6 Lessons On Winning From The Knicks Jeremy Lin

There’s nothing like a live example

You can read all the books, blogs and articles you want on winning but never make the impact of seeing a real live example.

Last week Jeremy Lin provided just such a stunning example. 
The NY Knicks were in big trouble. Their season has had a disastrous start. Their coach has been under attack by the fans and media…a lot of suggestions he should be fired. Their desperately needed but injured point guard Baron Davis wasn’t going to be available for quite a while. On top of all this, last week they lost their 2 biggest stars, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire out of action. It was crisis time in New York. Things now could only get worse!

Turned out to be a perfect situation for a miracle.
Only because he had no other choice, last week Coach Mike D’Antoni put in the seldom used point guard, from Harvard of all places, Jeremy Lin, into the starting line up. The team was decimated and they were slumping even with their stars. Now they had no stars and an unproven back up player running the team. Everyone expected the worst but what happened next is the stuff of legend. If you want the whole amazing story check this out.

Here’s the Summary
After 1 week and 4 games, this young star pulled off one of the most electrifying performances in the history of the NBA. He led the Knicks to 4 straight wins, scoring over 20 points in each game. In fact in the last game he scored 38 points as they beat, on national television in front of 20,000 screaming fans, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers! In one week his story has spread around the world. (Update: he's now won 5 games, and has scored 108 points, the most points of any first time starter in 5 games since 1976, and the biggest name worldwide in sports right now.)

Let’s see what we can learn about winning from this astonishing story:

1. Prepare, prepare, prepare! One day your opportunity will come. At that point it’s up to you. If you meet the challenge you can change your life forever! Jeremy was ready.
2. One dynamic person can change the whole team dynamic. Enthusiasm is contagious! Jeremy plays with energy and a love for the game that has caused the totally average players on his team to play like they are all-stars! Their attitude and energy has turned around instantly.
3. What was bad for others turned out to be an opportunity for him. If you are running a team, treat all your people with respect because the time will come when you need them to step up and deliver. 
4. When he was put in the starting line up, he attacked. He was timid. He wasn’t hesitant. He didn’t apologize about being there. He focused on the job he had to do. He made up his mind to make an impact and to have no regrets. He knew he couldn’t control the results but he could control his effort, attitude and enthusiasm.
5. He deflected praise when things started going well and gave all the credit to his team. He refused to take credit. He kept his team and coaches in the spotlight. He kept his focus on what was coming next. He said “We’re hoping and preparing for the best, expecting the worst and we’ll take whatever happens.” He’s staying humble. He knows it’s only one week and they have a long season in front of them.
6. If you keep working your dreams can come true! As he told the reporter after the Laker game “This is everything I’ve dreamed about happening”. 

Success like this isn’t an accident. 
It happens because people are doing a lot of the right things. The best way to put yourself on a winning track is to learn as much as you can from stories like this and apply the lessons to your situation.

Jeremy Lin has been on a winning track for a long time. He has been working hard to develop his skill, his craft, his command of the game. In the world of professional basketball he was largely unknown, but that didn’t keep him from working.

All happened this past week is that he got his chance to show the world he what he can do…and now the whole world knows!

The Winning Edge is Razor Thin

The fine line

Why do the people fighting for championships work so hard? Because they know they know how hard it is to reach the top. At the top everyone is talented, everyone is driven and everyone works hard. So what separates those at the top? It’s the winning edge.

The winning edge is elusive
People work all their lives to develop it. Teams work like crazy to develop it. It’s scary because you don’t know when you have it and you don’t know when you lose it. You only find out only when you compete. But when you have it you work around the clock to keep it.

Ever notice a team come out flat when they have everything on the line?
It’s perplexing, infuriating and exasperating! It’s what gives coaches heart attacks. Just this year the World Champion Green Bay Packers had an unbeaten season going. They were beating everyone! They were barely even challenged. They won easily. Everyone was impressed because most Super Bowl champions have disappointing follow-up years. The Packers looked like a juggernaut. They were on a mission. They were on their way to win their second Super Bowl!

