Learning is at the core of what I’ve been passionate about over the years, whether it’s on the basketball court or in the business world. Funny how many of my lessons come down to hard work and never giving up.
I try to learn something every day. It could be something small or it could be a big life lesson. Sometimes my lessons come from reading and sometimes from listening to a good speaker. Other lessons occur more harshly, and I fail. Sometimes I get a second chance. Many times I don’t.
Losing is part of winning
Playing basketball at a high level prepared me for many of the lessons that I have learned off the court. I learned that losing is part of winning, and I believed that I couldn’t win if I hadn’t lost. I have learned more from losing than I have from winning, and that brutal criticism in practice was better than the harsh reality of a loss.
To lose was not paralyzing. It was a call to action to execute better, to prepare in greater detail, to understand the competition more thoroughly and exploit their weaknesses and our strengths.
Keeping your eye on the ball
I eagerly ran thousands of suicides and made tens of thousands of shots. I spent hours alone in the gym when my friends and classmates had long since gone out on a Friday or Saturday night. I played out scenarios in my mind, situations like 5 seconds left, down by 1, Knowlton takes the shot – nothing but net.
I learned that I was comfortable alone, working while others played and relaxed. I saw the bigger picture of greater success down the road, but I also enjoyed the process of practice and hard work. I learned that I didn’t need immediate gratification or approval from anyone for what I did or the choices that I made. While others may have suffered through the angst of growing up, I had focus and happiness from my choices because of basketball.
Riding the pine
I learned about envy and jealousy, too. People who saw only the results of my hard work and struggles were sometimes dismissive and excluded me from their fun. I knew that I was being excluded and I learned to deal with not being in the popular crowd. While intellectually I understood their behavior, it took me time to get beyond it. I felt the sting of hurtful comments that stemmed from jealousy.
I learned about disappointment and not measuring up. Going from being the leading scorer in Canadian intercollegiate basketball to riding the pine and then not making the Canadian basketball team were both bitter disappointments. I learned that there were interesting things to do beyond basketball, and in hindsight moving beyond basketball earlier rather than later was good for me.
Developing character
Years on from my own intense basketball days, I had better perspective on my experiences. I learned that there were many others who had made similar choices to work hard to excel at their sport. I learned that their experiences of being alone in practice and fighting back from losses brought out the best in their characters and made them the people that they became.
One of the best quotes that I ever read came from James Lofton at the time of his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. When asked about his secrets of success, he answered this way: “One trick is to work harder than the other guy. The second trick, always hustle. Third trick, study and know what you’re doing. Fourth trick, always be prepared. Fifth, never give up. Those are my tricks.”
I couldn’t have said it better.
