February 14, 2025 • 7 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Bill Koch tells the stories of leadership lessons he took with him for the rest of his life.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
And it's time for our on Leadership series, where we
hear from coaches, leaders in the military, leaders in business,
(00:28):
and leaders in communities across this great country. And this
edition is with Bill Koch, whose company ox Bowcarbon has
over twelve hundred employees and four billion dollars in annual revenue.
Bill has also led America to a victory in the
world's premier sailing competition, the America's Cup, and did it
on his first try. But today he brings us some
(00:49):
formational leadership stories from his younger days, starting at his
high school, Culver Academy.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
At Culver, my first chime, you know, I got beat
up a lot and rasked a lot. And when I
was at Covert, some of the advisors told me that
I couldn't get into MIT. And then when I got
into MIT, I said, well, you know, you're at the
bottom of the class. You know, I don't think you'll
(01:21):
make it and then I found out that if I
wanted to do well, mainly to impress my father as
well as mentally to develop my own skills and my
own accomplishments. So I just would work very very hard.
You know, if I had to go to the bathroom,
I take a book with me. So I worked really hard,
(01:46):
and then I graduated with SOP honors and then got
my doctor's degree from it. And I've always been seemed
to be told that I can't do something, you know,
being harassed and told I was dumb and an idiot
some other things, so that has become a big challenge
(02:07):
for me. I mean, you can have two effects. Either
you stay a nerd the rest of your life or
an idiot the rest of your life, or you take
advantage of it. In fact, you know, I probably have
a little OCD. And I looked at it and said, well,
that could either kill me or I could use it
to an advantage. So I used it to work very hard,
(02:30):
and surprisingly I got more honors than all my brothers
put together. We just made a couple of tists. But
I wanted to play basketball. I thought the sport was terrific,
but in our freshman year, the varsityily one game, but
(02:53):
we as freshmen couldn't play on the varsity in those days.
Now they can't. Then you couldn't, and we were a
bunch of nerds. And MIT went out and got this
one coach from Mathuen High School. It was the northern
milltown that was dying in northern Massachusetts, and he had
(03:14):
the longest winning record of any high school in the country,
so MIT recruited him. Then when we became sophomores and
we're playing on the varsity, we also won only one game,
and the coach and it took a while to learn
out the MIT system, to learn what nerds we are
(03:37):
and how clumsy and awkward we were. So I wanted
to play more on the varsity. So I went up
and went to a summer camp that he had so
I could practice all summer, and also that avoided me
going out and working on the ranch, and I could
possibly chase girls, even though it was in mathun But anyway,
(04:02):
he told me he had a new plan, and he
came up with a new play, but he came up
with only one play because he said we weren't smart
enough to learn more than what these nerds from mid
and he was also afraid that if we all had
(04:22):
different plays, we'd get too confused. And then he just
drilled us over and over and over in that same
play so we could do it in our sleep, so
it was habitual. Then he started giving us variations off
the play, which was great. But the most powerful thing
he did was that he put people in the right
(04:47):
spots to minimize their weakness and maximize their strengths. And
he defined jobs, you know. He said, Okay, your job
is to bring up the ball and dribble it, dribble
it up and set up a play. And then your
job is to get rebounds in block shots and put
(05:08):
up pivots. And then he said to another guy, all right,
your job is to go after the best shooter on
the other side and rough him up a little bit.
But he made it very succinct. Well, anyway, in our
junior year we won over half our games. Our senior year,
we had the longest winning streak in the country and
(05:31):
the least points scored against us. And so I looked
at that and said, that's a you know, and I
sat on the damn bench. But it was terrific. I
learned it because that was one of the best lessons
I made ever learned at MIT how important teamwork is
(05:55):
and focus and well, the guy also told us, you
guys are winners. You know, if you think you're going
to lose, you will lose. You know, if you think
you're going to win, at least you have a fifty
to fifty chance of winning. And I said, that's terrific,
you know, And they said, you work all work together.
(06:16):
I mean, it's remarkable because not one of us could
have even joined got in any other college. In fact,
we probably wouldn't even make innermural teams. And rely upon
your teammates, you know, and not be a star. I
(06:37):
think ren Arbuch said, any of you guys on the
pro team, you can if you want to be a superstar,
any one of you can score thirty points a night.
But if you do, we're going to lose. And instead,
we got to work as a team, and if we win,
then we're all heroes.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And that's so true. And Red Auerback is one of
my heroes, one of my dad's heroes. My dad was
my coach. I was a point guard on an all
state team, and my goodness, learned a lot of these
lessons about knowing your job, being accountable to the job too.
If your job's to rebound and block out that guy,
rebound and block out that guy and your teammates are
depending on you and what lessons learn. Bill Coke's story,
(07:18):
his leadership story, and a coach's story, and the impact
that man had on those boys who turned into men.
Here on our American Stories, Folks, if you love the
great American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the Our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
(07:39):
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to our American
Stories dot com now and go to the donate button
and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's
our American Stories dot Com.
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
from the arts to sports, and from business to history
and everything in between, including your story. Send them to
our American Stories dot com. There's some of our favorites.
