Growing up, people will tell you that you have a better chance to become an astronaut than becoming an NBA player. So when you finally get to the NBA, you've beat the odds. So when you put on that jersey, everything else is downhill.
Interpretation
Success is achieved by overcoming difficult odds, and reaching your goals is a significant accomplishment.
Clyde Drexler's quote highlights the incredible odds faced by aspiring NBA players compared to other professions, like becoming an astronaut. It emphasizes that achieving a dream that many consider improbable is a profound success, and once that dream is realized, the challenges that follow seem less daunting in comparison.
In practice
During a motivational speech to youth aspiring to play basketball.
Going to the Portland Trail Blazers, who actually took the time to invest in me, was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to me in my career. I got to a small market where I could focus on basketball, basketball, basketball. No distractions.
I succeeded at venture capital because, for years, I rarely thought about or spent time on anything else. Anything less than that unmitigated full commitment leaves me feeling frustrated and ineffective.
Startup CEOs should not play the odds. When you are building a company, you must believe there is an answer and you cannot pay attention to your odds of finding it. You just have to find it. It matters not whether your chances are nine in ten or one in a thousand; your task is the same.
Success demands a high level of logistical and organizational competence.
Service to many leads to greatness- great respect, great satisfaction.
I didn't realize that winning the Olympics at age 14 automatically put me in the category of being a celebrity.
For great things do not done just happen by impulse but are a succession of small things linked together.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.