You don't have to be a basketball fan to love HOW TO BE LIKE
MIKE: LIFE LESSONS ABOUT BASKETBALL'S BEST by Pat
Williams with Michael Weinreb . . . it is an inspiring book, relevant
to just about anybody . . . parents as well as their children will
enjoy it; so will employers and their employees.
Williams, one of the country's top motivational speakers and senior
vice president of the Orlando Magic, conducted over 1,500 interviews
with those who know Michael Jordan best . . . he then boiled down
what they said into the habits that are needed to succeed . . . these
include such things as focus, passion, perseverance, teamwork,
and leadership.
I particularly liked the many examples taken from the lives of
Jordan, the author and many other unique people . . . in addition,
there were thought-provoking quotes sprinkled throughout the
book.
There were so many memorable passages that it is difficult
to choose just a few to highlight here . . . but among them
were the following:
[on how Williams is perceived]
I am known to those around me as a rather enthusiastic
person--a notion that most probably consider a vast understatement.
Throughout the course of my career in the front office in both
minor-league baseball and the NBA, my energy has led me to some
rather odd precipes. Wrestling bears, for instance. Or overseeing
the most disappointing trained pig act in the history of Philadelphia's
sports. Or donning a sweaty mascot's suit. All for the sake of
entertainment.
Some might call me crazy. I call it a surplus of joy. And I just
happen to believe you should have enough of a surplus to fill a
Wall-Mart.
It's something I learned from my mentor, a one-legged baseball
executive named Bill Veeck, who earned a measure of fame for
having the courage and ingenuity to let a midget bat during a
major-league baseball game. Veeck was the sort of man who
slept two hours a night, whose head exploded with ideas. He
was flush with energy. He relished interaction, and he savored
the small pleasures of his life in baseball. And of his life outside
of baseball. When Bill died in 1986, sports columnist Thomas
Boswell wrote: "Cause of death--life."
[on attaining success]
A magazine called NATION'S BUSINESS once surveyed its
readers, attempting to extract the top ten businesspeople
America had poured forth in its first two hundred years. The list
included the names you'd expect: Edison, Henry Ford, Alexander
Graham Bell. But what's interesting is that while each of the ten
choices were involved in highly competitive businesses--often
cited as a cause of health problems--they lived ripely to an
average age of eighty-seven.
Another survey polled 241 executives on the traits that most helped
workers to become a success. More than 80 percent listed
"enthusiasm." Second, at 63 percent, was a "can-do attitude."
[Jordan in discussion with Bobby Knight at the Olympics]
The uSA led Spain by twenty-seven points at half-time, and
Knight leaned over to Jordan and shouted at him, as a ploy
to avoid a second-half slump. "When are you going to set
some screens?"
Jordan smiled, "Coach," he said, "didn't I read some place you
said I was the quickest player you ever coached?"
"Yeah," Knight said. "What's that got to do with it?"
"Coach, I set those screens faster than you could see them."