He is the man, the most famous player and probably the best in the History of basket ball. He won NBA Championship 6 times, MPV trophy 5 times, a dozen of All-Star games, NCAA titles and two Olympic gold medals and the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Driven by his unbreakable will to succeed, Jordan became the most decorated player in the NBA history.
All this records and titles didn’t come by themselves, but how can we get inspired by the deeds of an athlete who marked Black History through sport? How can we adapt these lessons to apply them in our daily life? In this article, we will focus on two specific aspect of the reasons of Jordan’s success: his personal relationship to failure and to the concept of team.
- Failure doesn't define you.
Given his talent and physical abilities, you must probably think Jordan’s career was a breeze until he reached NBA. Actually, he wasn’t considered as one of the best during his youth. His coached didn’t see his hidden talents and thought that he didn’t reach the minimum height required to do a basketball career.
He loved sport and worked hard to improve but he wasn’t even selected to represent his high school basketball team in his sophomore year. Michael was so disappointed by this decision that he claims it is one of the moment most imprinted in his life.
But that clearly didn’t stop him from playing basketball, it only pushed him to work even harder.
“I know that fear is an obstacle for some people, but for me it is just an illusion….. Failure always makes me try harder on the next opportunity”
Behind his skills and fighting spirit lies Michael Jordan’s secret: to always learn from your failures and make them into something positive. Through the following years, Michael actually used to reflect on his passed failure as a strong way to motivate himself.
“Whenever I achieve some success but feel so tired, I often think to give up and leave everything. But then I close my eyes and see again that list that didn’t include my name. usually by doing that my spirit is revived”.
- You can't win by yourself !
Michael got his competitive spirit from a natural cause. As one of five brothers in a family with discipline and spirit of progress, he was brought up with high standard and great expectation.
Michael didn’t get his competitive spirit from nowhere. As one of five brothers in a family driven by discipline and will to progress, he was brought up by his entourage and pushed by their high standards and great expectations.
Throughout the 80’s, Jordan racked up a ton of personal achievements. From best scoring player to MVP or Defensive Player of the year, Michael was already the dominant player of his era. But he didn’t win any championship before he had the help of Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and Phil Jackson.
“If you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”
No matter what kind of situation you are dealing with (business, family, or issues,...) make sure you team up with somebody you trust. If you want to achieve something or solve an issue in your life, it will always be done quicker and feel easier with somebody on your side. And we’re not talking about the bigger projects which are impossible to achieve alone (like Jordan’s Championship).
Don’t forget it if failure makes you want to give up. It has the opposite effect on Jordan who is the most successful athlete in his generation. If you don’t already, start thinking of your failures as fuel to work harder.
Take a moment now and think about what you want to achieve more than anything else. Do you fully expect yourself to make it happen?
If the answer is ‘no’, it’s time for a change in your attitude. Remember that every time Jordan took a shot, he was expecting the ball to go in.
And if you have something important to achieve or to solve, don’t hesitate to get help from your entourage. Remember that even one of the greatest sportsman of all time couldn’t win the NBA Championship by himself.
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not to trying again.”
This was a small piece of knowledge inspired by one of the most successful black in the entire world, the GOAT Michael Jordan. Hope it will inspire you to achieve great things or simply to be more successful in your life.
And with all that he has NEVER ONCE stood up, said, or done ANYTHING for black people. I understand people will say he doesn’t have to DO anything for us, I get that but to NEVER ONCE speak out our say anything about the social issues that black people have been going through since you were the FACE and BIGGEST name in the NBA, to me says, he could care less about any body but mike, and for that I say F@#& mike!