A variety of topics are discussed in the book including focus, work, toughness, competing, loyalty, and dreaming. The books uses shorts stories — some from Jordan, some from his teammates, some from his coaches and even more from his opponents.
The draw for our kids is that Jordan is what most aspire to be...they really do want to be like Mike! So when B.J. Armstrong says, “The thing that makes Michael who he is, is his focus. His ability to concentrate absolutely. To set everything else aside other than what needs to be done right now”...your players listen.
Chapter 8 is titled “The Fist.” Ironically, the “fist” came about from a symbol used by North Carolina’s biggest rival, Mike Krzyzewski of the Duke Blue Devils. Coach K often uses the fist as a symbol of team work — each finger folded tightly together. Hill talked about how Coach K effectively used ‘the fist” to motivate Duke to National Championships in 1991 and again in 1992. Williams goes a step further to explain how Jordan didn’t fully understand that principle when he first entered the NBA. He used his competitiveness to try and go out and beat his opponent each night by himself. It wasn’t until he involved his teammates that they started winning championships and in effect he became an even greater player.
One of the stories shared by Williams was an annual meeting held by Phil Jackson the night before he started training camp. Jackson would bring his team together on the eve of the first practice and close by asking each player to give his individual goals.
Jordan was always the last player to speak and he always had the same thing to say:
“I have no individual goals. We play for one reason and that’s to win the title. Practice is more important than the games, and I will practice when I’m hurt, when 95 percent of the players in this league would sit out. I expect all of you to do the same thing. You will follow my lead.”
In terms of handling a defeat, Jordan said, “Accept a loss as a learning experience and never point fingers at your teammates.”
In terms of leadership, Jordan pushed himself but also pushed his teammates. In Rolan Lazenby’s "Blood on the Horns" (a book about the Bulls), he goes into detail about how Jordan was driven with himself and the Bulls squad to the point that he was referred to as “Bobby Knight in short pants.”
Another story about the drive of Jordan is detailed in the book by sportswriter Michael Wilbon.
“One day during the 1997-98 season, Phil Jackson called off a practice. Michael said to Scottie Pippen, ‘We’re not playing well enough not to practice. So they went to Phil and requested a practice. Turned out they practiced for three hours. Later, MJ said, ‘The best players have to be the caretakers.’”
Still another insight into his success comes from his ability to gravitate above failure.
“Some people get frozen by a fear of failure,” Jordan said. “they get it from their peers or from just thinking about the possibility of negative results. They might be afraid of looking bad or being embarrassed. I realized that if I was going to achieve anything in life, I had to be aggressive. I had to get out there and go for it.”
This book starts fast and finishes fast. Pat Williams, the Senior Vice President of the Orlando Magic has written several motivational books and did a tremendous job in writing “How to Be Like Mike.” The stories and quotations are tremendous to share with your team. It is a great book for coaches to read and a great gift for a player or even a team.
