#6: Dan Snyder
The Symmetries of Sports and Business
Dan Snyder was a high level basketball and baseball player growing up in southern California. After a wrist injury cut his college career short, Dan transferred to Arizona State to study business, and was hired by IBM upon graduation. He spent 13 years at IBM in sales and sales management positions. He then took a risk and accepted a job at JD Edwards, which was a small software company at the time. Dan spent 9 years as vice president and senior vice president of field operations at JD Edwards, and was with the company when it went public. Due to his massive success in business, he was able to retire at age 43, and then decided to pursue his true passion - coaching basketball.
Dan spent 16 years as a coach, including eight years as the head coach at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, CO. He led Arapahoe to three league championships and six straight elite eight appearances in the state tournament, including one year in the state finals and another in the state semifinals. His overall record as head coach at Arapahoe is 165-43.
In this conversation we dive into Dan’s background, and we speak about success in both sports and business. Dan sets a great example for how to transition out of playing sports successfully. Some of the topics we cover are the following:
Dan’s athletic and business careers.
Why he sought out team sports athletes in the hiring process.
Being present and engaged in life.
Spending a day with legendary coach John Wooden.
Using data to instill confidence in players.
Dan’s aphorisms.
Nuances of leadership.
Disagreeing without being disagreeable.
What he would want to change if he started his playing career over.
Resources Mentioned
- Good to Great by Jim Collins
- Success is a Choice by Rick Pitino
- They Call Me Coach by John Wooden
- Leading With the Heart by Mike Krzyzewski
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