How Bad do You Really Want to Succeed in Life?

by Doug Firebaugh

How bad do you really want to succeed in life? A little? A lot? Are you willing to fight for it?

Let the fighting spirit in you refuse to give up. He did. He came home, slammed the books down on the table, ran upstairs, slammed the door and broke down and cried. It was his 10th grade year. His mother came in, and said, "Son, what's wrong?" Through a 15-year-old's broken heart, he said, "I didn't make the team … they said I was too small."

With incredible wisdom, the mother said, "Son, it's not the size of the person in the game, it's the size of the game in the person."

It clicked. The next morning, he got up at 4:30 AM and started practicing-every morning, every evening, every day, every week, every month, relentless, nonstop. He gave up movies and things that he did before.

He kept saying, "It's not the size of the player in the game, but the size of the game in the player." And when the season came around again, he tried out with a focus so strong that it intimidated even the coach. And he made the team. The next year he made the team. And he went on to explode.

His name? Michael Jordan.