David Meltzer Interview Part III:
Jennie Reid’s Skype Interview with David Meltzer by Lastwordonsports on Mixcloud
David Meltzer Talks about Inspiring Goodness & USA Rugby-Part III
New Zealand has a very strong rugby culture at the club and community level. What is it like in the USA? What does rugby community mean to you?
Many would agree with David, in that community involvement in club rugby is what many of the people involved in rugby truly enjoy. Although it’s a smaller dynamic, it has the same feel to it, that it is an “exclusive club,” he declared. “When people share in rugby, they share in something significant in the love for the sport and people are extremely compassionate.”
No matter if male or female, people exposed to rugby really appreciate and adore the club environment. The Sevens is growing every year and “the social aspect of the Sevens tournament is phenomenal as it is so fast and so much fun in such a lively, great atmosphere,” announced David, who will definitely be in the crowd at the Las Vegas Sevens tournament in February 2015.
How do you help build self-esteem in athletes?
David certainly puts in a lot of effort to get people to get better and feel better about themselves, by writing books and motivational speaking. He is working on his second book, called “Mission Happiness.” From this book, he intends to “help people decipher between their micromission of being a great footballer, lawyer, doctor, insurance man, to the overall perspective.”
People, such as David’s beloved friend, Robin Williams, were “at the pinnacle of their career in entertainment, but lost sight of balance and focus.” Empowering people and giving them the tools to maintain happiness is David’s strategy to build self-esteem.
When rugby players realise their potential and know what skills or training they need to improve upon, their self-esteem is augmented. One way of obtaining the true athletic ability of each athlete is by performing athletic testing, such as a combine, testing their pure athleticism and rugby-specific skills.
There is an innovative New Zealand company called Force X Velocity (FXV) coming to the USA on a rugby tour to test athletes on rugby teams ranging from high school age to the high performance athletes. The resulting scores attained from the combines will empower the athletes to realise their potential and know how they compare to others, as well as themselves over time.
Do you have a passion to grow rugby in America?
David is currently working with USA Rugby and the Rugby Sevens with Dan Lyle and Dave Hodges, helping to facilitate sponsorship, raising the profile, the brand, and awareness of the sport of rugby. They are on a mission to find the college-level extreme athletes that did not make it into the NFL, but have incredible talent, and teaching them Rugby Sevens.
David explained that his business at Sports 1 Marketing “brings the right people and the right ideas together, and by surrounding yourself with the right people and right ideas, then more of the right people and right ideas come in.”
What factors do you consider to be key to its (rugby) success in America?
Building a sport does not happen overnight. In order to grow rugby to bring it eventually to a level that NFL is at, David considers the factors of success to be money and television (TV).
As more TV coverage contracts are secured there is more exposure, which brings in more sponsorship dollars. The sponsorhip dollars pay for more TV time, and the more TV time equals more exposure. David does not consider its growth to be about “failures and successes, but rather continuous success of events.”
Is wealth more than just having money; it’s about happiness?
“Money is a byproduct of being happy,” according to David. “You’ll find scientifically that people that are happy in whatever they desire.” By being empathetic, empowering ourselves and others we collaborate with, we can follow David’s pragmatic tools in his book, “Connected to Goodness,” to teach everyone to be happy, and grow the goodness within us and the sport of rugby.
Sharing ideas and surrounding ourselves with other people with great ideas collectively benefits everyone, ultimately leading to fulfillment and happiness. Keeping David’s principles in mind of what happiness and goodness means, as well as asking more questions, always striving to be better, collaboratively, we can all help grow the game of rugby in the USA.
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