I've followed P.J. Fleck's coaching career for years, ever since he built the Western Michigan University (WMU) football team into a national powerhouse. I always admired his positive energy and passion and could tell he was a great culture builder and leader. I had also heard stories about him from Brad Black, whose company, HumanEx Ventures, performed the talent search and evaluation of head coaching candidates for WMU. Brad recommended to the leaders of WMU that they hire P.J. Fleck, despite his lack of qualifications, lack of head coaching experience, and unimpressive resume. Brad's assessment tools, used to evaluate people and predictive leadership performance, told him that P.J. would shine as a head coach and build a winning culture and team, and that's exactly what happened.

After proving himself as a successful head coach at Western Michigan, taking the program from 1–11 to 13–1 during his four years, P.J. Fleck was hired as the head coach of the University of Minnesota football team during a tumultuous time. Once again, P.J. turned around a program in need of a cultural change—academically, athletically, and socially—and built a winning culture both on and off the field. He created a team that won 11 games for the first time since 1904, achieved numerous academic records, and became a program that was more about serving and giving than just winning games.

After the season I invited P.J. to be on my podcast. One of my questions was about how he got into coaching. After the podcast I asked him to share more about his journey. The tale he told me was more than a story of his entry into coaching. It was about the man himself and what led him to become the kind of coach—and the kind of person—that he is.

—Jon Gordon

Proceeds from this book will help support the Fleck Family Fund at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Children’s Hospital. For more information about Row the Boat and/or to support the foundation, please visit RowtheBoat.org.