“The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare.” - Juma Ikangas, winner 1989 NYC Marathon
Two of my favorite authors are Malcolm Gladwell and ESPN’s Bill Simmons; Gladwell for his ability to make ordinary things fascinating and Simmons for his hilarious take on the psyche of a sports fan. Coincidentally they had an email exchange that was posted here.
Cue Gladwell:
“This is actually a question I’m obsessed with: Why don’t people work hard when it’s in their best interest to do so?
“The (short) answer is that it’s really risky to work hard, because then if you fail you can no longer say that you failed because you didn’t work hard. It’s a form of self-protection… If you get drunk the night before an exam instead of studying and you fail, then the problem is that you got drunk. If you do study and you fail, the problem is that you’re stupid — and stupid, for a student, is a death sentence. The point is that it is far more psychologically dangerous and difficult to prepare for a task than not to prepare. People think that Tiger is tougher than Mickelson because he works harder. Wrong: Tiger is tougher than Mickelson and because of that he works harder.” (Emphasis added)
Like many other American information workers, I was mesmerized by today’s US Open. Tiger showed us what is so great about sports, and Rocco Mediate is due his respect for pushing Tiger to show his brilliance in order to win. If you didn’t catch it, Nike aired an ad that featured Earl Woods (Tiger’s late father) talking about Tiger’s incredible focus:
We can’t all be Tiger, but we can work like Tiger.
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