Source: Stibel, Jeff. “Michael Jordan: A Profile in Failure”
Notes about Michael Jordan
- Didn’t make his high school football team when he was a sophomore at Laney High
School (in 1978).
-Was asked to play on the junior varsity team instead. He thought this was the ultimate
defeat, the ultimate failure.
- “I went to my room and I closed the door and I cried. For a while I couldn’t stop.”
Jordan thought about quitting basketball, but his mom convinced him not to.
- He used that failure and disappointment to force him to be better. He played on the
junior varsity team, and he worked himself to the limit. “Whenever I was working out and
got tired and figured I ought to stop, I’d close my eyes and see that list in the locker
room without my name on it, and that usually got me going again.”
-He once said, "I've missed more than 9000 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've failed
over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."
-Went on to play b-ball for the University of North Carolina
-Had a successful career with the Chicago Bulls (in NBA). This included being a six-time
NBA champion and being awarded NBA MVP five times.