By Jason Hughes
I’ve always believed there are leadership lessons everywhere if you’re paying attention. Sports in particular have a way of revealing mindset in its purest form. The discipline, the preparation, the resilience. Recently I watched a short interview with Cooper Kupp, Super Bowl MVP and one of the most respected receivers in the NFL. He shared something that really stood out to me, both because of his inspiring perseverance and because it’s extremely similar to a mantra we regularly discuss at Hughes Marino.
Freshman year in high school, Kupp was an underdog, but undeterred. Smaller than others his age, he trained every single day by running and wearing ankle weights to bulk up. His daily dedication and hard work earned him a spot on the Eastern Washington University football team. He was drafted out of Eastern Washington, not exactly a traditional football powerhouse. He worked his way into the league, helped lead the Rams to a Super Bowl victory, and was named MVP. After all Kupp has achieved, he has every reason, by most standards, to feel like he’s arrived, because he has already achieved what most players only dream about. And yet he said at no point in his journey did he ever feel like he deserved any of it. Not college. Not the NFL. Not a starting role. He worked and fought hard to earn each opportunity, and once he had it, he thought of it as a new start, and worked to earn it again, never taking an opportunity for granted.
Kupp isn’t the only player whose journey reflects this mindset. His teammate, quarterback Sam Darnold, followed a remarkably similar path from a different starting point. Drafted No. 3 overall with sky-high expectations, Darnold’s early years were defined by struggles, criticism and being written off. Rather than letting the noise consume him, he refined his craft and focused on proving his teammates and family right. That resilience carried him through stints with multiple teams until it all came together in a Super Bowl victory. As our own Senior Managing Director, Will Tober, who grew up with Sam, put it: “He’s living proof that if you just stay the course and refuse to give up, you’ll eventually find success.” Different roads, same mindset.
That mindset is powerful because it runs directly counter to something that can quietly derail success: entitlement. The moment someone starts thinking, “I deserve this,” something shifts. Hunger turns into expectation and complacency. Gratitude turns into assumption. Growth slows down because the focus moves from improvement to preservation. Entitlement convinces us that what we did yesterday guarantees what we’ll get tomorrow. But it doesn’t.
In business, just like in sports, past performance doesn’t entitle us to future opportunity. A great year doesn’t guarantee the next one. A strong relationship still requires care. A leadership title doesn’t automatically earn trust. Those things are built and rebuilt consistently over time. They are earned in the small, daily decisions most people never see. As a company, we wholeheartedly work to earn the trust of our peers and our clients every single day. As a testament to this, we end every team meeting with the same phrase, one that has inspired me ever since I heard it from Starbucks founder Howard Schultz: “Success is not an entitlement. You have to earn it every day.” It’s what I live by, both personally and professionally, and what our team believes in, which is why Kupp’s story instantly struck a chord.
“At no point during that journey…did I then say, ‘Okay, I’m there now, like I’ve done enough, like I’ve arrived and now I deserve to play,’” Kupp shared. This is what I respect most about Kupp’s perspective, that he never adopted the “I’ve arrived” mentality. Each season ends and he resets. There’s more to improve, more to learn, more to earn. That approach keeps him coachable. It keeps him hungry. It keeps him sharp.
Strong cultures operate the same way. When individuals and teams stay focused on earning rather than deserving, performance compounds. Humility stays intact. Accountability remains high. There’s less room for complacency because everyone understands that success is not a destination you reach and relax in. It’s something you actively build and protect every day.
There’s a quote from Clemson strength and conditioning coach Joey Batson that captures this perfectly: “They don’t put championship rings on smooth hands.” Nothing meaningful is handed out. It comes through discipline, sacrifice and consistent effort over time.
The question for all of us isn’t whether we’ve earned something in the past. The real question is whether we’re earning it today. That mindset creates resilience. It fuels growth. And it ensures that success, when it comes, is never something we assume; it’s something we continue to work for.
The best never feel like they’ve arrived. They earn it again, every single day.
