Lessons from Michael Jordan5

Michael Jordan was born February 17, 1963 and is a former American professional basketball player, active businessman, father and husband. He is considered being the greatest basketball player of all time and was instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

He is a legend in the game and has set the standard of what you need to become not only as a model athlete but also a great role model and a leader. However throughout his career he’s also made mistakes and learned from them.

Today I give you 10 lessons I got from Michael Jordan:

1. Make It Happen

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.”

In order to succeed you’re going to make it happen. Nothing will come to you without you putting in the effort. If you want success in your life, you need to go get it. Make it happen.

2. Just Try

“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”

You’ll never know if something is going to go well or not unless you try. I would rather try something than looking back in my death bed regretting I didn’t go for it. You may not know what path you’ll end up on but the only way to discover the right path, is to try and keep trying.

3. Passion

“Even when I’m old and grey, I won’t be able to play it, but I’ll still love the game.”

You must have passion in order to succeed. Most people don’t succeed in their careers because it’s not something they are passionate about. Passion is when you can’t see yourself not doing this. You won’t succeed doing something you are uninterested in, you won’t even succeed in something you like doing, you will succeed when you do what you love, what you’re passionate about. You want success? Be passionate about it.

4. Work

“I’m not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.”

Before you can reap your rewards, you need to put the work in. To be the best you need to give your best. You need to be working when others are resting. You need to consistently go out and get the job done.  Jordan said, “I’ve always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come”.

Did you know? Jordan liked a girl in the fifth or sixth grade named Angela West and saved a seat for her on the school bus every morning, but she never sat next to him.

5. Go Around

“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.”

Obstacles are what prepare you for success.  As Mick Jagger once said ” You can’t always get what you want, but you’ll get what you need”.

You can’t jump straight to getting a black belt, you need to work you way through the ranks. They are there to keep you out until you’re “ready”. They are there to ensure that you are ready to take the next step. Obstacles are a sign for improvement.

6. Our Own Expectation

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”

In life what you expect and what you accept; is what you get.

Jordan said, “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.”

You need to start disregarding other peoples expectations or opinions of you. Forge your own path. Expect only greatness from yourself. Only then will you strive for that and be able to achieve it.

7. Your Mind

“My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline.”

If you can see yourself doing it, then you can do it. It’s only a question of time before you achieve it.

If you can envision yourself doing it then you’ve already done 50% of the job. Most people can’t see themselves getting success and that’s a huge stumbling block on their way.

The question is “How bad do you want it?” If you don’t “want it,” you won’t get it! If you can live without it, you will. To succeed you have to have the hunger. The will. The fire. The thirst for it. Be aware of that we sometimes are our own worst enemy.

Did you know?

He likes control with his involvement (his brand name — business). It’s not as if he says, here’s my name, use it. Jordan runs his corporate empire from his office in Chicago. But he only goes there about 2 days a week.

A Good portion of his time is spent playing golf because, as he says, he’s really really getting addicted to it. Sometimes he plays from sunrise to sunset.

8. Failure

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

Never fear failure; fear not trying. Another great quote is from another great in the sports world, Wayne Gretzky ” You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take.”

Failure is the path to success. Failure is the sign that you’re headed in the right direction. Without failure you would not know if you’re improving or not.

If you want to succeed then go fail hard. Fail twice as much as any other. Because only then will you reach success twice as fast. Jordan said, “I’ve never been afraid to fail.”

9. Perspective

“Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.”

In every negative situation contains a great lesson; but you must recognize it.

To succeed you must turn negative situations into positive ones. You can’t always just focus on the negatives, you must see the positives and learn.

You must see the positive, you must become positive, in order to experience success. It isn’t a coincidence that successful people are mainly people who are positive and remained positive throughout hard times.

10. Loyalty and Responsibility

“The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace.”

To achieve success you must be loyal and responsible.  Do you stay loyal to the process? Do you finish up the mundane tasks that are required for success?

Are you consistently doing what needs to be done?

Are you responsible that when you slack off one day, you give twice as much effort on the next day?

To succeed, you need to be loyal to your passion. You must give it your all and take responsibility when you fail to do so.

You want to be able to say “you gave it your all”.

So there you have it.

For those of you who want a little bit more of MJ.

Check out this interview with him talking about his career. Pay attention to how passionate he still is about the game and when he talks about staying at the highest level of excellence.

I hope you guys enjoyed this article.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

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