about this video today and offer some assistance to someone we wouldn’t otherwise.

Improving a life doesn’t require a thick checkbook or hours of our time.

It simply takes a bit of compassion. 

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