Jordan effect: how the guy who was not taken to the school team became a global icon of success
February 17, 1963 – Now
If you ask who is the greatest athlete in history, most will answer without hesitation: Michael Jordan. Six-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic champion, a man who forced the whole world to wear sneakers with their own silhouette. But the greatness of Jordan is not in his jumps or millions of contracts. It is in his manic, almost frightening mentality of the winner, which was forged through hard rejections.
Part 1. ‘You’re too small, boy’
At the age of 15, Michael was an ordinary North Carolina teenager who was madly in love with basketball. He raved about getting into the senior team of his school, Emsley Laney. When the coach posted a list of those who passed the selection, Michael re-read it from the bottom up several times. His name was not there. The coach considered him too low (then his height was about 180 cm) and preferred another guy who was taller.
Jordan came home, locked himself in his room and burst into tears. But instead of throwing the ball, he made a decision that determined his fate. Every morning, at 6 o’clock, long before the lessons, he came to an empty school hall and trained to exhaustion. For a year, he not only grew by 10 centimeters, but also developed such speed and technique that the coach simply could not ignore him. The resentment from that first refusal became the fuel that Michael used all his life.
Part 2. Blood Tears in Chicago Bulls
In 1984, Jordan ends up in the NBA, in the Chicago Bulls team – at that time the absolute outsider of the league, whose matches almost no one watched. Michael instantly blows up the league with his style: he literally flew over the ring (for which he received the nickname ‘His Aircraft’). But personal success did not bring the championship.
For seven years in a row, Michael tried to drag the team to the final, and he was severely stopped for seven years in a row. Jordan’s main nightmare was Detroit Pistons, a gang that played dirty, aggressive basketball. They created the Jordan Rules: as soon as Michael got the ball, two or three defenders physically knocked it down. Jordan left the parquet with bruises and blood, and the experts whispered: Jordan is an egoist. He knows how to score beautifully, but he will never make a team a champion.”.
Part 3. Birth of the Tyrant of the Winner
Michael realized that in order to defeat the system, you need to change yourself and change the team. He closed himself in the gym, gained a lot of muscle armor to withstand any blows, and began to arrange hell in Chicago training.
Jordan became a tough and sometimes cruel leader. He shouted at his partners, morally destroyed those who gave weakness, and demanded from them the same 100% return he gave himself. He turned training into a mental war. Result? In 1991, the Chicago Bulls destroyed Detroit and took their first championship. It was followed by the second and third. Jordan has proven that the leader should not just like it, the leader must raise the standards of the entire team to his level.
Part 4. Tragedy, Care and Great Return
In 1993, at the peak of fame, Michael’s world collapsed. Two teenagers robbed and shot his father, James Jordan, who was Michael’s chief friend and mentor. The devastated athlete said he lost his motivation and left basketball. He tried to fulfill the dream of his late father – to become a baseball player, but he did not succeed in baseball. He looked faded, critics gloated.
In March 1995, the editorial office of the world media received a fax of two words: ‘I’m Back’ (‘I’m Back’).
Jordan returned to basketball completely different. He lost his former speed, but compensated for it with a brilliant reading of the game and his iconic cast with a deviation. He won three more league titles in a row with Chicago. The most epic moment was ‘Flu-Game’ (influenza game) in the 1997 final: Michael entered the parquet with a temperature of 40 and the strongest poisoning, barely on his feet, but scored the decisive goal and snatched the victory.
Part 5. More than an athlete: the creation of an empire
Jordan changed not only sports, but also the world economy. His contract with Nike led to the creation of a brand Jordan Brand. For the first time in history, the name of the athlete became an independent fashion house. The brand brought and brings billions of dollars, making Michael the richest athlete in history. He showed that sporting success is the ideal foothold for creating a lifestyle empire.
5 lessons of success from Michael Jordan
- Reconsider your attitude towards misses. Perhaps Jordan’s main quote to be hung over the desktop: “In my career, I missed more than 9,000 times. I lost almost 300 games. 26 times I was trusted to make a decisive throw, and I missed. I failed over and over again. That’s why I succeeded’. Success is pure statistics. To get hit more often, you just need not to be afraid to quit.
- Use failures as fuel. When you are not hired, your project is closed, or they say that you have “no talent” – you have two ways. give up or get angry. Jordan made an insult to school refusal with his main motivation. Prove to those who did not believe in you that they made the biggest mistake in life.
- Leadership is responsibility, not status. Jordan demanded the impossible from the team, but he himself worked the most. If you want your business or project to grow, you must set quality standards as a personal example. You can not demand discipline from employees if you yourself are late and lazy.
- Adapt your skills to circumstances. When Michael returned to basketball after a break, his body could no longer jump as high as he was 20 years old. He did not cry about the lost youth, but completely rebuilt his style of playing, relying on intelligence and technique. Conditions change, age changes – change your strategy.
- Compete only with your own potential. Jordan admitted that for every match he came out with the idea that a person was sitting in the stands who saw his game for the first and last time in his life. Get 100% every day, even if it seems to you that no one is watching. Your main victory is victory over your own laziness.