When you think about the greatest person for something particular like Basketball: Jordan, Golf: Tiger Woods, Hockey: Wayne Gretsky, Bodybuilding: Arnold Schwarzenegger and so on and so forth, you see their success because of their accomplishments and how they look presently. Underneath all those things, hidden behind those countless trophies and medals is a story. Stories of failures turned into success, when you see Michael Jordan you see his 6 rings of championships his MVP trophies and all his success but you see he has failed a lot early in life. He tried and tried to beat his older brother in a backyard basketball game and failed miserably. With that story he is a loser but underneath all those losses he is a winner in his mind because he refused to quit, he believed that if he can beat his brother he will be the best in the world! And indeed he was. Jordan was never the best player in his student years but in his mind he was, he never stopped practicing, he still shoots balls when his teammates are on the way home. When his dad calls him home from their backyard he tells his dad "just one more shot pop!". From then he has always wanted the last shot, the game winning shot, he is very confident on his shot to win the game.
Tiger Woods is just
the wrong combination of a person in his sport during his humble beginnings. He
is both black and Asian in a white dominated sport, Michael Jordan even at the
height of his fame in the 90s during offseason plays golf intensely but was
being discriminated in some golf clubs because he is black. Imagine Tiger Woods
from early in his career as a golf prodigy versus a white dominated sport there
will always be challenges but Tiger's play has inspired and motivated all sorts
of people on this planet. He never let his color be an issue with his
achievements in golf thus becoming the greatest player in the history of golf.
Wayne Gretsky the
greatest player of hockey started competing at age six with teams consisting of
10 year old players; imagine the physical disparity not to mention experience.
But as great as Wayne was it was never an issue to him, it never crossed his
mind that he can't compete with these older kids. And truth be told he just
plainly dominated them. Wayne became the best despite the fact that he didn’t
have the physical attributes needed in the game of hockey. He is too skinny for
a sport of nonstop contact and pain yet he accepted this challenge and became
the best.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
is an all-time successful athlete, celebrity, entrepreneur and politician.
During Arnold's time in the 70s the era of the hippies it was very uncommon to
go to the gym and lift weights, if you remember all the athletes during this
era and prior to this decade like M. Ali, A. Jabbar, R. Marciano, Joe Louis, W.
Chamberlain, B. Russell, Babe Ruth, Olympians and all of the other athletes
they just trained and practiced with their own sport. Arnold brought
bodybuilding as a necessity to all athletic sport there is. He brought new
limits to all athletes there is. Because of him a new age of modern super
athletes arrived, athletes became more muscular, more conditioned and more
explosive: Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Carl Lewis. Even
actors became humungous stars started to lift weights and appear bigger than
life on screen like Sly Stallone, heck even current stars like Keanu Reeves, Brad
Pitt, Mark Wahlberg go to the gym and shape themselves up for movie roles.
Back to Arnold,
before all his success and influence on the whole world he had his share of
naysayers he was told he will not be able to make it in Hollywood because of
his accent. He was told his surname is too difficult to pronounce and with that
he can't be a star and he just looks to different compared to other actors. But
in Arnold's mind he has always believed that bodybuilding is his key to success
in Hollywood, he was inspired by big figures such as rulers and leaders like
kings and religious figures such as Jesus, Hitler, Caesar etc. At some point he
knew that these figures were hated but was not stopped and he wanted to be like
that. He tried and tried, he failed and failed but he never stopped preparing
for success and when he saw his window that was it he became a movie star one
of the biggest earners in Hollywood who most of the current action stars look up
to as an inspiration. He became an entrepreneur, he became the governor of
California one of the biggest states in America. Quite an accomplishment for
someone who is not an American, correct? I thought so.
So what do this
‘greatest’ people have in common, is it their physical attributes? Jordan was
short in his varsity years before he had a growth spurt; Arnold was a skinny
teen before his bodybuilding. Wayne is skinny as well Tiger is black, is it
because they were rich heck no? It is their MIND!!! They believed their biggest
muscle is their mind. They never feared failure, they knew in order to succeed
one must fail and get up to try again. They found a way because they believed
there is always one. They never listened to naysayers saying they can't do it
instead they just used it to prove them wrong. When you are seeing no success
no improvement never dwell on your failure. There is always two sides on things
up and down, right and wrong, left and right, positive and negative. So never
dwell on the negative because the positive is just around the corner. When you
fail at something find out why and try to change it. Doing the same things over
and over expecting the same result is borderline insanity. This is how Edison
succeeded in creating the light bulb.
So go ahead and fail,
learn from it do something different and SUCCEED! No matter what the challenge
is look at things with positivity. Think outside the box. Look at things
differently. Success is around the corner because you have to realize like all
the successful people you have the same weapon they have: Your
MIND!
