Michael Jordan on the Pursuit of Excellence

Goals:

I visualized where I wanted to be, what kind of player I wanted to become. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.

Fears:

I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot. Why? Because when you think about the consequences you always think of a negative result. Some people get frozen by that fear of failure. They get it from peers or from just thinking about the possibility of a negative result. They might be afraid of looking bad or being embarrassed. I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it. I don't believe you can achieve anything by being passive. I'm not thinking about anything except what I'm trying to accomplish. Any fear is an illusion. You think something is standing in your way, but nothing is really there. What is there is an opportunity to do your best and gain some success. If it turns out that my best isn't good enough, then at least I'll never be able to look back and say I was too afraid to try. Failure always made me try harder the next time. That's why my advice has always been to "think positive" and find fuel in any failure. Sometimes failure actually just gets you closer to where you want to be. The greatest inventions in the world had hundreds of failures before the answers were found. I think fear sometimes comes from lack of focus or concentration. If I had stood at the free throw line and thought about 10 million people watching on the other side of the camera lens, I couldn't have made anything. So I mentally tried to put myself in a familiar place. I thought about all those times I shot free throws in practice and went through the same motion, the same technique that I had used thousands of times. You forgot about the outcome. You know you are doing the right things. So you relax and perform. After that you can't control anything anyway. It's out of your hands, so don't worry about it.

Commitment:

I approach practices the same way I approached games. You can't turn it on and off like a faucet. I couldn't dog it during practice and then, when I needed that extra push late in the game, expect it to be there. But that's how a lot of people approach things. And that's why a lot of people fail. They sound like they're committed to being the best they can be. They say all the right things, make all the proper appearances. But when it comes right down to it, they're looking for reasons instead of answers. If you're trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I've had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. My sophomore season turned out to be my best season in college. Because of that, there were all kinds of expectations during my junior year. What I tried to do is come out and live up to those expectations. I was trying to live up to everyone else's expectations for me instead of following my own road.

Teamwork

When we started winning championships, there was an understanding among all twelve players about what are roles were. It's a selfless process, and in our society sometimes it's hard to come to grips with filling a role instead of trying to be a superstar. There is tendency to ignore or fail to respect all the parts that make the whole thing possible. One thing that I believe to the fullest, is that if you think and achieve as a team, the individual accolades will take care of themselves. I'd rather have five guys with less talent who are willing to come together as a team than five guys who consider themselves stars and aren't willing to sacrifice. Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.

Fundamentals:

Fundamentals were the most crucial part of my game in the NBA. Everything I did, everything I achieved, can be traced back to the way I approached the fundamentals and how I applied them to my abilities. They really are the basic building blocks or principles that make everything work. I don't care what you're doing or what you're trying to accomplish; you can't skip fundamentals if you want to be the best. Some guys don't want to deal with that. They're looking for instant gratification, so maybe they skip a few steps. Maybe they don't practice ball handling because they don't handle the ball that much. Maybe they don't develop proper shooting techniques because they rely on their size to score. You can get away with it through the early stages, but it's going to catch up with you eventually. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.