Opportunity. In the Career industry it’s as big a word as “location” is in the Real Estate industry.
For Matt Stafford, opportunity didn’t just come knocking, it came pounding on his door last March when the LA Rams, fresh off a playoff run that took them to the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs, traded away their starting QB Jared Goff, two first round draft picks, and a third-round pick to get him from the Detroit Lions.
That was a bold move for a team clearly on the rise, but they believed the upgrade at this key position was worth those high draft picks and the element of uncertainty that comes with a new key player. If they were wrong, the orchestrator of the move, Sean McVay, would likely be looking for a new job, along with the key people on his staff.
For the Rams, for McVay, the Next Great Next was the chapter that would be written with Matt Stafford.
For Matt Stafford, his Next Great Next, was the opportunity he now had by being hand-picked by one of the brightest minds in the industry as the final piece of the puzzle.
We all want to be noticed. No matter what path we walk in life, being chosen, selected as the “the one” is an incredible rush. His career got a lot more exciting when he heard the news – even to himself!
After 185 NFL starts Stafford finally has his first playoff victory. No QB with a playoff victory has waited longer. Last weekend, he threw 3 touchdowns to lead the Rams 34-11 over the Cardinals and put up the highest single game passer rating by a QB in Rams’ postseason history. In the regular season, he doubled Goff’s 2020 touchdown output and threw for about 1,000 more yards. Stafford has already validated the trade.
Some will say if Stafford doesn’t isn’t victorious tomorrow and get farther in the playoffs than Goff did in 2020, the trade was a failure. The rebuttal to that is rather simple: the loss came to the defending champions led by Tom Brady. The Rams get a pass.
But Stafford as an individual, regardless of the outcome, is already a winner.
There has been a big shake up to how we live and work, resulting in opportunities revealing themselves in ways and places one would never expect. The Rams were looking for their Next Great Next. Stafford was in need of his. How about you?
In the corporate world, you’re not going to have a better company come along and trade three college grads and a so-so veteran for you. But you always have the golden opportunity to pick yourself and manifest the right opportunity. As ExecuNet’s Founder Dave Opton recently told Forbes, “If you are an executive who is in a job search you must understand that your perfect job actually does exist, or, more importantly, you can create it.”
Stafford said the trade “definitely reenergized me.” If an NFL QB needs to be “reenergized” then it’s understandable we regular people do, too. What’s reenergizing you? If you are in search or simply not all that excited about your career anymore, I would love to hear from you about your thoughts on what you think your Next Great Next could be.
Shoot me an email and let me know! mark.anderson@execunet.com
