You wake up one day and decide you're going to take your
goal seriously. No more
bullshit. I'm going to do whatever
it takes to succeed. You recruit
your team, call up friends, colleagues, making your bold announcement. They're behind you. You're going to kick ass. You do the appropriate research on the
internet. But something
happens. This takes longer than
you thought, since "researching the internet" unleashes a landmine of
information -- articles about politics, healthy living, sports, entertainment,
free porn, the death of a celebrity, etc.
Sometimes, you "research" for hours and realize you did not
"research" anything.
Additionally, the phone calls you are engaged in are no longer about
your project -- but the project of the person on the other end. You are now helping your colleagues
with their project. Enough time
goes by and you forget why you were so hyped up to begin with. You have lost track of your goal and
are no longer pursuing it. You are
now the cog in someone else’s goal.
You then begin the process all over again. This is the majority of how things go
in life. How do you break this
vicious cycle and reach your ultimate goal? Sports, perhaps the last primal act in entertainment, can be
your great teacher in vanquishing this terrible habit. Welcome back to
"The 33 Strategies of Sports", a concoction of Robert Greene's
"The 33 Strategies of War" and sports history.
THE GREAT CAMPAIGN
When Michael Jordan entered the NBA in 1984 as the third
round pick of the Chicago Bulls, basketball was dominated by Magic Johnson and
Larry Bird, who frequently met each other in Finals. Jordan attended North
Carolina, where he won a NCAA Title, as well as the 1984 Olympics in Los
Angeles, where he won the Gold Medal. Magic and Bird found the young man
threatening. They were the Gods of the league and felt territorial.
Fortunately, the Bulls were a terrible club. Nightly
attendance was pathetic. The franchise was inept and one player could not
change that. It would be a
long time before this kid would rule anything. But within the first month,
young Jordan made the front cover of Sports Illustrated with the headline:
"A Star is Born".
Fans started attending games in droves and cheered
for this mystical talent with gravity defying abilities, the likes that had not
been seen since Julius Irving. The
Bulls made the playoffs but were swept by the Milwakee Bucks. Meanwhile, Larry Bird defeated Magic
Johnson in the Finals that year in 7 Games.
In Jordan's second season, he suffered a foot injury that
cost him the majority of the year.
A tremendous blow for the rising star. He would return in time to face
Bird and the Celtics in the playoffs, and somehow steal the show by scoring 63
points in one game. Afterwards
Larry Bird called him, "God disguised as Michael Jordan". It didn't
matter that the Bulls were swept 3-0, fans only remembered the 63 points and
could not get Jordan out of their minds.
He was always in commercials and on the news. It was difficult to go anywhere without hearing his name.
In 1987 and 1988, Jordan dominated the Slam Dunk Contest and
earned the nickname, "Air Jordan". Soon, Jordan signed a deal with a
shoe manufacturer called "Nike". Jordan mostly wore Adidas and
Converse. But Nike agreed to
create Jordan his own brand after his nickname, "Air Jordans". But, Jordan was not allowed to wear his
"shoes" during games. Commissioner David Stern insisted the shoes did
not follow the rules. Jordan wore them anyway, absorbing a $5,000 fine every
night. Eventually, Nike agreed to
pay for the fines and the young man wore the shoes until the rule were changed
-- exploding Jordan's popularity (and his shoes) exponentially. While the Bulls remained an average
team, "Air Jordans" became the most popular shoes in America.
Meanwhile, his team continued to fail,
but people only saw the "Air Jordan" symbol of him flying, recoiling
a basketball like catapult, while taking off like a rocket. During the 1987-88 season, Jordan won
the MVP Award, even though his team was swept by the Pistons in the playoffs.
With Magic and Bird aging, it was time to actually win
championships, as there was nothing left for Jordan to dominate. Privately,
Jordan was befriending assistant Coach Phil Jackson, who introduced him to
"The Triangle Offense", an unorthodox system that eliminated the need
for a point guard (the player that usually dribbled up court and distributed
the ball). The triangle allowed a
ball hog like Jordan to use his four teammates like extensions of himself,
giving him 10 arms and 10 legs. Current coach Doug Collins was eventually fired
and Phil Jackson took over the reigns and implemented this Jordan friendly
system.
The Phil Jackson coached Bulls would win three consecutive
titles, a feat unaccomplished since the Boston Celtics two decades earlier.
