OBSESSION BEATS TALENT - Michael Jordan Motivational Speech (The Mindset Of Winner)

Michael Jordan tells me one day he wants to be the best player to ever play here. And I said, well, you got to work harder than you did in high school. I worked as hard as everybody else. I said, oh, excuse me. I thought you just told me you want to be the best player to ever play here. He said, I'm going to show you nobody will ever work as hard as I work. Michael Jordan is not only the best basketball player, but he's the most exciting basketball player to ever play. We only dream about doing things that he can do. Play professional basketball for the Chicago Bulls. How to trace my evolution? With Michael Jordan evolution, it always had to start back in college. Hitting the shot against Georgetown in 1982 when I really didn't know exactly what I was doing. It awakened a person inside of me to excel, to compete to excel, to be one of the best or be the best. That drove me. And I guess with that shot, it kind of ignited a fire inside of me that nothing was going to stop. My biggest motivation in life, you know, is to, to, to compete, you know, find different competitions and certain things in life and, and, and try to overcome that, you know, be it positive or negative. But, uh, I have yet to meet someone who is as competitive as me. 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. He was 97 when he was in Minnesota and flip that switched and put me on Michael Jordan. One of the greatest probably ever touched a ball. And I counted his dribbles. I was able to catch his, his dribbles. You know, I count the dribbles one, two, come across. When I blinked, he was gone. I turned around. He was dunking a ball, giving somebody dap and halfway down the court that fast. That's what I knew. Michael Jordan wasn't here. When you step on the floor, it doesn't matter how many times you've done it before. All that matters is that you do it now. Be true to the game because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game's going to shortcut you. You can put forth the good thing to be bestowed upon you. That's truly about the game. And in some ways that's about life too. For me, losing just is the worst feeling in life at anything, whether it's cars, golf, basketball, whatever it is. I hate losing. I mean, it's not even a question, but I mean, I have to respect losing because losing is a part of winning. And you never would just win. You got to lose to win losing. It's going to hurt, you know, to a point where you would look at how can I do things different? How can I change? How can I make this team better? And that's, that's the thing about a team. And you know, this too, is that before you can look at someone else, you got to look at yourself in the mirror because that's how things get started and you got to be willing to change. You are without question, one of the most gifted players I've ever seen. What makes you different from other people? Once again, it falls back to my parents in terms of how I approach the situation. You know, I never feel that I'm at my best. I feel I still have room to improve. I still set goals for myself to strive for. I'm never complacent with what I've achieved. Even though it's been very successful for me, I still feel I have a lot to prove, not just as a player, but as a person, as a father, to some extent or as a role model in all aspects. So I'm never really too complacent with myself or with what I've achieved. When I get to a point where I feel I can improve as a player, I walk away from the game. I still feel that I have a plateau that, you know, I hadn't reached yet in terms of my skills or my, my expectations of myself. You know, I'm always going to expect myself to do certain things or surpass certain things. As long as I believe that, then, you know, my road to success is going to continue to expand. Like, I don't have to do this. I'm only doing it because it is who I am. That's how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don't want to play that way, don't play that way. Maybe it's my fault. Maybe I led you to believe it was easy when it wasn't. Maybe I made you think my highlights started at the free throw line and not in the gym. Maybe I made you think that every shot I took was a game winner. That my game was built on flash and not fire. Maybe it's my fault that you didn't see that failure gave me strength. That my pain was my motivation. Maybe I led you to believe that basketball was a God-given gift and not something I worked for every single day of my life. Maybe I destroyed the game. Or maybe you're just making excuses.