How Michael Jordan Turned Rejection Into the Greatest Fuel in Sports History
In 1978, a skinny teenager named Michael Jordan walked up to the list posted on the basketball gym door at Laney High School.
He scanned the names.
Top to bottom.
Again and again.
His name wasn’t there.
He had been cut from the varsity team.
Most kids would’ve quit.
Some would’ve blamed the coach.
Others would’ve accepted their “limit.”
Jordan didn’t cry in public.
He held it together until he got home…
walked into his room…
and broke down.
His mother, Deloris, said something he never forgot:
“Michael, if you really want it…
you’ll have to work harder than everyone else.”
So he did.
He woke up earlier.
Stayed in the gym longer.
Practiced after practice.
Practiced before school.
Practiced until the janitors turned off the lights.
He used the rejection as fuel, not failure.
By the next year, he made varsity.
Two years later, he earned a scholarship to North Carolina.
At 19, he hit the game-winning shot in the NCAA championship.
At 21, he entered the NBA.
And the boy who wasn’t good enough to make varsity became the greatest basketball player of all time.
Years later Jordan said:
“Getting cut shaped me more than making the team ever could.”
💡 THE MARKETING / BUSINESS LESSON
Rejection isn’t a closed door.
It’s a compass.
Jordan didn’t succeed because he was talented.
He succeeded because he treated rejection as information:
• Where to improve
• What to refine
• What to attack
• How to outwork everyone else
In business, the market “cuts” you all the time:
• slow sales
• low engagement
• bad launches
• ignored offers
• failed ideas
Most people quit.
Champions double down.
Because rejection isn’t a verdict…
it’s a direction.
🧠 THE NERDY TAKEaway
The “Cut From the Team Principle” teaches this:
When the world says you’re not ready…
that’s your training plan …not your identity.
Rejection is the most accurate feedback system ever invented.
If you can convert it into energy…
no one can stop you.
No comments:
Post a Comment