And it's time for our on Leadership series, where we
hear from coaches, leaders in the military, leaders in business,
(00:28):
and leaders in communities across this great country. And this
edition is with Bill Koch, whose company ox Bowcarbon has
over twelve hundred employees and four billion dollars in annual revenue.
Bill has also led America to a victory in the
world's premier sailing competition, the America's Cup, and did it
on his first try. But today he brings us some
(00:49):
formational leadership stories from his younger days, starting at his
high school, Culver Academy.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
At Culver, my first chime, you know, I got beat
up a lot and rasked a lot. And when I
was at Covert, some of the advisors told me that
I couldn't get into MIT. And then when I got
into MIT, I said, well, you know, you're at the
bottom of the class. You know, I don't think you'll
(01:21):
make it and then I found out that if I
wanted to do well, mainly to impress my father as
well as mentally to develop my own skills and my
own accomplishments. So I just would work very very hard.
You know, if I had to go to the bathroom,
I take a book with me. So I worked really hard,
(01:46):
and then I graduated with SOP honors and then got
my doctor's degree from it. And I've always been seemed
to be told that I can't do something, you know,
being harassed and told I was dumb and an idiot
some other things, so that has become a big challenge
(02:07):
for me. I mean, you can have two effects. Either
you stay a nerd the rest of your life or
an idiot the rest of your life, or you take
advantage of it. In fact, you know, I probably have
a little OCD. And I looked at it and said, well,
that could either kill me or I could use it
to an advantage. So I used it to work very hard,
(02:30):
and surprisingly I got more honors than all my brothers
put together. We just made a couple of tists. But
I wanted to play basketball. I thought the sport was terrific,
but in our freshman year, the varsityily one game, but
(02:53):
we as freshmen couldn't play on the varsity in those days.
Now they can't. Then you couldn't, and we were a
bunch of nerds. And MIT went out and got this
one coach from Mathuen High School. It was the northern
milltown that was dying in northern Massachusetts, and he had
(03:14):
the longest winning record of any high school in the country,
so MIT recruited him. Then when we became sophomores and
we're playing on the varsity, we also won only one game,
and the coach and it took a while to learn
out the MIT system, to learn what nerds we are
(03:37):
and how clumsy and awkward we were. So I wanted
to play more on the varsity. So I went up
and went to a summer camp that he had so
I could practice all summer, and also that avoided me
going out and working on the ranch, and I could
possibly chase girls, even though it was in mathun But anyway,
(04:02):
he told me he had a new plan, and he
came up with a new play, but he came up
with only one play because he said we weren't smart
enough to learn more than what these nerds from mid
and he was also afraid that if we all had
(04:22):
different plays, we'd get too confused. And then he just
drilled us over and over and over in that same
play so we could do it in our sleep, so
it was habitual. Then he started giving us variations off
the play, which was great. But the most powerful thing
he did was that he put people in the right
(04:47):
spots to minimize their weakness and maximize their strengths. And
he defined jobs, you know. He said, Okay, your job
is to bring up the ball and dribble it, dribble
it up and set up a play. And then your
job is to get rebounds in block shots and put
(05:08):
up pivots. And then he said to another guy, all right,
your job is to go after the best shooter on
the other side and rough him up a little bit.
But he made it very succinct. Well, anyway, in our
junior year we won over half our games. Our senior year,
we had the longest winning streak in the country and
(05:31):
the least points scored against us. And so I looked
at that and said, that's a you know, and I
sat on the damn bench. But it was terrific. I
learned it because that was one of the best lessons
I made ever learned at MIT how important teamwork is
(05:55):
and focus and well, the guy also told us, you
guys are winners. You know, if you think you're going
to lose, you will lose. You know, if you think
you're going to win, at least you have a fifty
to fifty chance of winning. And I said, that's terrific,
you know, And they said, you work all work together.
(06:16):
I mean, it's remarkable because not one of us could
have even joined got in any other college. In fact,
we probably wouldn't even make innermural teams. And rely upon
your teammates, you know, and not be a star. I
(06:37):
think ren Arbuch said, any of you guys on the
pro team, you can if you want to be a superstar,
any one of you can score thirty points a night.
But if you do, we're going to lose. And instead,
we got to work as a team, and if we win,
then we're all heroes.
Speaker 1 (06:55):
And that's so true. And Red Auerback is one of
my heroes, one of my dad's heroes. My dad was
my coach. I was a point guard on an all
state team, and my goodness, learned a lot of these
lessons about knowing your job, being accountable to the job too.
If your job's to rebound and block out that guy,
rebound and block out that guy and your teammates are
depending on you and what lessons learn. Bill Coke's story,
(07:18):
his leadership story, and a coach's story, and the impact
that man had on those boys who turned into men.
Here on our American Stories, Folks, if you love the
great American stories we tell and love America like we do,
we're asking you to become a part of the Our
American Stories family. If you agree that America is a
(07:39):
good and great country, please make a donation. A monthly
gift of seventeen dollars and seventy six cents is fast
becoming a favorite option for supporters. Go to our American
Stories dot com now and go to the donate button
and help us keep the great American stories coming. That's
our American Stories dot Com.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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