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Sunday, a sixth round draft pick, the
199th player taken in the 2000 NFL
draft played in his seventh Super Bowl.
He has won five.
He has won over 200 NFL games.
More than one win for every player chosen before him in that draft.
He was MVP for the fourth time in the most intense sporting event in American sports.
He did not receive a plethora of offers out of high school.
The main way he attracted attention from college recruiters was from a highlight video his father made and sent out to 54 schools.
This year, maybe his best year, while he trained and prepared…
his efforts have been effected by knowing his mother has been undergoing chemotherapy and fighting a great battle herself.
Emotion has added additional fuel to Tom Brady’s fire.
Follow me.
In 1958,
Johnny and The Moondogs changed their name.
After playing in a cellar at lunchtime dates, they traveled to Germany to play. Upon hearing their single,
“My Bonnie” and realizing they were not a German band their new agent brought them back to Britain.
After going through two drummers and another couple of other guitarists, they settled on a name and The Beatles became popular in England before conquering America in February, 1964.
No band….NO BAND… has ever had the initial impact or lasting influence as they have had over the past 50 years.
Follow me, please.
Six NBA titles.
Six Finals MVPs.
5 seasonal MVPs.
10 time scoring champion.
The universally accepted position as the G. O. A. T.
The first athlete to achieve billionaire financial status.
The first athlete to be given a brand and legitimate equity in a sneaker company and propel the sneaker industry into financial legitimacy.
He was cut from his high school basketball varsity as a sophomore.
His father was murdered in a car at a roadside rest stop..
He was labeled a ball hog and a team killer in his early professional career.
His rivals teamed up to frustrate any progress toward a title for the first six years of his professional life.
The JORDAN RULES was the effort to knock him down and blanket him on the court.
Those RULES eventually drove him to the weight room, an everyday training regime …. and unmatched, successful fury.
These are three examples of undeniable GREATNESS.
These are examples that reveal there is always a backstory to Greatness.
Those successes that appear to come easy… as it did for Michael Jordan…as it does for Tom Brady… as it seemed for The Beatles…
only appear that way.
Things are not always as they appear.
Hard to equal “hard work” has been
exercised by these three examples.
Malcolm Gladwell says we become great at something after doing it 10, 000 times.
That might be right.
Ask Brady.
Ask MJ.
Ask the ones who have learned from them.
Kobe Bryant, a disciple of Jordan’s,
ended his career with 5 titles and is the 3rd all-time leading scorer, passing Jordan.
He was known for having the best fundamentals and most efficient footwork in the NBA.
He was also known as the player who out worked everyone else. … for twenty years.
Research Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Glenn Cunningham, Billy Graham.
There is always a backstory to greatness.
If you have achieved an accelerated level of success …
you have a backstory.
My encouragement is to be open to sharing it.
Frustration will grow in those around you who try to emulate your results if they do not understand the effort, sacrifice, and dedicated work which you engaged in to arrive at the point of success you now enjoying.
Share your backstory.
Because of that pyramid of work and extended effort you built… pride should not keep you from
allowing those following you to hear and learn that you did not sail easily to this point.
Easy sailing may occur now…
it never would have if not for your
earlier dedication and commitment.
And it will not last for long,
if you fail to continue that exercise of effort you built your success on.
Brady is probably beginning his workout regime tomorrow…
for next season.
I bet he is ALREADY into it.
If you are young and just beginning…
you might not develop patience if you are continually hungry for success… but know that a backstory takes time to develop.
Do not think with the initial taste of
success that it is accomplished.
None of these examples were satisfied with one title, one victory, one gold record, or one award…
that one accomplishment made them want more.
It’s why Saban has a 24 hour rule.
Enjoy this victory
or hurt in this loss….
for 24 hours.
Then begin the work again.
Brady woke up early this morning thinking ahead.
He is working on his next title …
by working diligently on the body gifted to him and on the developed craft that got him to that very visible stage he stood on last Sunday night.
He will most likely be there again.
His backstory will get him there.
Terry Bethea 