In the world of professional sports, there are a handful of athletes who are considered legends. Athletes like Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky and Michael Jordan. Jordan is without a doubt the most famous and accomplished basketball player of all time.
1. “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
2. “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan
3. “I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.” – Michael Jordan
4. “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” – Michael Jordan
5. “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
6. “To be successful you have to be selfish, or else you never achieve. And once you get to your highest level, then you have to be unselfish. Stay reachable. Stay in touch. Don’t isolate.” – Michael Jordan
7. “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.” – Michael Jordan
8. “If you quit once it becomes a habit. Never quit!” – Michael Jordan
9. “Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation.” – Michael Jordan
10. “Everybody has talent, but ability takes hard work.” – Michael Jordan
11. “To learn to succeed, you must first learn to fail.” – Michael Jordan
12. “Never say never, because limits, like fears, are often just an illusion.” – Michael Jordan
13. “Don’t let them drag you down by rumors just go with what you believe in.” – Michael Jordan
14. “Make it happen” – Michael Jordan
15.“If you do the work you get rewarded. There are no shortcuts in life.” – Michael Jordan
16. “I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan
17. “Once I made a decision, I never thought about it again.” – Michael Jordan
18. “The minute you get away from fundamentals – whether it’s proper technique, work ethic or mental preparation – the bottom can fall out of your game, your schoolwork, your job, whatever you’re doing.” – Michael Jordan
19. “The key to success is failure.” – Michael Jordan
20th Michael Jordan Quote – “Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan
21. “Learning’s a gift, even when pain is your teacher.” – Michael Jordan
22. “Failure is acceptable. but not trying is a whole different ball park.” – Michael Jordan
23. “There is no “I” in team but there is in win.” – Michael Jordan
24. “I play to win, whether during practice or a real game.” – Michael Jordan
25. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”- Michael Jordan
26. “Every time I feel tired while I am exercising and training, I close my eyes to see that picture, to see that list with my name. This usually motivates me to work again.” – Michael Jordan
27. “The best come from the worst.” – Michael Jordan
28. “I never looked at the consequences of missing a big shot… When you think about the consequences you will always think of the negative result.” – Michael Jordan
29. “I’ve never lost a game I just ran out of time.” – Michael Jordan
30. “I’m not out there sweating for three hours every day just to find out what it feels like to sweat.” – Michael Jordan
31. “My body could stand the crutches but my mind couldn’t stand the sideline.” – Michael Jordan
32. “The game is my wife. It demands loyalty and responsibility, and it gives me back fulfillment and peace.” – Michael Jordan
33. “I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it is an illusion to me. Failure always made me try harder the next time.” – Michael Jordan
34. “It’s heavy duty to try to do everything and please everybody. My job was to go out there and play the game of basketball as best I can. People may not agree with that. I can’t live with what everyone’s impression of what I should or what I shouldn’t do.” – Michael Jordan
35. “If it turns out that my best wasn’t good enough, at least I won’t look back and say I was afraid to try.” – Michael Jordan
36. “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.” – Michael Jordan
37. “Be true to the game, because the game will be true to you. If you try to shortcut the game, then the game will shortcut you. If you put forth the effort, good things will be bestowed upon you. That’s truly about the game, and in some ways that’s about life too.” – Michael Jordan
38. “Heart is what separates the good from the great.” – Michael Jordan
39. “I would tell players to relax and never think about what’s at stake. Just think about the basketball game. If you start to think about who is going to win the championship, you’ve lost your focus.” – Michael Jordan
40. “You can practice shooting 8 hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.” – Michael Jordan
41.“I own the guy guarding me.” – Michael Jordan
42. “The game has its ups and downs, but you can never lose focus of your individual goals and you can’t let yourself be beat because of lack of effort.” – Michael Jordan
43. “There is no such thing as a perfect basketball player, & I don’t believe there is only one greatest player either.” – Michael Jordan
44. “If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome.” – Michael Jordan
45. “You have competition every day because you set such high standards for yourself that you have to go out every day and live up to that.” – Michael Jordan
46. “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.” – Michael Jordan
47. “I mean we all fly. Once you leave the ground, you fly. Some people fly longer than others.” – Michael Jordan
48. “Sometimes, things may not go your way, but the effort should be there every single night.” – Michael Jordan
49. “Best evaluation I can make of a player is to look in his eyes and see how scared they are.” – Michael Jordan
50. “Winning isn’t always championships.” – Michael Jordan
51. “Sometimes you need to get hit in the head to realize that you’re in a fight.” – Michael Jordan
52. “I want to wake up every day and do whatever comes in my mind, and not feel pressure or obligations to do anything else in my life.” – Michael Jordan
53. “Enjoy every minute of life. Never second-guess life.” – Michael Jordan
54. “I believe greatness is an evolutionary process that changes and evolves era to era.” – Michael Jordan
55. “If I had been playing for money I would have complained a long time ago that I was underpaid.” – Michael Jordan
56. “Being Michael Jordan means acting the same as I always have.” – Michael Jordan
57. “My father used to say that it’s never too late to do anything you wanted to do. And he said you never know what you can accomplish until you try.” – Michael Jordan
58. “I want to be the bridge to the next generation.” – Michael Jordan
59. “When I will lose the sense of motivation and the sense to prove something as a basketball player, it’s time for me to move away from the game.” – Michael Jordan
60. “I hope the millions of people I’ve touched have the optimism and desire to share their goals and hard work and perseverance with a positive attitude.” – Michael Jordan
As we come to the end of this blog post, it’s important to remember that success is not a finite destination. It’s something that we should constantly be striving for, and as basketball legend Michael Jordan once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
So go out there and shoot for the stars! Which of these MJ quotes resonates with you most?