The Secret to Success

Congratulations on getting through another week! We did it together. We’ll do it again.

The airing of “The Last Dance,” a documentary about the life of Michael Jordan and his career with The Chicago Bulls, came two months earlier than planned at a time when the nation needed it the most. What was it about Michael Jordan that made him so successful and so far apart from the rest? Why was this documentary so well received and so widely discussed so many years after his retirement?

Jordan was driven with a competitiveness and desire to win through positive thinking of which few are capable. When he was cut from his high school basketball team, his mother did not call the school, she told him to work harder. He turned the negative into a positive motivator that pushed him to become the best. 

In his second year as a professional, he broke his foot and upon considering returning was told there was a 10% chance he would reinjure the foot and end his career. He did not want to be held back… he was incapable of considering the negative minority 10%. It did not make sense to him to sit when he could help the team make the playoffs. What strikes me above all his talents is his positive and forward thinking as well as unrelenting drive to win no matter the cost. He believed you always play to win and give 100%.

He knew he could not do it alone. He led by example, not asking one man to do anything he would not do himself, and he drew the best out of everyone. Positive outlook, desire to win no matter the situation, leadership by example, and a warm, globally transcendent charisma are what made this man successful. His stage was the arena and his product was showcased in the arena alone in a time before social media. 

We live in a trying time. Not only are we united by the pandemic, but we are divided on how to defeat it. Not only are we still haunted by America’s original sin of racism, we are divided in that there are still people out there committing heinous acts such as the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arberry. 

These times require leaders, and inspiring figures such as Michael Jordan. That is the beauty of sports… they are a microcosm of life. Leadership, performance, triumph, and defeat are all at stake and played out in a short time period that we can all grab a hold of and see clearly. We need these qualities now more than ever and deserve leaders who try to live up to them. Bad things happen, but these negatives must become opportunities to improve. That was the secret to Michael Jordan’s success, constantly turning every last thing into a positive… hope for the future rather than fear of the past.