So what happened?
They lose to the sad Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs! The same Chiefs who had been playing so bad their coach had just been suddenly fired. The same team playing with an interim coach. How did this happen. Green Bay had all the momentum. They came out flat. The Chiefs season was over. They had no reason to make an extra special effort. Yet, that day they amazingly had the winning edge! The Green Bay players and coaches were shocked - they had no idea how they got off track. The Packers lost their confidence and mystique that day and were washed out in the playoffs, long before they got to the Super Bowl. 

This explains a coach’s maniacal attention to detail
They know every detail is important, everything matters. They know in the heat of battle every player will be tested. They know any weakness will be exposed. They can’t assume anything will be O.K. They have to check, re-check and check again to make sure their team is absolutely as ready as they can be to play their best. They know that their players’ skills have to be razor sharp. But equally as important, their attitude has to be at a peak. The frustrating thing is that there’s no way to tell you exactly how to get it. There is no manual on building the winning edge.

The winning edge is elusive but incredibly powerful. 
It gives you the  determination and confidence to perform at your absolute best at the most important times. When you have it you play instinctively, you see things in slow motion, you see the game unfolding in advance. You are in a zone and your competition can tell.

It’s worth the price to get it because when you have it you have an unshakeable belief that you will someway find a way to win no matter what happens during the game.

No One Wins Them All

Sooner or later you’re going to lose.

Shake it off move on… Some people collapse in a heap, emotionally shot, devastated.

THEY CAN’T BELIEVE IT!

What did they think? That it would never happen? 

Life isn’t perfect, you will get your beatings just like everyone else.

Not only you, but your children, your family, your company. 

Hey, it happens.

You’ll survive. That’s what people do. It's part of life.

Later you may even look back and see the benefits.

So when it happens…don’t fall apart. Keep your wits. Learn your lessons and plot your return.

Defeat is not permanent unless you quit

So don’t get out of whack.

You lost a battle, but you can still win the war!

Nowitzki Gives Romo Bad Advice

Well meaning advice isn’t always true

When the Dallas Cowboys were getting beat week after week early in the 2011 season they got a lot of criticism. They were hugely talented and expectations were for them to be legitimate Super Bowl contenders.  Super Bowl contenders are supposed to win. When they kept getting beat the criticism came in loud and clear from all corners. To the rescue came local basketball hero Dirk Nowitzki fresh off the Dallas Mavericks recent NBA championship.

Dirk gave encouragement—and really bad advice
Dirk told quarterback Tony Romo and the others that they shouldn’t worry. He reminded them the Mavericks, formed in 1980, had gone without ever winning an NBA Championship until this year and Dirk himself had been with the team since 1998. But, Dirk continued, “if you just keep on working to improve eventually your day will come and you’ll win a Super Bowl.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong! The Cowboys bought this lie—hook, line and sinker. The pressure was off—they could relax. The sting of defeat was not nearly as bad because they now happily believed that eventually they would win. It was inevitable...Dirk said so! 

No one is ever guaranteed a championship
Unfortunately, championships are never inevitable. You have to go win them. You have to beat someone who wants it just as bad as you. You have to fight. You have to give it everything you have. If the Cowboys were aware of the perhaps they wouldn’t have finished this season with such a spineless underachieving performance and let themselves get knocked out of the playoffs by the mediocre New York Giants.

This team needs a reality check - bad. They need to be jolted with the truth that no one is ever guaranteed success. Just because you’re talented and think you work hard doesn’t entitle you to anything. The world owes you nothing. Don’t ever think they are going to mail you a trophy just because you worked up a sweat. Sweat and hard work is what everyone does. 

All hard work does is give you is a CHANCE to win
In the real world you can work hard for years and years, pay an incredible price, make incredible sacrifices and still never win the “big one.” When you work hard, you take things seriously. You sacrifice and pay the extra prices. But that’s just practice and preparation. All you’re doing is putting yourself in a position to win your championship. Sooner or later the time will come where you actually have to go play the game, compete and win it. The Dallas Cowboys don’t act like they understand this part of winning and as a result, for almost 20 years, they have underachieved at the end of the season, piling up one disappointment after another for their fans to endure.

There is a fine line between mediocrity and greatness and when you think you are entitled to win you always get beat. Wake up, Cowboys.

