I wonder, every now and then, what it must be like to be famous.
I don’t mean the vague sort of famous; double-take glances over the shoulder as you’re passed in the airport, with the ‘are you really the guy’ look that follows. I mean stop the room when you enter sort of famous. Hard it must be, I think, not to have some basic level of privacy when out running errands or attending a school function for the kids. The few times I have come across fame, it seemed to me the results of that fame were at least tolerated, and maybe enjoyed even. Do you come to expect the crowd to stop what they’re doing when you enter? Will they still do so forty years after you’ve stopped doing whatever it was that made you famous? My friend John isn’t famous, but he works really hard for someone who is – or maybe was – famous.
By the time 1965 rolled around, George Halas had long since settled into this role as owner of the Chicago bears football franchise, having been a player, coach and even handling ticket sales over the years. It was his 38th year at the helm when Mr. Halas, never realizing the fame that was to follow, used his fourth pick to hire an outstanding college athlete known then as the Kansas Comet, Gale Sayers. Mr. Sayers had an outstanding rookie season, winning the NFL Rookie of the Year Award. He frequently broke or tied records over the course of his career, and in 1977 became the youngest player ever inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Real fame, however, found Mr. Sayers in 1971 with the release of the movie Brian’s Song, the story of his friendship with fellow Bear and cancer victim Brian Piccolo – a story so compelling they even re-made it thirty years later!
Today, Mr. Sayers is Chairman of the highly successful technology consulting company, Sayers 40, Inc., a company he founded in 1984. You can imagine my surprise this afternoon, now forty years after Gale Sayers’ draft, to find the Chairman sitting quietly with an assistant at a book-signing table near the commuter trains, the two of them virtually alone in the cavernous hall. He was there to sign books to raise money for his non-profit after school children’s leadership and mentoring program, so the sign next to the table read.
As I passed by the table and out into the cold Chicago weather, I remembered that my friend John works for Sayers 40, and I thought about the fact that this successful and famous man was sitting nearly alone in the halls of the train station, donating his time to help out a community of underprivileged kids. I thought he should know people appreciate what he’s doing for these kids. And I thought it would be fun to tell my friend’s Chairman that his staff enjoyed working for his company. So I stopped and turned half way down the block, returning to the still empty table. As I chatted with Mr. Sayers about his book and his foundation, I also made a point to tell him I’d heard great things about his Company from my friend John, who enjoys working there very much.