From Running Laps to Running AeroCom

It’s that time of the year again. Basketball’s taking off with pre-season games, football is at its peak and now we’re just anticipating who will win the World Series for baseball!

What do sports have to do with business and your career? How can playing team sports help shape your teamwork and social skills? We spoke with past San Diego State Quarterback and President of AeroCom, Mike Smith, about what he thinks team sports means in the world of business and how it can affect your relationships in the future.

1. What sport(s) did you play in school and what position(s)? 
Football.  Quarterback.

2. Why do you think it’s important to play team sports and what can you learn from it? 
Although I think team sports have the possibility of helping kids learn many life lessons, I think there are many things that can teach kids the same life lessons.  I don’t think team sports are for everyone and are definitely not necessary for success.  Kids should play a sport if the love playing that sport.  If they don’t love it, their parents should not force them to play for the “hidden benefits.

3. How do you think being involved with team sports helped you become who you are today? 
 As a quarterback, I learned great lessons about leadership and getting along with people.  The coolest things I learned, however, was that I can do anything I set my mind to and I can also get through adversity when it comes my way.  During my football career, I got to experience the exhilaration of achieving my lofty goals of winning championships and being one of the top players in the country yet I also got to experience the lows of later, having coaches that did not believe I was good enough to play, yet still having to show up for practice every day (with a good attitude), for several years and not give up.  I was blessed to get those heavy lessons so early in life and they have made such a positive impact on my life-after-football.

4. How can you apply teamwork and learning from one another to AeroCom?   
Through sports, I learned that great teams are much more than just great players.  Great teams always have some good players but they are usually not the most talented team in their league.  What makes them a champion is the leadership and attitude among the players.  Complaining and infighting is rare and when it occurs, it is quickly squashed by peer leadership, without the coaches’ involvement.  AeroCom is no different, which is why we value our company culture so highly.  We have great people with great attitudes and we are very careful about protecting that culture because we are very serious about being a champion in our industry.

5. If you could be on any professional team right NOW, who would you play for?   
I’d play for the New England Patriots.  I really admire how their ownership, management and coaches run their organization.  They run it with a disciplined philosophy that entails all aspects of the organization, which has helped them be successful year in and year out, regardless of the names on the jerseys.  As the head of an organization, that is fascinating to watch and “poetry in motion.”  It would be awesome to play for an organization with that kind of intelligent leadership.