My physicist friend stole a quote from a famous NBA basketball player he didn’t even know, and the message was powerful.
While Scrolling My Facebook Feed
I was scrolling through Facebook when I saw the above picture. It was uncommon because it was posted by a friend who has a Ph.D. in Astrophysics (specializing in gravity).
Knowing that he’s a nerdy type, I know he didn’t care about basketball, but the message struck a chord on him. He posted the article and struck and resonated with me too (I cropped the Facebook post of his in the picture above).
By now, you probably heard or read that the favored Bucks, seeded number 1 in the NBA playoffs, was sent home early in the first round by the 8th seed Miami Heat (I like the Miami Heat because I live in Florida).
The Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, was asked by some reporter, how the team deal with the ‘failure’ of not reaching the finals or even moving on to the second round.
Yannis asked the reporter back, “Jordan played for 15 years in the NBA, made 6 championships rings, was the 9 years not reaching the finals a failure?”
It’s not Failure, it’s steps to success.
My friend got his Ph.D. from the University of Florida, and I was a graduate student too at that time. I remember him working so hard, that when he finished writing his dissertation, he would not even leave the hard copy in his car.
We were celebrating, or having a dinner at that time, and he said, I’m bringing the dissertation copy to the table dinner.
I remember her girlfriend now wife, telling us that he would solve a problem for 2–3 weeks and then realize where his mistake was.
For me, solving a math problem for 2 weeks is insane, but it was part of his life. Finding failure after 3 weeks and still shoulder on shows his character.
It reminded me of the book “Grit” by Angela Duckworth.
What it means to me, you and my kid who plays basketball
As you may know, if you been following this blog, my kid plays basketball. I always preach to him, if you missed the shot, take another shot. He is bothered by the ‘failure’ of not making the shot in the first place that he just swings the ball instead of attempting another.
Today, I’m reminded by what Giannis is preaching. I am losing my job. The laboratory where I worked is closing in 3 months. There was a prospect of a new job, but I didn’t get it.
One of my co-workers got the job, and I felt like a failure. But I reminded myself that failure is not a noun, like a person. What happen is just a steppingstone.
I have an online business too. And one of the powerful messages that I got from my mentor before was that ‘failure’ hurts. The technical term for the feeling of failure is “it sucks”. But you need it. We need. It only means that you are not ready yet.
And that’s the powerful message, you are not ready yet, it’s just a steppingstone. Rejection and ‘failure’ is preparing you for success.
From the Book Grit
The book ‘Grit’ by Angela Duckworth came into my mind when Yannis’ comments went viral, and these are the famous quotes from the book that were related to Yannis’ comments.
- “Grit grows as we figure out our life philosophy, learn to dust ourselves off after rejection and disappointment, and learn to tell the difference between low-level goals that should be abandoned quickly and higher-level goals that demand more tenacity.”
- “Effort is one of the things that gives meaning to life. Effort means you care about something, that something is important to you and you are willing to work for it.”
- “Without effort, your talent is nothing more than your unmet potential. Without effort, your skill is nothing more than what you could have done but didn’t.”
- “To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice.”
- “Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare.”
- “The most dazzling human achievements are, in fact, the aggregate of countless individual elements, each of which is, in a sense, ordinary.”
- “Our potential is one thing. What we do with it is quite another.”
- “People who have grit also have what psychologists call an ‘ultimate concern’ — a goal or purpose that transcends self-interest and includes an altruistic element.”
- “Talent x effort = skill. Skill x effort = achievement.”
- “Grit isn’t about never quitting. It’s about having the courage and resolve to keep going despite failures and setbacks.”
