Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.
Tom Landry
Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.
Leadership is a matter of having people look at you and gain confidence, seeing how you react. If you're in control, they're in control.
A winner never stops trying.
When you want to win a game, you have to teach. When you lose a game, you have to learn.
The secret to winning is constant, consistent management.
Today, you have 100% of your life left.
I've learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.
As a Christian, I know my life is in God's hands. He has a plan for me. Therefore, I never worry about tomorrow or never worry about winning or losing football games. That knowledge gives me a lot of composure in tough situations.
People striving, being knocked down and coming back... this is what builds character in a man.
If you show emotion in competition, temporarily, you'll be ineffective. If you're disciplined enough, you don't get down when you're behind, and you have a chance to create something positive.
Being the best at whatever talent you have, that's what stimulates life.
Really, coaching is simplicity. It's getting players to play better than they think that they can.
If you don't believe in winning, you don't believe in free enterprise, capitalism, our way of life.
My hats did give me an identity. In fact, if I had a dollar for every time someone has seen me bareheaded and said, 'I almost didn't recognize you without a hat on', I could have bought the Cowboys myself.
Confidence comes from knowing what you're doing. If you are prepared for something, you usually do it. If not, you usually fall flat on your face.
I don't believe in team motivation. I believe in getting a team prepared so it knows it will have the necessary confidence when it steps on a field and be prepared to play a good game.
If you eliminate our way of life, the American way of life, what is the effect... what are the alternatives?
Football is an incredible game. Sometimes it's so incredible, it's unbelievable.
If you are prepared, you will be confident, and will do the job.
Every coach has his own style of play, but when you spend your whole life as a Cowboy, you have to be influenced by what we did.
Character is the ability of a person to see a positive end of things. This is the hope that a man of character has.
People say you have to know when to retire, which is a dumb thing to say. If you want to go out on top, yeah, it becomes important when you quit. But I wasn't afraid of that. And I wasn't worried about getting fired. I knew the risk. To me, it's not an ego thing. I enjoy coaching. I enjoy helping people achieve something.
You don't have to drink or swear or hit people in the face when they're not looking, but you do have to be tough to win.
When a big play occurs for our team, I'm concentrating on how the defense is reacting to it. Most of the time, I don't see the great catch or the long run. What I'm looking at is how the other team defended it.
I learned early in sports that to be effective - for a player to play the best he can play - is a matter of concentration and being unaware of distractions, positive or negative.
I know that life is really finding the right relationship between yourself and God.
Achievement builds character.
Take away winning, and you take away everything that is strong about America.
There are coaches to whom winning or losing means something close to life or death. If they lose, then their life has somehow been diminished. I'm not that way, and it keeps me steady.
I try to block out everything that distracts me. Even a big play, I blank it out.
I just didn't want to leave the Cowboys when they were down. I at least wanted them to get into a respectable position before anyone else took over.
I've come to the conclusion that players want to be treated alike.
I probably should have gotten out, but I really enjoyed the challenge of bringing a team to that game. In fact, I probably enjoy the challenge of it more than the actual game.
Generally, achieving goals... which in many cases means winning... is really the ultimate in this life we live in.
Look at Bjorn Borg or Jack Nicklaus. Those guys really concentrate. With the world on their shoulders, they're so absorbed with what they're doing.
If you don't win a Super Bowl, you're not considered successful in the National Football League. I can remember, when we finally won that first one, feeling so good for the players and fans.
If you were to see me as a cheerleader, that would mean I was only watching instead of thinking.
Right after the game, say as little as possible.
I wouldn't think I would coach again, because it would just be hard not being in the Cowboys' blue.
If I had to pick my greatest strength as a football coach, I say it would be innovation.
The greatest thing is to win your first Super Bowl.
People will forget me pretty quick.
