Quiet Strength

Tony Dungy

📚 GENRE: Biographies & Memoirs

📃 PAGES: 317

✅ COMPLETED: September 25, 2021

🧐 RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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Short Summary

Former Indianapolis Colts head coach Tony Dungy details the ups and downs of his football career, sharing the unique wisdom and lessons he acquired on his journey. Dungy shares the champion’s mindset that allowed him to become the first African-American in NFL history to win a Super Bowl.

Key Takeaways

1️⃣ Focus on the ‘Next Play’ — You can’t dwell on things. Regardless of what happens to you or mistakes that you make, you have to move forward. Have a ‘Next Play’ mentality. You waste significant energy when you pout and dwell on things that have already happened.

2️⃣ Respond to Adversity, Don’t React — When adversity comes along, harness your emotions and choose to respond to it rather than react. Your response is ALWAYS under your control. 

3️⃣ Success is ‘Uncommon’ — It takes a lot of effort, sacrifice, and discipline to be highly successful. Once you’ve identified goals you want to achieve, you have to decide if you’re willing to make the sacrifices needed to get there.

Favorite Quote

"Well, you might have felt better faster if you were thinking about the NEXT PLAY instead of taking 3 or 4 plays to ‘vent.’ You waste a lot of emotion and energy in venting or worrying about injustice or something you can’t control."

Book Notes 📑

*Did not take chapter-by-chapter notes on this one. Running list below.

