You never make any of the shots you never take. 87% of the ones you do take, you'll miss too. I make 110% of my shots.
Larry BirdRead
I learned what my weaknesses were and I went out the next day to turn those weaknesses intro strengths.
Interpretation
Recognizing and addressing your weaknesses is essential for personal growth.
This quote emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and proactive improvement. Larry Bird reflects on the idea that acknowledging one's shortcomings is the first step towards overcoming them, and by taking action to convert weaknesses into strengths, one can achieve greater success and fulfillment.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage others to embrace their flaws and work on self-improvement.
You never make any of the shots you never take. 87% of the ones you do take, you'll miss too. I make 110% of my shots.
When I was young, I never wanted to leave the court until I got things exactly correct. My dream was to become a pro.
You can make all the excuses you want, but if you're not mentally tough and you're not prepared to play every night, you're not going to win.
Practice habits were crucial to my development in basketball. I didn't play against the toughest competition in high school, but one reason I was able to do well in college was that I mastered the fundamentals. You've got to have them down before you can even think about playing.
It's been a journey, the NBA. It's taken me a lot farther than I ever expected.
Leadership is diving for a loose ball, getting the crowd involved, getting other players involved. It's being able to take it as well as dish it out. That's the only way you're going to get respect from the players.
Some gems for the greatest of them all
Careers, like rockets, don't always take off on schedule. The key is to keep working the engines.
Every time a football player goes to ply his trade, he's got to play from the ground up - from the soles of his feet right up to his head. Every inch of him has to play.
If I had stood at the free-throw line and thought about 10 million people watching me on the other side of the camera lens, I couldn't have made anything. So I mentally tried to put myself in a familiar place. I thought about all those times I shot free throws in practice and went through the same motion, the same technique that I had used thousands of times. You forget about the outcome. You know you are doing the right things. So you relax and perform.
I think it doesn't matter if you are the best surfer in the world. I'm going to try to be the best surfer I can be. It's not all about competing and being the best. It's more about having fun and just doing what you love.
My parents said to us, practically on a daily basis, that we were as good as anyone else on this earth, and that we would simply have to work harder in order to show that.
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