Jordan now dominated the media globally, owning the world like no athlete ever
had. His face was everywhere on the planet. His shoes worn by everyone,
everywhere. He could do whatever he wanted. He rarely got called for fouls and
received special treatment in every game, a sell out crowd no matter where he
played. Fans would cheer for him against their own teams. Jordan solidified his God-like image
and now it was time to protect it.
This is why everyone in his circle was puzzled when he retired at the
prime age of 29 and joined a minor league baseball team to pay tribute to his
father - who was recently murderered in cold blood.
But two years later Jordan rejoined the Bulls. Many thought his time was over. But Jordan came with astounding force,
leading the Bulls to the greatest record in NBA history, 72-10. Jordan would dominate his way to three
more consecutive titles before his next retirement in 1999. Everyone, as the
commercial said, wanted to "BE LIKE MIKE". Jordan even starred in the
Warner Bros. movie "Space Jam" with Bugs Bunny. He retired for a
second time with 6 championships at the age of 37.
On January 19, 2000, Jordan returned to the NBA not as a
player, but as part owner and President of Basketball Operations for the
Washington Wizards. He was
miserable at his job, choosing high schooler Kwame Brown as his number one
pick. People thought Jordan was
running the team into the ground.
But his next move was even more puzzling. To come out of retirement and play for the Wizards at age
39. His own trainer, Tim Grover,
did not think he could handle a brutal 82 game season at his age. Still, the media labelled Jordan's
return "The Third Coming".
His two seasons as a Wizard were mediocre, but the mere sight of Michael
Jordan on a basketball court was thrilling. Players from other teams always had Air Jordans they wanted
Jordan to sign, before competing against the legend on the court. Everywhere his “Airness” went, he was
celebrated, ass kissed senselessly, like a two year goodbye tour.
After his tenure as a Wizard was over, Jordan was not given
his President job back as promised.
Wizards ownder Abe Pollin thought of Jordan was a terrible GM. But, it wasn't long before his “Airness”
was given the keys to another team.
The Charlotte Bobcats. He
was awful at running this team as well.
When the Bobcats started bleeding money and had to be sold, Jordan
bought the team. Now, Jordan had
his hands on an entire franchise, in North Carolina, where he grew up and went
to college. The legend would be
seen at every game in the greatest position of power – a majority owner, the
first former player to become one.
In 2011, the cover of the highly popular NBA 2K12 video
game, which usually features a modern All Star like LeBron James or Kevin
Durant, featured Michael Jordan, almost 10 years after he retired. His God-like stamp in the world is
secure and not leaving anytime soon.
As a celebrity Jordan continues to earn about S55 million a year.
INTERPRETATION
It's easy to say that Michael Jordan is who he is because of
his incredible talent. The truth
is there have been others just as talented - such as Julius Irving - who did
not enjoy the success this kind of titanic success. Jordan made decisions that seemed God-like because they
were, at first, perplexing, but over the course of years, revealed themselves
to profoundly effective.
If you want to be Like Mike, this is the type of decisions
you must make yourself. Jordan
wanted to become a basketball God. This wasn't about just winning titles. It
was about building his iconic image.
His decisions didn't make much sense, but over the course of time,
created precisely what he wanted. For instance, Jordan befriended filmmakers
like Spike Lee to create commercials that would exhibit his God-like
abilities. As a Cultural Geography
major (the study of cultural products and their relation to spaces), M.J.
understood the media's importance.
Magic and Bird focused mostly on basketball. Before these guys knew it,
their own fans cheered for Jordan.
Jordan's acceptance of a front office job for both the
Wizards and Bobcats were seen as destructive to both teams. M.J. refused to work anywhere but in
Chicago, where he would fit his work between golfing. He was rarely seen at Wizards or Bobcats home games as a
GM. When Bobcats owner Robert
L.Johnson lost so much money from bad Jordan decisions, he had to sell the team
- to Jordan, who wanted to own a franchise all along.
The GM positions also helped him sell Air Jordans. M.J. himself regularly recruits young
stars to represent his brand. As a
result, numerous players are still labelled "The next Michael
Jordan". This included Allan
Iverson, Kobe Bryant, Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, and Vince Carter and today
Dwyane Wade and LeBron James are called “The Next Michael Jordan”. This label is used oftenly and never at
Jordan's behest. It keeps his name
in lights.
KEYS TO ENGAGEMENT
Seeing into the future is the most unnatural thing, since
the future has not occurred yet.
