In sport, if you want to be the best you have to compete against the best - I would much rather have come tenth and be judged against everyone than come first and be judged against just a few.
Interpretation
True success comes from challenging oneself against the highest standards.
This quote emphasizes the importance of competition and striving for excellence. Daley Thompson expresses the idea that achieving a high rank is more meaningful when it comes from facing tough opponents rather than winning easily against lesser competition. It highlights the value of pushing oneself to grow and improve by engaging in challenging situations.
In practice
Motivational speech to athletes at a sports event.
I was in the doldrums for a while after my athletics career ended in 1992. I spent six to eight hours a day training, for 18 years, and it took a long time to get over the regret that I wasn't competing in major championships any more. All I ever wanted to be was the best. But I find new projects and I keep things in perspective.
I did not want to be the best black man of the year; I wanted to be the best man of the year.
Being a decathlete is like having ten girlfriends. You have to love them all, and you can't afford losing one.
I wouldn't swap the era I competed in for anything, not a day of it. I started out as an amateur, and people like myself, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram, Tessa Sanderson and the rest did it for the glory of winning medals for our country.
When I was playing I never wished I was doing anything else. I think being a professional athlete is the finest thing a man can do.
One of our things is that money follows; it does not lead. So we want people that are fired up and passionate about their mission... and people that aren't so married to spreadsheets and thinking that kind of voodoo controls the future. Because it doesn't.
Money will always flow toward opportunity, and there is an abundance of that in America.
Investing in yourself is the best investment you will ever make. It will not only improve your life, it will improve the lives of all those around you.
How you start is important, very important, but in the end it is how you finish that counts. It is easier to be a self-starter than a self-finisher. The victor in the race is not the one who dashes off swiftest but the one who leads at the finish. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter in life's race. In America we breed many hares but not so many tortoises.
Super Bowl XXXII was a victory made long before stepping on that field in San Diego in 1998. It was earned with my brother guiding me as a kid in Glennville, Ga., and as a seventh-round pick out of Savannah State. Even at the pinnacle, that ring was always his.
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