Quarterbacks, Surgeons, and Entrepreneurs: Why Great Teams Matter More Than Talent

I like sports. A lot. But not quite enough to watch the NFL Draft.

Still, a while back, while driving around prepping for a Yokl food tour, I had the radio on a sports talk show. They were deep in draft season mode talking quarterbacks, rankings, and team strategy. And as they debated which team would snag which player, one thought hit me hard:

What does it matter if the best quarterback in the world gets drafted to the worst team, with no offensive line to protect him?

He could be the next Tom Brady or Joe Montana, but if no one holds back the defense, he’s toast. Not because he’s not talented, but because he’s alone out there.

As that thought settled in, I happened to drive past the Penn State Hershey Medical Center and it got me thinking of another comparison:

A quarterback is a lot like a surgeon.

Now, I’ve never been in an operating room, unless you count what I’ve seen in movies, but one thing always stands out: The surgeon never reaches over and starts rummaging around for a scalpel. She keeps her eyes on the patient. The mission. The reason everyone is in the room. She simply extends her hand and asks for what she needs.

And—snap—the tool is placed in her palm. Someone is monitoring vitals. Someone is handling anesthesia. Someone’s adjusting lights or handing gauze or prepping the next instrument. The surgeon

cannot

do it alone. The patient survives because the team works.

And that’s exactly what it feels like to be an entrepreneur.

The Visionary Needs a Team

As a business owner, I’ve learned this lesson again and again: I might be the quarterback, or the surgeon, but none of this works without a trusted team.

When we decided to buy a trolley for Yokl, that was a decision my co-founder Rhett and I made together. We did the research. We found the right one.

But getting LuLu registered and roadworthy according to Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation and the Public Utility Commission? That’s an

entire

saga. If I spent my energy navigating every audit, form, phone call, and compliance meeting, we wouldn’t be running tours. I wouldn’t be building partnerships. I wouldn’t be casting vision. I’d be stuck in the paperwork trenches.

Our first hire, Kris, handled all the registration and audit prep like a pro. She also coordinates with drivers and brings new ones onboard, and 10 other things. And now we’ve brought in Sarah, who’s managing our relationships with online travel agencies and helping Yokl grow beyond the local map.

Because of them, I can run the play.

When I met with the owner of the company that will soon be helping us develop our Yokl app, he said something I’ll never forget:

“We don’t invest in ideas. We invest in teams.”

An idea—no matter how shiny—isn’t enough. A quarterback alone doesn’t win games. A surgeon alone doesn’t save lives. An entrepreneur alone doesn’t build a sustainable company.