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YzzazzI worked in corporate America (for 3 different Fortune 500 companies) for 20 years. This year, I went independent. It was as scary a thing as I have ever done.
The Timing? Independent in the middle of the great Re-Recession? No severance buffer? Only minimal savings? No leads? What? Your separation plan is: go to the LDS workforce service workshops?
I know, spare me the jokes, I've heard them.
Thing is, it worked out. In fact, I only wish I'd had the courage to jump sooner.
I made six figures in corp America and was holding down my dream job. I definitely loved what I was doing. Unfortunately, I didn't love the environment I had to do it in. So I left. I didn't feel victimized, but I did feel that my opportunity was constrained.
In fact, I had no idea how badly it was constrained. I am on track to make more money at the end of 12 months from separation than I would have made by staying in my job. I never would have guessed it in a million years, but opportunity has come at me from every direction I step in.
It is apparent to me now that I was pretty undervalued in my previous setting. I don't begrudge it, I just didn't realize it before.
Now as I watch BYU toy with going independent, I am cheering them on. GO! JUMP!! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!
The deal, and I mean that literally, is this: no school with the possible exception of Notre Dame, has as high a ratio for football revenues compared to operating expenses, debt and dependency on funding as BYU does. No school out there (including Notre Dame) has anywhere near the loyalty of fan base REGARDLESS of who the team is playing, that BYU does. ESPN knows this. It is BYU who questions it.
On that second point, you think of any state school: Penn State, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, LSU, Alabama, on and on. Take them out of the SEC and put them in C-USA, then deny them access to the BCS for 25 years. What would you predict will happen to their fan base? Go to zero? No. But would it be the kind of thing that fills the stadium at the spring scrimmage (bama reference)? Not even close. Would it be the kind of program whose games ranked in the top 5 of ESPN ratings among college games for over 10 years (BYU-Miami 1990, yes it did)? Again, no it wouldn't.
But do you realistically think that BYU fans would stop watching BYU play as long as they were committed to doing as well as they have been for the Bronco era? Not on your life. Not in MY lifetime.
Going independent is easier for BYU than any other team in the nation. No team is as literally undervalued as BYU is by its conference right now. No team has the financial stability that BYU has, nor the independent-of-taxpayer-revenues funding that BYU has.
It is a no-brainer. Based on my own experiences, and believing that demand is the asset that matters most, I hope BYU doesn't take the bait and stay with the MWC.
The Timing? Independent in the middle of the great Re-Recession? No severance buffer? Only minimal savings? No leads? What? Your separation plan is: go to the LDS workforce service workshops?
I know, spare me the jokes, I've heard them.
Thing is, it worked out. In fact, I only wish I'd had the courage to jump sooner.
I made six figures in corp America and was holding down my dream job. I definitely loved what I was doing. Unfortunately, I didn't love the environment I had to do it in. So I left. I didn't feel victimized, but I did feel that my opportunity was constrained.
In fact, I had no idea how badly it was constrained. I am on track to make more money at the end of 12 months from separation than I would have made by staying in my job. I never would have guessed it in a million years, but opportunity has come at me from every direction I step in.
It is apparent to me now that I was pretty undervalued in my previous setting. I don't begrudge it, I just didn't realize it before.
Now as I watch BYU toy with going independent, I am cheering them on. GO! JUMP!! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!!
The deal, and I mean that literally, is this: no school with the possible exception of Notre Dame, has as high a ratio for football revenues compared to operating expenses, debt and dependency on funding as BYU does. No school out there (including Notre Dame) has anywhere near the loyalty of fan base REGARDLESS of who the team is playing, that BYU does. ESPN knows this. It is BYU who questions it.
On that second point, you think of any state school: Penn State, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, USC, Florida, LSU, Alabama, on and on. Take them out of the SEC and put them in C-USA, then deny them access to the BCS for 25 years. What would you predict will happen to their fan base? Go to zero? No. But would it be the kind of thing that fills the stadium at the spring scrimmage (bama reference)? Not even close. Would it be the kind of program whose games ranked in the top 5 of ESPN ratings among college games for over 10 years (BYU-Miami 1990, yes it did)? Again, no it wouldn't.
But do you realistically think that BYU fans would stop watching BYU play as long as they were committed to doing as well as they have been for the Bronco era? Not on your life. Not in MY lifetime.
Going independent is easier for BYU than any other team in the nation. No team is as literally undervalued as BYU is by its conference right now. No team has the financial stability that BYU has, nor the independent-of-taxpayer-revenues funding that BYU has.
It is a no-brainer. Based on my own experiences, and believing that demand is the asset that matters most, I hope BYU doesn't take the bait and stay with the MWC.