Page 24 - MidJersey Business - June 2014

JAWS

OF LIFE

ownership of a golf course was Eagle’s Nest Golf Course back in 1984, after

I had been in the golf business for a couple years. That was the irst course I
purchased and eventually ran. I didn’t know a lot about business, but when
Celebrity golf event
you put your own money into the deal, you learn pretty quick.”
has raised almost

EARNING AN MBA IN THE NFL
$5 million for kids
For the irst chapter of his professional life, Jaworski made his living as a

football player. While an NFL locker room is hardly the place you would In May, the 30th annual Ron Jaworski Celeb-
think valuable business lessons are learned, that’s exactly where Jaworski
rity Golf Challenge was held at the Atlantic
absorbed everything he knows about business and management. For Jaws,
the transition from NFL quarterback to the prime signal caller for his City Country Club. The event has raised al-
most $5 million for the Jaws Youth Playbook,
company was a seamless one.
“Quite honestly, it was very simple,” Jaworski says. “I use the same which is Jaworski’s foundation dedicated to
improving the overall health and wellness of
principles that coaches use to motivate and organize their football team. I
played for great leaders and coaching is about leadership. I’m talking about children in the Greater Philadelphia region
and into South Jersey.
guys like Chuck Knox and Dick Vermeil, Marty Schottenheimer, and Don
Shula, the winningest coach of all time. Those guys were all my mentors “Young people are the future of our
country and I felt that there was such a need
and I learned organizational skills and discipline skills from them. You
to help our young people that I wanted to
obviously have to have talent to play football, but if you put a group of 53 get involved with youth programs and help
people together, you certainly have to have that leader-
give these kids the best opportunity for suc-
ship and management skill set. I learned from those
cess as they get older,” Jaworski says. “We
people, so when I got into business, I basically took
eventually formed the foundation and all
all the iner points of all the coaches I played for
the dollars we raised were earmarked

for youth programs like football ields
and nutritional programs. That’s
“I use the same principles that coaches
inspiring to me. I enjoy doing
use to motivate and organize their
that. We couldn’t do it without
football team. I played for great leaders and other people. And without

coaching is about leadership. I’m talking about our corporate sponsors,
we couldn’t have raised
guys like Chuck Knox and Dick Vermeil, Marty
the kind of money
Schottenheimer, and Don Shula, the winningest we’ve raised through

coach of all time. Those guys were all my mentors the years. They put
up the money and
and I learned organizational skills and discipline
then we do all the
skills from them.”
hard work.”
— RON JAWORSKI
Celebrities that
attended the event

in May included Dean
and integrated those into how I run my business. It’s proven to Norris from Breaking
be very successful.”
Bad, Herm Edwards,
Overcoming adversity was a trait that was crucial to Jaworski
and the teams he played on. What he learned about overcom- Julius Erving, Joe Flacco,
and Mike Ditka.
ing defeat, facing challenges, and getting back to work fol-
lowing crushing defeats are lessons Jaworski relied most “I irst learned about
charity golf events when I
heavily on in the business world.
“Not every day is going to be a great day,” Jaworski was playing in Los Angeles
and it seemed like a great
says. “But how we handle that adversity will ultimately
determine where we end up. I heard that so many way to get involved with the
community,” Jaworski says.
times from Dick Vermeil in our formative years
“So when I got into the golf
in Philadelphia when we were not a good foot-
business, we thought we’d do
ball team and we were building a Super Bowl
our own event.”
team, which took us three years after I arrived

22 business.com
midJersey