Michael Jordan

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, and others make it happen.

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.

You are what you think about all day long.

You’ve got to get up every morning with determination if you’re going to go to bed with satisfaction.

In a lot of ways it is easier to do things on a large scale. It is easier to build a skyscraper in Manhattan than it is to buy a bungalow in the Bronx. For one thing, it takes just as much time to close a big deal as it does to close a small deal. You will endure as much stress and aggravation; you will have all the same headaches and problems. It is easier to finance a big deal. Bankers would much rather lend money for a big project than for a small one. They are more comfortable investing money in a big prestigious building than they are a rundown house in a bad section of town. If you succeed with the big project, you stand to gain a lot more money.

Lose/Win people bury a lot of feelings. And unexpressed feelings come forth later in uglier ways. Psychosomatic illnesses often are the reincarnation of cumulative resentment, deep disappointment and disillusionment repressed by the Lose/Win mentality. Disproportionate rage or anger, overreaction to minor provocation, and cynicism are other embodiments of suppressed emotion. People who are constantly repressing, not transcending feelings toward a higher meaning find that it affects the quality of their relationships with others.

I always did something I was a little not ready to do. I think that is how we grow.

Being defeated is only a temporary condition; giving up is what makes it permanent.

If everything’s under control, you’re going too slow.

Let your mind wander in the pure and simple. Be one with the infinite. Let all things take their course.

I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

It takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.

Have some fire. Be unstoppable. Be a force of nature. Be better than anyone here. And don’t give a damn what anyone thinks.

Seek first to understand and then to be understood.

Successful people are those who are willing to delay gratification and make sacrifices in the short term so that they can enjoy far greater rewards in the long term.

Knowledge is that which benefits, not that which is memorised.