How Larry Bird Became Larry Bird

In 1979, Hall of Fame standout Larry Bird first broke into the NBA, the beginning of a long and spectacular career with the Boston Celtics.  Larry had a practice regimen that he faithfully observed throughout his career.  He would arrive at the venue at least two hours before game time and, with the help of a ball boy, shoot baskets.  Over and over.  Before every single game.  Larry said that through hard work and self-discipline, he was able to go farther in his career than other guys who had better natural gifts but didn’t work hard developing their talents.  Though Bird was tall (6’9”), he couldn’t run or jump well.  But he could outshoot and outthink his opponents.  This he did time and time again.

We all come into life with certain aptitudes, advantages and challenges.  What we do with what we’ve been given determine the kinds of lives we make for ourselves.  Quality and success in life do not come automatically.  You may have superior intelligence, even brilliance.  But if you neglect the hard work of study, learning, practice and productivity, your potential will remain unfulfilled.  That doctor, attorney, theologian, financial analyst, software engineer, or Grammy Award-winning musician inside you does not emerge automatically.

Some years ago a friend of mine was working on his Ph.D in Leadership Studies.  When asked what types of students earn their doctorates (versus those who don’t), he remarked, “The Einsteins wash out.” Why? “Because you can’t outsmart the work.”  That was the secret of Thomas Edison’s genius.  “It’s plain hard work that does it.”  I especially am keeping this in mind as I’m going back to graduate school in January to finish my Master’s degree.

Similarly, you may have come into life with health problems in your family tree.  Those challenges do not have to define or limit your life.  You may have obesity, heart disease or high blood pressure in your family line but their effects are not necessarily inevitable.  Again, it takes work—the hard but fruitful work of exercising, eating carefully, avoiding unhealthy behaviors and stuff.

Life is what we make it.  It’s a canvas to paint on.  Like Larry Bird, with hard work and self-discipline, we can take modest giftings, even disadvantages and turn them into a Hall of Fame life.

Image Credit

Recovering Your Heart

It’s your thirtieth birthday.  You have a successful career as a marketing executive in the San Francisco Bay area.  You wake up strangely unexcited.  You have lunch with your wife whom you adore.  Later, you and your wife gather with friends in a local bar for dinner and drinks, in celebration of your big day.

The evening wears on and your wife decides to go home and turn in.  You elect to stay with your friends.  As you mingle, an attractive woman begins making overtures, coming on to you.  Her message is clear.

What do you do?

You excuse yourself to go to the bathroom, located towards the back of the bar.  You find a rear exit and leave.  Without any goodbyes.  You walk home, to the house occupied by the wife you adore, now sleeping.

Something needs to be worked out of you.  Thirty is a watershed.  You should be happy but aren’t.  You need to clear your head.

What do you do?

You strip down to your skivvies and t-shirt, find an old pair of running shoes in the garage and put them on.  You let your wife sleep.  Clad only in your underwear, shirt, socks and sneakers, you begin running.

You haven’t run in fifteen years.  You gave it up when an arrogant track and field coach laughed at you.  You were, after all, a cross-country guy who ran with heart and had served another coach with heart.  But he retired.

You run thirty miles without stopping except to grab burritos and a Coke and press on.  People think you’re crazy.  And you probably are.

That night is a rebirth for you.

That’s what you do if you’re Dean Karnazes.

Read his book Ultramarathon Man: Confessions Of An All-Night Runner.  The whole story and much more is there.  You won’t regret it.  You may even begin to think about what really matters in life.  It ain’t prestige, position or the other trappings of Yuppiedom.

Dean got his heart back that night and hasn’t stopped running.  That was almost twenty years ago.

What will it take to get your heart back?

Image Credit

“To An Athlete Dying Young”

“A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest.  I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.” (Steve Prefontaine)

The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by,
And home we brought you shoulder-high.

To-day, the road all runners come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home,
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.

Smart lad, to slip betimes away
From fields were glory does not stay
And early though the laurel grows
It withers quicker than the rose.

