.png)
Hard Rock Stadium is loud in a way you feel in your ribs.
Indiana is protecting an undefeated season and a national title is sitting right there, one possession away. The safe decision is the obvious one. Kick. Take points. Don’t make a mistake.
Then the head coach makes a different choice.
He waves off the safe option and keeps the offense on the field.
Because champions do not build their future on fear.
Fourth-and-4. The call comes in. Fernando Mendoza takes the snap and runs like every “no” he ever heard is chasing him. He fights through contact, stretches, and breaks the plane. Touchdown.
Indiana seals perfection.
And the twist that makes it feel like a movie is where it happens: Miami. In Miami’s stadium. Against the program that once didn’t give Mendoza a shot.
What goes around comes around.
Dreams do come true.
A year earlier, Indiana was a punchline. 3–9. The kind of season that makes people shrug and say, “That’s just who we are.”
Then Indiana hired a coach most people didn’t throw a parade for. Not a flashy name. Not a headline grabber.
But he walked into Bloomington with one rare thing that changes everything.
He already believed they could win big, and he was willing to demand that belief from everybody else.
That’s where turnarounds start. Not in the playbook. In the ceiling people carry around in their heads.
Before he changed the roster, he changed the room.
He attacked the quiet losing habits that hide in plain sight:
He made winning feel normal in practice before it ever showed up on Saturday.
That is leadership.
Not hype. Not speeches. Standards. Reps. Accountability. A clear message that said, “We are not doing it the old way anymore.”
Then he used the modern tools: the transfer portal and NIL.
Here’s the part most people miss.
The portal is not only about stealing starters. A huge part of it is about finding second- and third-string players who are good enough, driven enough, and tired of waiting for permission to become who they know they can be.
Players with something to prove.
Think of all the talent in the world that sits on benches because of politics, timing, and somebody else’s name being bigger.
Those players are not “less than.” They’re just under-used.
And the right coach sees that as gold.
Mendoza’s story is the kind leaders should study.
He grew up around Miami. He wanted that program. He tried. He didn’t get the spot he dreamed about. Then he went to Cal, played, developed, and still felt the limit.
Not because he lacked ability.
Because the path he was on could not take him where he wanted to go.
He wanted both: to play and to win it all.
So he did something that takes guts.
He chose a new team.
He entered the “portal,” took a chance on Indiana, and bet on a coach who was building something bigger than tradition.
And a lot of other players made the same bet.
They did not know what would happen.
The coach did.
One year it was 3–9. Then 11–2. Then the story no one saw coming: 16–0, a national championship, and Mendoza lifting the Heisman.
That is not a “lucky year.”
That is what happens when belief turns into behavior, and behavior turns into results.
Indiana did what America has done at its best. It took people who were overlooked somewhere else, gave them a real chance, and built something unstoppable.
Not because they were castoffs.
Because they were unchosen potential.
Now bring this home.
In the financial industry, there is no official transfer portal.
There’s no website where professionals enter their name and announce they’re ready for a new team.
But the reality is identical.
Every day, financial professionals sit in organizations where:
They are talented. They are driven. They are proven.
They just need a chance to run the right system with the right team.
And at some point, they realize something that hits hard:
The opportunity they’ve dreamed about might not be where they are.
It might be one decision away.
WealthWave, at its best, is not “another place to work.”
It’s a platform for people who want a bigger outcome and are willing to grow into it.
A new team. A better development environment. A leadership culture that expects more. A model that lets professionals build something real, with mentorship, systems, and a mission bigger than a product.
For the right person, the move to WealthWave is not a lateral change.
It can be the moment they finally stop waiting for permission.
The moment they stop being “second string” in someone else’s system.
The moment their career stops being about surviving the season and starts being about winning it.
If you lead at WealthWave, this Indiana story is not just a feel-good sports moment.
It is your recruiting blueprint.
Because the people who change everything are often not the loudest stars in the room. They are:
Your job is to see them before everyone else does.
Your job is to offer them what Mendoza found: belief, standards, and a real runway.
Indiana didn’t magically become champions.
They changed coaches. They changed expectations. They changed the roster with hungry talent. They changed the outcome.
New team. Improved game. Different result.
So here’s the question this story asks every financial professional, and every WealthWave leader who recruits them:
Are you in the right system for the person you’re capable of becoming?
Because if you’re not, the next championship season of your life might not require more effort.
It might require a better team, a clearer mission, and the courage to step into your own “transfer portal” moment.
And when that moment comes, the leaders who win are the ones who do not settle for safe.
They go for it on fourth-and-4.
.png)
.png)