Yet, this is how human being have separated themselves from animals,
despite smaller size and strength.
It is their ability of foresight that has given them the advantage on
planet Earth. You cannot see into
a crystal ball, but you can calculate how the future will turn out. "Grand strategy" is the
ultimate form of logic and many successful people generally have one thing in
common. They talk of seeing their
plan in their minds before applying it - then watch it floorish. Channel the Michael Jordan inside you
by applying these four simple rules of "foresight".
1. FOCUS ON A DETAILED GOAL: You might think you have one,
but "getting rich", "finding security", "finding a
rich husband" is not a goal but a pipe dream. Don't let you emotions infect you with hazy bullshit. Have a detailed goal. If you want to be writer, what kind of
writer to you want to be? Do you
want to be a juggling clown or a birthday clown? Be as specific as possible and contemplate the image in your
mind every single moment. If you know what you want, you know when to lose a
battle - like Jordan did when he paid $5,000 a night to wear his "Air
Jordans" and made hundreds of millions as a result.
2. WIDEN YOUR PERSPECTIVE: The clearest view of the future is by looking at things
dispassionately. Eliminating every
cultural bias, prejudice and wishful thoughts about how you wish things to
be. Do this by seeing things
through the eyes of someone else, especially an enemy. Jordan applied this tactic every chance
he got, most notably when he joined the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. In his Hall of Fame interview, he
talked about the rare chance he would get to learn how his opponents practiced,
and "what made them tick".
The Dream Team consisted of Magic, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Patrick
Ewing, Charles Barkley, some of whom became close friends with Jordan. No one was sure why Jordan was so
chummy with these guys, until the smoke cleared and Jordan had six titles. Ewing, Barkley, Stockton, Malone had
zero as they could never get passed Jordan - seeing his enemies point of view
paved the way to his domination of them.
3. SEVER THE
ROOTS: Jordan was the master of seeing the "roots" of problems as
they sprouted. He could tell that
Doug Collins would not lead him to a title and befriended Phil Jackson. Though,
his greatest move was his first retirement at the age 29. His father had been bizarrely shot and
killed, and it was rumored to have a connection to Jordan's compulsive gambling
habits, which was becoming daily fodder in the news. Jordan left the NBA for two years -- making the public crave
his return so desperately, the
gambling allegations were a distant memory.
4. TAKE THE INDIRECT ROUTE: Everyone in Jordan's camp
considered his third return to the NBA foolish. As a 40 year old, he was only a
shell of who he once was, and a decrepit Jordan would only hurt his image. But the occasional display of
basketball brilliance was enough to feed the masses and amplified his God-like
image. Jordan refused inclusion in
the Hall of Fame for over 10 years because he wanted people to think he might
come back. Even when he was almost
50, people thought his “Airness” might make another come back. That's the way he wanted it. To be discussed as a peer of today's
players – with the likes of LeBron James or Kobe - even though it was almost 10
years since M.J. competed on that level.
Like Mike, if you’re staring at your own future, making decisions that
confuses others can be advantageous, as they won’t know what you are doing for
years. When they realize what you
were doing, it will be too late because you will be too powerful.
REVERSAL
As Robert Greene warns, there are two warnings about Grand Strategy. 1) “Drunk of triumph, you may lose the sense of realism on which your future moves depend…. The greater the victory, the greater the danger”. Bill Bellichick, one of the greatest Grand Strategists in sports, enjoyed a 19-0 season, leading the New England Patriots to Superbowl XLII as heavy favorites, only to suffer defeat to the inferior New York Giants. Millions consider the Plaxico Burress touchdown the game winner, however, but Bellichick actually lost the game earlier, in the second quarter, when he refused to kick a field goal from the 35 yard line, instead going for it on 4th and 10. He turned down 3 points and the Patriots eventually lost 17-14, by 3 point. Lose a sense of realism, and risk a Bellichick-like devastation.
2) Green also
warns: “the detachment necessary for Grand Strategy may bring you to a point
where you may find it hard to act.
Understanding the world too well, you see too many options” and
suddenly, you cannot make any decisions.
After Bobby Fischer enjoyed what is considered the greatest Chess
victory in modern history against Boris Spasky, he refused to play anyone else,
forfeiting his championship, at the peak of his career and never competed
again. Danger of defeat was too
frightening for Fischer. Don’t
fear defeat so much, you take yourself out of the equation.
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