Eyes the shady night has shut
Cannot see the record cut,
And silence sounds no worse than cheers
After earth has stopped the ears:

Now you will not swell the rout
Of lads that wore their honours out,
Runners whom renown outran
And the name died before the man.

So set, before its echoes fade,
The fleet foot on the sill of shade,
And hold to the low lintel up
The still-defended challenge-cup.

And round that early-laurelled head
Will flock to gaze the strengthless dead,
And find unwithered on its curls
The garland briefer than a girl’s.

–A. E. Housman

In tribute to running great, Steve Prefontaine (1951-75), who died much too young.

Image Credit

Magic and “Can’t”

“I never think that there’s something I can’t do, whether it’s beating my opponent one on one or practicing another hour because something about my game is just not right.”

–Earvin “Magic” Johnson

Image Credit

“I Can’t Accept Not Trying”

“If you’re trying to achieve, there will be roadblocks. I’ve had them; everybody has had them. But obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” (Michael Jordan)

This man led his team to numerous NBA championships.

This man, when breaking into professional baseball–his second sport–arrived earlier and stayed later than anyone else.

This man would not dream of blowing off a team workout with the pathetic excuse “it’s just practice.”

This man wrote a book entitled I Can’t Accept Not Trying (fittingly subtitled Michael Jordan On The Pursuit of Excellence).

There’s a reason why the Michael Jordans of this world are so rare.  Will you take the challenge and lead your team–whatever your team is–to a much higher place with your excellence and toil?

Image Credit

SB 46: Prediction

Okay, here goes:  New York Giants tonight by two touchdowns (I live in New York).  The game will be hard fought.  Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski and the Patriot offensive line are formidable.  Gronkowski will need plenty of cortisone for a bad ankle.  But the game will be one to remember.

The commercials will be even better.

Time with friends is the highlight for all watching.  And halftime with Madonna will be interesting to say the least.

My wife predicts the team with the coolest uniforms and best colored cleats will win.  Gotta love this girl!

Enjoy the game.  If you party a little too hearty, be responsible and have a designated driver or call a cab.  Be safe.

Now for the game.

Image Credit

The Larry Bird Effect

In 1979, Hall of Fame standout Larry Bird first broke into the NBA, the beginning of a long and spectacular career with the Boston Celtics.  Larry had a practice regimen that he faithfully observed throughout his career.  He would arrive at the venue at least two hours before game time and, with the help of a ball boy, shoot baskets.  Over and over.  Before every single game.  Larry said that through hard work and self-discipline, he was able to go farther in his career than other guys who had better natural gifts but didn’t work hard developing their talents.  Though Bird was tall (6’9”), he couldn’t run or jump well.  But he could outshoot and outthink his opponents.  This he did time and time again.

We all come into life with certain aptitudes, advantages and challenges.  What we do with what we’ve been given determine the kinds of lives we make for ourselves.  Quality and success in life do not come automatically.  You may have superior intelligence, even brilliance.  But if you neglect the hard work of study, learning, practice and productivity, your potential will remain unfulfilled.  That doctor, attorney, financial analyst, software engineer, or Grammy Award winning musician inside you does not emerge automatically.

Some years ago a friend of mine was working on his Ph.D (in education).  When asked what types of students earn their doctorates (versus those who don’t), he remarked, “The Einsteins wash out.” Why? “Because you can’t outsmart the work.”  That was the secret of Thomas Edison’s genius.  “It’s plain hard work that does it.”

Similarly, you may have come into life with health problems in your family tree.  Those challenges do not have to define or limit your life.  You may have obesity, heart disease or high blood pressure in your family line but their effects are not necessarily inevitable.  Again, it takes work—the hard but fruitful work of exercising, eating carefully, avoiding unhealthy behaviors and stuff.

Life is what we make it.  It’s a canvas to paint on.  Like Larry Bird, with hard work and self-discipline, we can take modest giftings, even disadvantages and turn them into a Hall of Fame life.