Failure Taught McIlroy Winning

He now sees the beauty of failure

22 year old Rory McIlory was one of the biggest news makers in professional golf in 2011. This young and phenomenally talented golfer captured the imagination of the golf world as he surged to the lead in last April at the Masters in Augusta, Georgia. Unfortunately, the pressure was too intense and he blew a 4 shot lead with a final round 80. 

The key is how you react
Many observers worried that this crushing failure would scar his psyche and as it had so many other golfers in the past. This was a devastating loss and a huge disappointment. The way Rory responded proved again that it’s not what happens to you it’s how you respond to what happens to you. McIlory told Brian Keogh of IrishGolfDesk.com “the Masters was huge for me, it was a huge disappointment at the time but reflecting upon it… it was probably the most important day of my career so far.” In fact, if I look back on my career in 20 years that day in Augusta was probably the defining moment in my career. It was definitely the point where I reached the crossroads in my career where I could keep going the wrong way or really take responsibility for myself and say ‘right, this is what I’ve got to do to get better and win, and improve as a player.’”

He re-evaluated everything about his game. He worked hard to improve weak areas. He made a lot of adjustments in his entourage, his support team and even changed his agent. He took responsibility for all areas himself and positioned himself to win.

Take responsibility and good things can happen
A few short months later, the young golfer had a completely different result in a major championship.  He electrified the golf world with a decisive victory at the US Open – which many say is the most challenging golf tournament of all.  Because he had taken responsibility for his previous collapse he was able to stay strong and handle the pressure when it came time to win again.  By winning he sent a loud message to us all that if you respond the right way to devastating failures in your life it can open the door to even more staggering successes.  

Failure can open the door to winning, it all depends on how you respond.  

Thanksgiving—A Holiday For Winners

Winners are thankful 

Winners are focused on the long term, doing the right thing, building something for the future, giving back, and winners are appreciative. They appreciate good health, family, friends, the opportunity to be free and the opportunities that freedom provides. They are grateful for those who went before them and created their opportunities.

Losers take things for granted

They believe they are entitled. They don’t appreciate the things they have or the things others do for them. They are selfish and looking for their next handout. They think the world owes them. It never enters their minds to give back or do something for others. 

Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate values.     

Winners don’t take things for granted, but anybody can forget. It’s normal to forget—which is why this is the holiday for winners! It gives us a particular chance to make sure we don’t forget.  It forces us to pause, reflect and give thinks to God, our country, our friends, the ones who came before us, give us all of our opportunities and to be grateful and to celebrate all that we’ve been blessed with.

Winners realize these blessings don’t come automatically and they don't come cheap.

Reflecting and giving thanks on that fact is healthy and helps keep one on track to maintain a winning attitude necessary to succeed in life. Unfortunately, losers have a sour attitude and will go through the week complaining about all the problems they have and how everyone else has things better. Winners know better.

They know life isn’t perfect. They know that though they have as many problems or more than others, they also have many blessings.

So while losers will be wallowing in self-pity, only the winners will celebrating, and that's why it's their holiday!

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What are you most thankful for right now?

To Become a Champion

What does it take to become a champion?  

First you need to be making a championship effort.

Then you’ll need two additional things: 

1. Championship level coaching
2. Championship level competition.  

Championship Level Competition. 
Until you get into top level competition you'll never find out exactly where you are in your development.  

When you compete at the highest level you either win or lose. When you are on your way up and compete at the championship level, you're a winner regardless of how the match or game turns out because even if you lose you're going to learn. 

You’re going to win knowledge of what additionally you need to do, what skill you need to develop, where your areas of weakness are that will allow you to move up and when it comes. 

Championship Level Coaching
On the other hand, when it comes to making those changes you'll need coaching from somebody who has been there, coached and preferably competed. You don’t want to waste your time training under someone who really has no first hand knowledge of what it takes. That would be a blind leading the blind situation and you don’t have time for that.

The experience of coaching and/or competing at the highest levels gives a coach the experience to show you the secrets that only the champions know. Winning is getting a specific thing done in a specific time period and doing it better than anyone else at that moment.  

Winning involves making lots of things happen. A winning performance involves making lots of critical things happen at the right time. At this level you don't learn how to be a champion out of a book.  

The Road to Becoming a Champion: You learn and develop into a champion from combining your own Championship Level Effort with the benefits that only come from Championship Coaches and Championship Competition.