Your Hero is a Failure
The footwear and sports clothing company, Nike, had one of the most popular commercials of all time. In it, Michael Jordan, arguably the greatest basketball player of all time, states the following…
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 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.”
You may also know that the great Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
These strings of failure can be found in the history of any athlete you look up to and consider a hero or role model. It can be found in the histories of all of the greatest athletes who have ever lived.
Yet, whoever your athletic hero might be, they are likely that because of the accomplishments and accolades they have achieved in their career. It is unlikely that you know about all the adversities they encountered and failures they had on the road to success.
This lack of knowledge of your hero’s complete journey can be discouraging. Your personal failures can be frustrating and you can lose hope if you only know about the successes of your athletic heroes.
To avoid falling into this trap, take some time to delve into the histories of the athletes you admire. Read books they have written, watch videos of them being interviewed, read articles written about them, listen to podcasts they have been guests on. If each of these resources dive deep enough into their history, you will find that your heroes have failed over and over and over again on their journey to success. You will also find that each of these individuals credit their great accomplishments to those failures.
Having the knowledge that your heroes failed much more than they succeeded will help you to weather the storm of your own failures. It will help you to keep pushing forward after each failure. For your ultimate success will be much more dependent upon your ability to fail, get back up and try again, then it will be to the successes you may achieve.
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