Saturday night, our entire family was watching the Ole Miss–LSU game.
And when I say our entire family, I mean even Brandon—who is a Mississippi State fan and, to my knowledge, has never voluntarily watched an entire football game in his life.
But this one was different. There was so much more happening on that field than football.
I kept thinking about the people involved.
What must it feel like to be Lane Kiffin, walking back into a stadium where you spent six years building a program—this time wearing the other team’s colors?
What must it feel like to be Pete Golding, taking over a program that suddenly had something to prove?
What about the players who stayed?
The fans who packed the stadium?
There was loyalty, pressure, pride, disappointment, determination—and probably about every other emotion you could fit inside one football stadium.
And somewhere in the middle of that game, I realized I wasn’t thinking about football anymore. I was thinking about business. About life.
Because if you’re in business long enough, there will be moments when something comes up that really shakes you to the core. And that’s when knowing exactly who you are matters.
Because the strongest brands aren’t built by chasing everyone else’s definition of success.
They’re built on values.
They’re built on vision.
They’re built on reputation.
They’re built by doing what you said you were going to do, over and over and over again.
They’re built by taking care of customers.
By standing behind your product.
By treating people right.
By making decisions for where you want to be ten years from now instead of what gets the most attention today.
And, yes, they’re built on loyalty.
Not blind loyalty to a person, a brand, a customer or even the way things have always been done. Loyalty to what you are building.
Saturday night, Ole Miss won 32–24. But what stuck with me wasn’t really the score. It was watching an organization, a team and tens of thousands of fans seemingly say:
We believe in what we’re building here at Ole Miss.
And I think there’s a lesson in that for every one of us who owns a business, runs a ranch, sells a product or is trying to build something from the ground up.
You don’t need everyone to believe in you. You don’t need the biggest budget. It’s even okay if some people say you aren’t quite good enough.
You need to know who you are. Know what you stand for. Take care of the people who believe in you. Keep your standards high. Keep your promises. Keep showing up.
And then keep building.
And Saturday night, it made for some pretty good football, too.