4Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.
He was left out of the varsity basketball team because he was only 5’9” at that time. His taller classmate Leroy Smith had won the last spot on the team.
A young Michael Jordan went home and cried in the privacy of his bedroom, but decided not to stop trying. In his own words: “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.”
He made up his mind that he would never have to face a similar situation ever again and started practicing every day after that, making it a point to take out time for his practice daily without fail. He soon shot up to 6’3”, made the team the next year and never had to look back after that.
He believed in his dream, won NBA’s Most Valuable Player Award five times in his career and dominated the sports field for more than a decade in the ‘90s.
“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
