Things I Learned From My Heroes
Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, through his autobiography accurately describes the beauty of sports.
“Like books, sports give people a sense of having lived other lives, of taking part in other people’s victories. And defeats.”
As someone who has watched all kinds of sports competitions (both traditional and esports) all my life, I can fully testify to this statement. I’ve felt the surge of jubilation witnessing athletes achieving triumph while shedding tears of sympathy at the same time for the opposing side. To me, sports are not just a form of entertainment. It’s my muse. My inspiration to achieve great things and learn from failures.
Our Ideal Selves
We all aspire and dream to be better. We all have this imaginary person, who’s a better version of ourselves. A happier, better looking, more talented, more successful, and more glorified version of ourselves. This image of our ideal self is not just a pure product of make-believe. It is often drawn from our heroes. Our role models. In an era where social media and influencers can dictate people’s outlook on life, it is important to choose the right role models. Some may find their parents or successful businessman as their role models. Mine are professional athletes.
After hundreds of hours of watching athletes train and compete, I took notes of the shared characteristic and lessons from the successful athletes in the history of sports, and I will try to share them. May this piece of note act as a reminder to myself and whoever’s reading this whenever we are feeling lost in our journey to glory.
1. Just do it
In my home country, Indonesia, the word privilege often gets thrown into conversations when it comes to achieving success. It’s a term used by millennials to explain why some people could succeed and why we would never be able to. Jeff Bezos has rich parents is one of the most frequently mentioned explanations. While I see it as a mere excuse, perhaps there’s some truth in it. Some people are in fact born and nurtured in a better environment. But it won’t always determine the outcome of your future.
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” — Muhammad Ali
Many professional athletes have succeeded despite their financial predicament, some even fought their way through social prejudice. Jackie Robinson did not become the first African-American to ever play in Major League Baseball by making excuses. He got there by mental strength overcoming racial discrimination toward people of his color.
Professional athletes are the epitome of underdog stories. Tales of people who, like most of us, face the harsh struggles of life and fought their way to be the best version of themselves. There’s a reason why people held The Mighty Ducks movie dearly. We love underdog stories.
“There may be people that have more talent than you, but there’s no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do.” — Derek Jeter
2. Winning isn’t everything. Wanting to win is.
Let me get this straight. If you have not watched Michael Jordan’s The Last Dance documentary, you are missing out. MJ is not just an athlete. He is a form of superlative. As President Barrack Obama said before granting Michael Jordan the Presidential Medal of Freedom, MJ’s name is used to describe someone who is the best at something. If someone calls you the Michael Jordan of something, it means you are the best at what you do regardless of your field.
It’s no coincidence that Jordan is one of the first globally famous athlete. He achieved all that fame and success by being a serial winner, and above all, a competitive beast. He never wants to lose. Being a winner doesn’t mean that you win every game, or succeed on every try. It’s about your desire to take things seriously and make sure you have the best odds to win. It’s about hating the feeling of losing. In order to win, you have to always work hard and try to improve yourself.
I may not have the chance to win in a competition the same way MJ did, but the competitive mindset starts from the small little things in life. I play competitive online video games almost every night, and often I get called out by my friends for being salty whenever we lose or we don’t try hard enough to win. In my defense, if I were to take 2–3 hours of my day each day doing something I enjoy, I might as well try to improve and be good at it. Although my friends don’t see it, this is something I try to apply in other aspects of my life.
“I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” — Michael Jordan
3. Be relentlessly resilient
Some people are just naturally more talented than us at some things. But it doesn’t automatically make them winners, because winners work hard to improve. Just ask any athletes out there on how to make it as a professional. I guarantee all of them would have mentioned the words ‘work hard’ within the first two sentences.
One of my sporting heroes, the late Kobe Bryant, shot 4 airballs in 5 minutes in an elimination playoff match in Utah. For all the non-basketball fans out there, an airball is basically when you miss the target by so much that the ball doesn’t even hit any part of the ring or the net. It is by far the most humbling individual experience a basketball player can have.
The first thing Kobe does as soon as his plane landed in LA, is to hop on his car and drive to a local gym and work on his shots until the sun came up. He doesn’t care about the pain and shame he gets for costing his team the game. He cares about not giving up and working harder. Later on in his career, he famously said that he’d prefer to go 0–30 rather than 0–9 in terms of shooting percentage. When you try to achieve something 9 times and failed 9 times, most people would’ve stopped trying. Not Kobe. He sees stopping at 0–9 as a sign of loss in confidence. He’s brave enough to continue trying no matter how many failures he’s had or how tired he is.
“Pain doesn’t tell you when you ought to stop. Pain is the little voice in your head that tries to hold you back because it knows if you continue you will change.” — Kobe Bryant
4. There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance. Find it
When asked about who he thinks the best player in the history of football is, Cristiano Ronaldo quickly answered “Me”. Some may call it arrogance, but some will see it as a sign of self-belief. In order to achieve something, you must first believe that you are capable of doing it.
“If my mind can conceive it, and my heart can believe it — then I can achieve it.” — Muhammad Ali
We are all born with specific sets of talent that only we can see. Imagine those talents combined with hours of hard work and still ending up believing that it will not be enough to accomplish what you want.
It is true that confidence can be gained from external entities, but it is not as strong and consistent as innate confidence.
“Once you give them the power to tell you you’re great, you’ve also given them the power to tell you you’re unworthy.”- Rhonda Rousey
At the end of the day, you can’t convince anyone if you are not confident and don’t even believe in yourself. It’s like coming to a job interview saying that you are underqualified and expect to get hired.
You know yourself better than literally anyone else in the world. Know your talents, know your worth, know your areas of weakness needing improvements, and believe in yourself.
Conclusion
To conclude, I would like to say thank you to a list of my sporting heroes that have inspired me over the years through their characters and career achievements.
To Tony Hawk
Thank you for your legendary attempt(s) in landing the 900° spin. I saw the desire, passion, and focus in your eyes. In fact, I felt it.
To Sir Alex Ferguson
Thank you for 1999. Thank you for showing me that you can always turn things around no matter the odds.
To Kobe Bryant
Thank you for showing me that the number 24 is not just a number on your jersey, but the number of hours you put in a day that you have to devote to be the best.
