MJ…Who is that…?
The other day our family was out to dinner and we were discussing our oldest son’s new soccer team (Infinity Soccer). This is our families first experience with competitive sports, though my wife played sports, I was more of a skateboarding and snowboarding hooligan. Needless to say, we have been having lots of conversations about what it means to play sports and to commit to being good at something. As many parents can relate it is a difficult balance between pushing too hard and being a supportive parent…we are still searching for the balance. During the conversation about practicing and working hard, I used the example of M.J., and no I do not mean the nose-less wonder who died recently. I am talking about Michael Jordan, one of the greatest basketball players of all time.
The part that made me smile was though I did not expect my eight year old son to completely understand MJ’s historical significance, I thought he might know- “he was a good B-ball player”. Well you might imagine, he had no idea who I was talking about, his exact response was,
“Who is that?”
What! Who is that? You have to be kidding! EVERYONE should know who Jordan is…and WAS! But alas, it was no use…
As I thought about this situation later, it made me think of what an impact great figures like Michael can have on a generation. And how in some ways it seems we are loosing touch with the stories of successful people and replacing them with these unrealistic examples of what success looks like. You see it everyday, someone who makes a meteoric rise to fame, based on some twist of fate or stroke of good luck. It happens in sports, entertainment, and business, so many examples it has a tendency to skew our thinking of what success means.
I will be quite honest, I have fallen victim to this same over simplification of success. Maybe it was the statements I often heard growing up like, it takes money to make money, and many other similar statements in that vein. Though each of these statements is based on some thread of truth, it does not completely illustrate the full picture. I knew about guys like Edison, Ford, etc. men who built empires with dedication and hard work, who focused on “perspiration” and not so directly “inspiration”. But somehow I missed the key lesson and believed was more of an event, a sort of spark. I some how had a vision of success directly following that moment of inspiration where the light bulb went off. I have spent the better part of my adult life searching for that idea, the idea that would catapult me to the success that I knew was my destiny. Base on the fact that I am writing this post tells you that there is a bit more to that story. But I will save that for another time.
Learning about successful people can help us understand our own path more completely, assuming that we choose the right examples. We need to follow people that understand that success is non-linear, that it does take the help of others and that when it comes right down to it nothing is guaranteed! And most importantly, there is no other answer but to Persevere. Till…Success.
Here are a few videos to help us understand/remember Jordan and how each of us can better approach our own personal success journey.
I hope you enjoyed these videos as much as I did and that you check back over the upcoming weeks as I begin share more of my experiences and thoughts breaking down what I have found to be many myths of success. Do not forget to share your thoughts and experience, you never know who your comments might help.
-DMS
