#Trillion January 17

We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

A TRILLION has 12 zeros in it. It also can be described as 10 to the 12th power.

A visual might help just how large that amount is related to money.

The photo below is stacks of $100 bills on nearly 12 pallets. That is the physical space a billion dollars would take up. You would need to have 1,000 of these in a room to make up a TRILLION dollars.

In the past month I have become familiar with a former NCAA Division I college football coach (1974-1979). He coached in the Ivy League and had a career record 12-41-1 in five seasons. By almost all societal norms he would not be deemed a successful coach but he was. He found his way, achieved success in business then gave away his expertise as a coach to others for free.

There are people, very rich and powerful people, who say he just might be the most successful coach in the history of our country. In fact he is called the Trillion Dollar Coach in a book about his life written by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, and Alan Eagle.

This coach is Bill Campbell

Bill Campbell became a leadership coach to Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg to name a just a few. The business leaders he coached and mentored led companies with value in excess of TRILLION dollars. He did all of that coaching without pay.

He would not accept compensation. He was famously quoted as saying “he didn’t take cash, didn’t take stock, and didn’t take shit”.

He started out his life to become a teacher and coach. He played football at Columbia University in the Ivy League. After undergrad he earned Master’s Degree in Education and landed a job as assistant football coach at Boston College. In 1974 he became the Head Football Coach at Columbia. He stayed five years and resigned after going 12-41-1.

After the disappointment of college coaching he went into sales. His career eventually led him to Kodak, Apple, and Intuit where he became the CEO. He was on many Boards including Columbia University where he succeeded David Stern as chairman of the board.

When he retired in 1998 he became a mentor to others. He would often say he wanted to give back and boy did he.

The William V. Campbell Trophy is given out each year to a college football player. It is awarded based on academics, community service, and on-field performance. It is considered by many to be the Academic Heisman of College Football. It is named after Bill Campbell.

Bill Campbell’s life story has a lot to teach us. He epitomizes what a servant leader looks like. For a great detail read on his life go to this 2008 article by Jennifer Reingold called The Secret Coach.

There are great articles on Fortune Magazine after he passed away in 2016

• Goodbye, Bill Campbell by Jennifer Reingold
• Remembering Bill Campbell by Adam Lashinsky
• Silicon Valley Mourns Loss of ‘Coach’ Bill Campbell by Kia Kokalitcheva

Bill Campbell was a fantastic leader and coach. He developed influence by serving others. He didn’t let less than 50 college football losses stop him from being a TRILLION dollar coach.