Don’t Be like Mike. Be like Elon Musk.
Ask yourself, what’s helped you more: Competing against other talented people — or cooperating with them?
I hated swimming, but I found solace in the competition. Because I was born without the head of my femur, something called Perthes Disease, I began swimming before I could walk. It started as rehabilitation and soon morphed into an obsession.
Swimming sucked. I hated staring at the black line on the bottom of the pool for hours. The freezing winter mornings and cold water still give me shivers. And worst of all, having to wake up at 4.30 am is inhumane for a teenager. And yet, I loved the competition.
One millisecond too slow and you don’t make it. One half-baked training session and you give away the gold. I hated swimming, but I loved the brutal competition. Because I wanted to be like Mike.
Michael Jordan may be the greatest athlete of all time. He’s certainly the greatest competitor. After getting cut from his high school basketball team, he went on to win two Olympic medals, six NBA championships and has the highest scoring average in the history of the sport at 30.1 points-per-game. But Mike was more than great, he was ruthless.
