Bragging on my Brother-in-Law Matt Johnson, below is a great story from Bloomberg about him and his teammates…

Hard Work Pays Off

Paterno’s Gridiron Grads at Goldman, Barclays Meet to Relive Championship
By Laura Marcinek – Oct 6, 2011

FULL STORY ON BLOOMBERG HERE

The path from football to Wall Street is well-worn. Now the championship-winning 1986 team at Penn State University is retracing its steps.

Playing for Joe Paterno, the 84-year-old Brooklynite who’s in his 46th season as head football coach, is tougher than Wall Street, said John Shaffer, head of junk-bond sales at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS), who will join Paterno and other former teammates-turned-bankers this weekend to mark the 25th anniversary of the school’s most recent national football title.

“That pressure, that competition I tried to replicate on Wall Street, but I just couldn’t,” said Shaffer, 47, the team’s starting quarterback.

Others planning to attend a ceremony at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania, on Oct. 8 at halftime of the University of Iowa game are Matthew Johnson, 46, head of global equity syndicate at Barclays Plc (BARC) and a former nose tackle at Penn State, and Lance Lonergan, 44, co-chief executive officer at Weeden & Co., a backup quarterback in 1986.

Paterno, whose 405 wins are the most among major-college football coaches, taught more than the game, the former players said. They have applied the traits and principles they learned at Penn State, such as teamwork, coping with failure and leaving the game on the field, they said.

‘Take a Risk’

“Not being afraid to fail means that you’re not afraid to take risk,” said Johnson, who keeps a life-size cardboard cutout of Paterno in his office near Times Square. “Having the courage to stand up and state your opinion and then, on behalf of the firm take a risk, is all about your level of conviction that begins in the preparation. For me, that’s the key to being successful on Wall Street.”

Football has long been a fertile recruiting ground for finance. Henry Paulson, who ran Goldman Sachs before becoming U.S. Treasury secretary, played for Dartmouth College in the 1960s. Steve Young, who played for Brigham Young University and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is a managing director at private-equity firm Huntsman Gay Global Capital LLC. Pete Dawkins, the 1958 Heisman Trophy winner from the U.S. Military Academy, was vice chairman of Citigroup Private Bank.

“They work extremely well in trading environments because, one, it’s almost like playing a game,” said Ron Mitchell, CEO of CareerCore Inc. and founder of the AlumniAthlete Network, which places student athletes into internships and careers. “There’s a winner and a loser, and you have to be able to recover from losses, step up and win.”

Recovering From Defeat

Penn State’s 1986 national championship team had to recover from defeat. The year before, they entered the Orange Bowl undefeated and lost 25-10 to the University of Oklahoma. Shaffer lost his job as starting quarterback, and fought to win it back the following season. Against Miami, a team with Heisman Trophy winner Vinny Testaverde at quarterback and Michael Irvin, now a Hall of Famer, at receiver, Penn State won, 14-10.

Paterno has shown how he earned his reputation for perseverance. In August, he injured his right arm and hip when a player ran into him during practice. He led a morning coaches meeting via speaker phone from the hospital. In 2006, he broke his leg in a sideline collision, forcing him to have surgery. In 2008, he had hip-replacement surgery from an injury suffered while demonstrating an onside kick during practice.

“The thing that Joe really stressed with everybody was having an unbelievably high level of intensity and tenacity, and pushing yourself to perform at a high level every play, every practice, every game, day in and day out,” said Tim Freeman, 44, an offensive tackle on the championship team and now a principal at private-equity firm Elevation Partners LP, based in Menlo Park, California.

‘Austere Approach’

Players’ names don’t appear on the backs of Penn State’s football jerseys, a tradition that emphasizes the team over the individual and one the former teammates say they try to emulate in their careers.

“I don’t think our uniforms look that bad,” Paterno said for a profile about him on the university’s website. “They say something to kids about team-oriented play and an austere approach to life.”

Trey Bauer, a former linebacker who works in State College running a real-estate hedge fund, said Paterno drew a blue line across the entrance to the practice field, indicating to players that football should be kept separate from their personal lives. That applies to Bauer’s career, he said.

“We’re all busy doing our work and doing our stuff, but once that is over, then you have to concentrate on your family,” said Bauer, 46.

‘You Need to Fail’

Shaffer, Johnson, Lonergan, Freeman and Bauer said they still keep in touch, sometimes running into one another at their kids’ football games in New Jersey. The men take a “a great deal of pride” in their accomplishment and support one another as their careers and lives change, said Shaffer, who headed U.S. credit sales at Merrill Lynch & Co. until 2006, when he left amid a management shakeup by then-CEO Stanley O’Neal.

“This business is one in which you need to fail in front of a lot of people, to get booed by a lot of people, but somehow figure out a way to come back from those failures,” Shaffer said. “This business humbles everyone that’s been in it, as do the trials and tribulations you have on the athletic field.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Laura Marcinek in New York at lmarcinek3@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Scheer at dscheer@bloomberg.net.

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Here’s a collection of some of the greatest “Woodenisms.”

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”

“Never mistake activity for achievement.”

“Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.”

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

“Be prepared and be honest.”

“Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

“You can’t let praise or criticism get to you. It’s a weakness to get caught up in either one.”

“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”

“What you are as a person is far more important than what you are as a basketball player.”

“Winning takes talent; to repeat takes character.”

“A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.”

“I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.”

“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”

“If you’re not making mistakes, then you’re not doing anything. I’m positive that a doer makes mistakes.”

“It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”

“Ability is a poor man’s wealth.”

“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”

“Consider the rights of others before your own feelings and the feelings of others before your own rights.”

“Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.”

“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”

“It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.”

“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.”

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”

“Talent is God-given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful.”

“The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.”

“Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

“Success is never final; failure is never fatal. It’s courage that counts.”

Source: CoachWooden.com

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I am currently reading the “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. Today’s lesson really hit home as it connected “what matters most” with good time management. Time is our most precious gift as we only have a set amount of it and none can be recovered.

Because your life is ALL ABOUT time and how you spend it, this is why the greatest gift you can give someone is your time. In order to do this you must schedule what’s important and create a STOP DOING list in order to focus on the things that matter most.

The answer therefore to what matters most is “time that you give loved ones.” Every moment we give our children, our family or our friends and especially the time we take to really listen to our wives are the greatest gifts of all.

These sentences and reflections really gave me a lift today and renewed perspective:

The best use of time is love.
The best expression of love is time.
The best time to love is now.

Why now? Because you don’t know how long you will have this opportunity. Circumstances change. People die. Children grow up. You have no guarantee of tomorrow. If you want to express love, you better do it now.

To anyone who sees or reads this post… INVEST TIME NOW with all your loved ones

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