The Last Dance

“Ah man…..that passion that Michael exudes.”

As a sports fan, I have been thoroughly enjoying ‘The Last Dance’ docu-series on Netflix that centers around Jordan and the Bulls for the 97/98 season.

If you’re not a sports fan then it may not be your favourite thing to watch but damn.. I got that ‘fire in my soul’ feeling in episode 7 when Jordan and his teammates were being questioned on what it was like to play with, and be led by, Jordan at the time.

They all agree that he was a hard ass and crossed the line numerous times but as they have aged and looked back, they have all realised why he did it. It was to make them all better, to become winners. Are there better ways to get the best out of people? Maybe, but are you going to argue with arguably the greatest team sport player of all time? I’m not.

I don’t think it’s a lesson that you have to be a tyrant to be a good leader at all, but you have to be willing to do the uncomfortable stuff. You have to be willing to have the conversations and give the feedback that you don’t want to. You have to challenge people that don’t want to be challenged. You have to be willing to lead and do the work that you expect from your team. You have to live and breath the standard that you want to see.

They chanted “Be like Mike” for years, but I wonder if they really knew what that meant?

I want you to be like Mike too but I don’t care about your athletic talent. I want you to find a passion that stirs your soul that deeply that it consumes you. I want you to stoke your fire. I want you to lead. I want you to compete. I want to put in the deep work to master your craft. I want you to pursue your potential. The world needs you and your gifts.

“Winning has a price, and leadership has a price.

So I pulled people along when they didn’t want to be pulled.

I challenged people when they didn’t want to be challenged, and I earned that right because my teammates that came after me.

They didn’t endure all the things that I endured.

Once you joined the team, you lived at a certain standard that I played the game, and I wasn’t going to take anything less.

Now, if that means I have to go and get in your a** a little bit, then I did that.

You ask all my teammates, “The one thing about Michael Jordan was that he never asked me to do something that he didn’t f***ing do.”

When people see this they’re going to say, “Well, he wasn’t really a nice guy, he may have been a tyrant.”

Well that’s you, because you never won anything.

I wanted to win, but I wanted them to win and be a part of that as well.”

An emotional Jordan continued: “Look, I didn’t want to have to do this. I’m only doing this because it is who I am. That’s how I played the game. That was my mentality. If you don’t want to play that way, don’t play that way.”

Pursue your potential

Dice