  • Tony was born and raised in Jackson, Michigan. Grew up with highly educated teachers as parents that taught him the value of education and knowledge.
  • Tony’s dad, Wilmur, flew planes in the military after college.
    • In 1940, the US Army Air Corps selected Tuskegee, Alabama as a training grounds to teach black pilots how to fly planes. Prior to this, blacks were not allowed to fly in the military.
      • This was called the Tuskegee Experiment.
      • Blacks were later fully integrated into military training in 1946.
  • Lesson (P.16): What’s important isn’t the accolades and memories of success but the way you RESPOND when opportunities are denied.
    • You can always control your attitude, approach, and response. You can either complain or figure out how to make the situation better.
  • Tony went on to play football and basketball at the University of Minnesota.
    • Quote (P. 29): “Success is uncommon and not to be enjoyed by the common man. I’m looking for uncommon people because we want to be successful, not average.” — University of Minnesota Head Coach Cal Stoll.
    • Lesson: You have to work to be uncommon through relentless effort and discipline. Anyone could give that effort, but the common person doesn’t — they choose to only do enough to get by. 
  • Dungy went undrafted in the 1977 NFL Draft.
    • He had an offer to play QB in the Canadian Football League but turned it down to play Safety with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who won the 1976 Super Bowl and were a dynasty at the time. 
  • Quote (P. 42): “Well, you might have felt better faster if you were thinking about the NEXT PLAY instead of taking 3 or 4 plays to ‘vent.’ You waste a lot of emotion and energy in venting or worrying about injustice or something you can’t control.” — Wilmur Dungy
    • Lesson: You gotta move on and focus on what’s next. You can’t waste time worrying about the past or thinking about the past. Your eyes always have to be forward.
      • Coach K at Duke also preaches this “next play” mentality. It’s what successful people do.
  • Quote (P. 43): “Champions don’t beat themselves. If you want to win, do the ordinary things better than anyone else does — day in and day out.” — Chuck Knoll, Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach
    • Lesson: Do the simple stuff right every day. Have small, progressive daily habits and remain disciplined to them every day. Over time, you get better and better and better and make huge progress. You become a winner.
      • Examples: Reading, Spanish, Public Speaking, Gym, etc. 
  • Dungy and the Steelers won the Super Bowl in 1978
    • Dungy led the team in interceptions.
  • After being traded and released a few times, Dungy’s playing career was over. He lasted less than 5 years as a player.
    • He immediately got into coaching, accepting a job as the defensive backs coach with Pittsburgh at age 25.
    • He later became the defensive coordinator in Pittsburgh before moving on the coach the defensive backs with the Kansas City Chiefs.
    • He later became the defensive coordinator with the Minnesota Vikings under Denny Green.
  • Herm Edwards of the New York Jets helped create the “Victory Formation” after returning a fumble to beat the New York Giants in the play known as “The Miracle at the Meadowlands.”
    • The Giants had been up 5 with 30 seconds left but a fumbled handoff led to Edwards returning it for a touchdown. 
    • This play created the Victory Formation so teams could run out the clock without disaster happening.
  • Quote (P. 105): “Champions are champions not because they do anything extraordinary but because they do the ordinary things better than anyone else.” — Chuck Knoll
    • Lesson: Being highly successful or “great” at what you do doesn’t require some crazy superpower or talent. It’s about doing the small things right, day after day after day. Success is the compilation of a lot of small things/disciplines done well, day after day after day. 
  • 1996: Dungy is hired as head coach by the Tampa Bay Bucs. They went 6-10, including a 0-5 start, in his first season.
    • First draft selection in 1996 was Mike Alstott, the big fullback 
    • In 1997, Bucs drafted Warrick Dunn out of FSU and Ronde Barber out of University of Virginia.
  • Lesson: Champions know it’s all important
  • Dungy told the Bucs to do the following things as they were preparing for the 1996 season:
    • Be a pro
    • Act like a champion 
    • Respond to adversity; don’t react to it
      • Again, you always have the power to choose how you respond to things.
  • Lesson: Don’t allow stupid stuff that isn’t important to distract you. Be committed to excellence always. 
  • Lesson (P. 165): The best solution for falling short of the goal is to focus on the fundamentals but perform them better.
    • There’s a difference between making incremental improvements and making sweeping changes that take you away from your core values.
  • 1997: Bucs make the playoffs and won the wild card playoff game vs Detroit and Barry Sanders, but lost in the divisional round vs Green Bay
  • 1998: Bucs regress and go 8-8 and miss the playoffs
  • 1999: Bucs win the NFC Central division make the playoffs with a first-round bye. They beat Washington in the divisional round before losing 11-6 to St. Louis Rams and “The Greatest Show on Turf” in the NFC Championship game 
  • 1999 off-season: Bucs trade two first round picks to acquire Keyshawn Johnson from the New York Jets.
  • Quote (P. 174): “Change isn’t a bad thing — we should always be learning and improving.”
    • Lesson: Don’t fear change. Change is a good thing and allows us to grow, learn, and improve. 
  • 2000: Bucs go 10-6 and lose in the wild card round to Philly
    • Rumors begin to swirl about Dungy being fired 
  • 2001: Bucs go 10-6 again and again get beat by Philly in the first round.
    • Dungy is fired as head coach right after 
    • The Bucs went on to win the Super Bowl in 2002 under head coach Jon Gruden. 
  • 2002: Dungy is hired as the head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. The team goes 10-6 and loses in the first round of the playoffs. 
  • A typical day for an NFL coach is 8 am – 10 pm
    • Lesson: There’s no TV or Netflix involved here. You have to work hard to be successful in life. The most successful people in any field outwork others and don’t give in to stuff like nighttime Netflix and TV. Instead, they’re using that time to work and get better. 
  • Prior to the 2006 Indianapolis Colts season, Dungy told his team about a story involving Joe Montana.
    • Every year under SF Niners coach Bill Walsh, the Niners would install their offense starting with the very first play every year — 22 Z In 
    • After many years of being with the Niners, Montana knew every aspect of 22 Z In — he could run the play in his sleep.
    • When Walsh retired and new head coach Paul Hackett became the coach, the Niners again installed the offense starting with 22 Z In as usual.
    • Despite knowing the play better than anybody, Hackett noticed that Montana took 3 pages of notes on how to run the play during the meeting.
    • Lesson: This is what a professional does. This is what a successful person does. They take everything seriously and pay attention to the details. They don’t allow themselves to coast. 
  • Dungy also told the story about Michael Jordan and how the Chicago Bulls struggled to beat the Detroit Pistons when it mattered early in Jordan’s career.
    • When asked by a reporter how they could beat the Pistons in the future, Jordan said they they shouldn’t worry or think about the Pistons at all. Instead, the Bulls needed to work on themselves and improve themselves until they could beat ANYONE. 
    • Lesson: You should never think about it as competing with others. Every day, you need to compete with yourself to be better than you were the previous day. It’s not about other people. Don’t focus on you vs. others. You need to develop and improve yourself to a point where you set the bar for others to try to catch. That’s the mindset. 
  • Quote (P. 301): “We have to be careful that we don’t let the pursuit of our life’s goals, no matter how important they seem, cause us to lose sight of our purpose.”
    • Lesson: Don’t stray away from God as you go for your goals. Don’t become a douchebag to other people. Have integrity and treat people the right away on your journey.
  • 2006-07 Season: Colts win the Super Bowl over the Chicago Bears
    • Dungy became the first African American to win a Super Bowl
    • The matchup featured two African American head coaches — Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith
      • These were two great friends who had coached together in Tampa Bay
    •  The Colts finally beat New England on the way to the Super Bowl, overcoming a big deficit to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game.