I love Michael Jordan's story because MJ wasn't born a great athlete, he made himself into one. Popular culture likes to depict Michael Jordan as some superhero that was born to be great, but not so.
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| Superman Jordan? |
It is this warrior rage that drove Jordan to climb the tallest mountains and overcome epic heights. It took brutal dedication, an insatiable thirst to win, and a resolve to stomach the harshest of challenges.
Major challenge 1--Jordan tried out for his high school varsity basketball team, but deemed too short, he was cut! Instead of running home and crying to his mommy, he turned on his warrior rage and became the star of the school's junior varsity squad and earned himself a spot on the varsity team the following year.
Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation
-- Michael Jordan
Major challenge 2--The Piston Roadblock: In the mid and late-80s Jordan was at the top of his game, but one ambition continued to escape him, winning the NBA championships.
1987, 1988, 1989 Jordan led the Bulls to the NBA finals, but for 3 grueling years the Bulls suffered defeat at the Pistons. The experience must have been demoralizing, exhausting, agonizingly frustrating. To reach so close to the "heavens" only to fall back down to earth, then re-trekking that arduous journey over and over again. It must have been like Sisyphus rolling that huge boulder up a hill everyday only to have it roll back down again. Arrrggg!
But what did Jordan do? Instead of giving up and becoming cynical and jaded like most of us "normal" folks, he donned his "whatever it takes" resolve to rebuild, and re-engineer his team into an undefeatable force that would put even the Green Berets to shame. And in the 1990-1991 season Jordan led his team to victory.
Major challenge 3-- The "I'm back" moment that flopped...at first: Jordan retired from basketball in 1993 when his father was murdered, that was also the period when he went through his weird baseball phase. He returned to basketball in 1995, but hitting baseballs and wearing tights must have messed up his game, because he went on to suffer a major defeat at the Orlando Magic in the semifinals. Ouch!
It was a huge setback for Jordan: "I was really demoralized. I had doubts that maybe I can't play the same type of game that I used to play." A fury of public speculation that Jordan had lost his touch certainly didn't help his self-esteem.
But what did he do? That's right, he unleashed his inner warrior. "I made a promise to myself that come next year, I'd be ready for this game." And he sure was. Jordan came back to dominate the following season, inevitably leading his team to NBA victory! That's WOW for you! Coincidentally, the game was won on Father's Day making it especially emotional for Jordan.
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| Famous pic of Jordan sobbing on the locker floor (no he's not drunk) |
If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it
-- Michael Jordan (I think he was joking about "going through it")
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