How playing for Notre Dame taught this employee persistence and discipline

At 5′ 6″ and 165 pounds, Timothy O’Neill wasn’t the typical Division I college football player.

But the walk-on at Notre Dame never gave up on his dreams and made gridiron history as the shortest player to carry the ball in a game for the Fighting Irish, where he received a full scholarship and graduated with a degree in finance.

Today, O’Neill is an author, speaker and natural gas trading director for Sequent, a Williams company.

This year, he published a children’s book, “Tiny Tim’s Notre Dame Football Dream,” as a follow up to his 2012 autobiography“Every Play Every Day: My Life as a Notre Dame Walk-On.”

You graduated from Notre Dame in 2003 and then worked on Wall Street before joining Williams 15 years ago. How did you become an author?

I wrote my first book, “Every Play Every Day,” because I wanted to prove to my future children that dreams really do come true if you’re willing to put in the work. It started out as a journal while I was a student-athlete at Notre Dame, and that journal ultimately planted the seed for the book. I figured, even if only one person read it and was inspired by it, then all the work would be worth it. I’m fortunate that book is now in its third printing and has sold over 10,000 copies.

The motivation behind the children’s book came after speaking to different organizations over the years. When I would speak to middle school and high school students, they were old enough to read the book. But elementary school students were a bit young for it, so I always thought a children’s book version would resonate more with them. Kids hear enough negativity, and my goal with the book was to present a positive true story where they can see a bit of themselves in my story.

What lessons do you hope to impart to readers?

There’s always going to be obstacles, always going to be someone who tells you it can’t be done. I want them to see in the book that the struggle and disappointments are all part of the path to reach your goals. And when you look back, it is often when times were the hardest and you persevered that you remember more than any accomplishments.

How have those characteristics benefited you professionally?

When I first started out on Wall Street my manager told me I’d never be a trader. For some people that would have been enough to choose a different career path. For me, that comment just added fuel to the fire. And there have been many times in my career when I’ve had to go back to the walk-on mentality of starting at the very bottom and having to work your way up. 

What do you do at Williams?

I’ve had various roles within Sequent, all focused on financial natural gas trading in the United States and Canada.

Sequent is Williams’ trading and marketing arm and we’ve consistently been one of the top six gas marketers in the U.S. I think that speaks to the team we have in place and the processes we have built to take advantage of different market conditions. We have built a robust portfolio of storage and transportation assets and we have a team of traders and schedulers that are participating in over 50 markets on a daily basis.

Are there correlations between sports and trading?

Trading and athletics are both great meritocracies. And at Sequent a key component of our success is our ability to work as a team to accomplish a common goal. I’ve been part of teams my whole life through sports. It teaches you how to handle success and disappointment and how to get back up after you’ve been knocked down.

What motivated you as a child dreaming about playing for the Fighting Irish?

I think my biggest motivation as a child was that I wanted my parents to be proud of me. And I would tell everyone in elementary school I was going to play football at Notre Dame someday. Because I told so many people, I didn’t want to let them down!

So kids remember, that dreams can come true. Never, ever give up, keep fighting and battle through.

Excerpt from “Tiny Tim’s Notre Dame Football Dream”