Several weeks ago, I recorded the ESPN documentary on the 2024 version of Tight End University but just got around to watching it. There’s something we can learn.

If you’re not familiar with Tight End university here’s the summary from their website.

Founded in 2021 by NFL Tight Ends George Kittle, Travis Kelce and Greg Olsen, Tight End University was created to bring the Tight End community together for an immersive three-day program. Over the course of the summit, attendees are able to bond, collaborate with, and learn amongst their peers while participating in a variety of activities including film study, on-field drills, recovery, rehabilitation, and more. In addition to current players, TEU also features several retired legends who provide attendees with the invaluable opportunity to learn from some of the best to ever play the game.

In short, TEU is about elevating the position of Tight End. The classroom sessions and on-field drills are devoted to the disciplines that make a great tight end – mindset, physical preparation, blocking, pass protecting, route running, reading defenses, and more. For these three days, it doesn’t matter that the best tight ends in the business are sharing their “trade secrets” with other athletes they’ll be competing with in the upcoming NFL season. The goal is improving each attendee’s personal performance and making them a more valuable offensive weapon for their team.

The application for you and me is pretty clear but let me go a bit deeper. These are some of the most elite athletes in the world and when they rejoin their teams they’re surrounded by other world-class athletes. There was likely more right than wrong with their performance before TEU. They beat out hundreds of college tight ends to earn a spot on an NFL roster. TEU is about one of the most crucial disciplines for any professional – a commitment to life-long learning. The acknowledgement that we will never arrive. There will always be the opportunity to learn more and do better.

In the next week couple of weeks, I’m going to announce a unique professional development opportunity in concert with other consulting partners. If you want to participate in a business leader’s version of TEU, your opportunity is coming.