“I failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed”

There is always an argument in my family about who is the G.O.A.T. of basketball.  If you live under a rock, G.O.A.T. means Greatest Of All Time. In other words, who is the best basketball player ever.  My husband, being Gen X, says that Michael Jordan gets the title.  My nephew, who is Gen Z, says Lebron James.  Joe and Josh will argue facts, statistics, emotions, and loyalty to the death.  I love these types of arguments.  No one gets mad and each knows they will NEVER change the mind of the other.  Very healthy.

Being Gen X myself, I’m on the side of Michael Jordan (MJ).  Now, I’m not going to take your time telling you about how great he was.  I doubt you would find anyone, including Josh, tell you otherwise.  He was just very good.  

What I am going to talk about is how much of a failure he was.

Yup, MJ failed often in his life.  But let me give you some background.

First, I am going to give you some facts for comparison of how good he was.  His team won 6 Championships, with him being the MVP (Most Valuable Player) 5 times in his career.  His biggest endorsement was with Nike, in which he changed how professionals are paid by endorsements (great 2023 movie about this is called Air.  I highly recommend it).  Nike first developed his Air Jordan shoe in 1984 and it is still one of the most popular gym shoes. MJ has made over $1 Billion from that Nike endorsement and still makes over $150 million every year to this day!  He retired from basketball in 2003.

Michael Jordan is not a humble man.  How could he with just the basic stats I just gave you?  But during the height of his career (1997) he made a Nike commercial.  It contained less than 45 words, but each one was powerful.  It didn’t talk about his Championships, his Olympic Gold Medals, or the money he was making.  

It talked about his failures.

“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 failed over and over and over again in my life 

and that is why I succeed”

Wait!  Why would the G.O.A.T. (in my opinion) make a commercial about how much he has failed?

Because of the last 2 lines of the commercial and the title of this blog.

Read them again.

He was successful because of two things.  He kept trying and he learned from his mistakes.  

Do you know he tried out for the varsity team as a sophomore in high school and didn’t make it?  Did he quit, made excuses like “the coach doesn’t like me”?  Nope.  He practiced, played junior varsity, and got better and better.  That was who he was.  He made varsity the next year.

He kept trying and he learned from his mistakes.  

Did you also know he tried out for professional baseball after his first retirement from basketball??  He wasn’t very good but he was athletic.  He made it to the minor leagues but never to the major league.  His batting average was between .200-.250.  That means every 10 times he was up at bat, he hit the ball maybe 2-3 times.  20-30%.  Wow, in life that sucks but for baseball it is not too bad.  He did it for one year in the minor leagues.  He followed his dream to play baseball because he was not afraid of failing.  Being a huge figure in the sports world, with all these accolades, and he still wasn’t afraid to fail on the big, public stage.  Pretty impressive.  He probably would have stuck with baseball but there was going to be a players strike and he didn’t want to be a replacement player.

So what am I trying to say?

This is a big man.  His whole life has been public.  He fails every day, sometimes on a grand scale.  But he keeps trying and learns from his mistakes.

What are you afraid to do because you might fail?

In the next 3 weeks, I am going to keep talking about failure.  When we are done, I want to have a fire lit under your ass.  I want you to go do something that you will probably fail at.  So what?  What do you have to lose?

Nike commercial of Michael Jordan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA7G7AV-LT8 

Blog Website: https://www.lifelessonsfrommemaw.com/  

Email: LifeLessonsFromMemaw@gmail.com