Wednesday Morning's Keynote: Deion Sanders Thrills the Crowd With His Personal Journey to "Prime Time"

Deion Sanders knows how to wow a crowd. As an athlete and coach, he was truly legendary, projecting a larger-than-life persona of “Prime Time.” In Wednesday morning’s keynote, Sanders gave his view of success, both personally and professionally.

Sanders was an eight-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion over 14 seasons in the NFL. As current head coach of the University of Colorado, he now inspires players and fans with his highly motivational coaching style.

But things didn’t start as sunny. Sanders said he has always been the underdog, and that motivated him to succeed, and even dominate on the field. Now, he wants to help others get, as he said, that place called “there” – which is whatever success looks like for you.

Coming from humble beginnings, Sanders yearned to make it big. He said his mother never saw him play a game in high school because she worked the night shift, and his father wasn’t around. He vowed that once he made it big, his mother would never have to work another day, and in 1989 when he went to the NFL, that vow was realized. 

As a college student, Sanders was recruited by pro college teams, but the money they offered wasn’t what he had hoped. So from his dorm room, he worked on marketing himself and upping his brand, setting up the “Prime Time” persona that would make him a more valuable commodity in pro football.

More recently, Sanders’ two sons started playing football as children, and Sanders began helping with practices, and was soon in charge of the whole thing. This led to starting a football camp, and that’s how he got into coaching – he said God sent him a need, and he fulfilled that need. As a natural fixer, coaching came naturally.

Sanders said if God supplies all your needs, it’s up to you to get the things you want yourself, exercising your God-given gifts to achieve your goals. Rather than being jealous of others, you should instead focus on your own goals and what you want to do to be successful. He said you need to identify personal goals and feel confident in your own abilities.

Sanders emphasized that he always believed in himself and wanted to go to college, even though no one had ever gone to college in his family. From watching TV, he saw how families should operate and wanted that for himself.

As far as achieving self-fulfillment, Sanders said to stop worrying about your current title or position and instead focus on where you want to be – just focus on what’s necessary.

On his current coaching staff, said he has to prune out negative personalities if they are taking away from the mission and taking up valuable time. He said to make tough decisions if necessary if you want to win. Make sure you have the right team in place.

It’s also necessary for leaders to provide encouragement to their team. In his own world, Sanders said his walk-ons get treated just like his stars.

Sanders talked about his definition of success. He said success should be raising successors – he wants his assistants to soar so they can move to the next level. Success in general is determined by you and your goals – he said you need to be a monument, not a moment.

Sanders said the thing he’s proudest of is being a great father. He said it’s all about being there for your kids – and he tries to be a father figure for the kids on his team as well, and teaches them how to triumph through adversity. If you focus on the negative, you’ll never get ahead – you need to keep moving forward and ignore the negatives. By keeping moving and striving, you’ll get ahead.