He's been my hero since I was a teen & a big reason why I became a college athlete. I've been incredibly fortunate to watch almost every home game of his over the last 3 years here in Tampa. Including the playoff loss last night. Ughh... *smiling for good vibes lol*
If you watch football, Tampa was awful this year. Brady wasn't as good as last year. The offensive line wasn't great. The receivers dropped a lot of balls. The defense gave up a lot points. But they still somehow managed to make the playoffs. I spent some time after the game reading the headlines about how he's going to retire... Or that he's not going to retire, but he's going to go to another team... Or that he's washed up & no good anymore (like we haven't heard that one before lol). And regardless of what's true, what's false, or what happens next... I want to point out one quote I saw from Tampa's Quarterback Coach, Clyde Christensen. (AKA one of the people who spends the most time with Tom) The quote was: "You can’t convince him we’re not going to win the Super Bowl." That struck me. And if it didn't strike you, it probably means you give up too easily. Here's what I mean... All through my life, I've viewed myself as an underdog. I was a chubby little kid who wanted to grow up & become a professional baseball player. You couldn't convince me that I wasn't going to become a professional athlete. It didn't matter that my dad was never a coach before. We studied together & we learned more than 99% of kids & parents know. It didn't matter that I was slow. I trained to become fast. It didn't matter that I tore my UCL & missed 2 years of high school baseball. I worked my butt off to come back. It didn't matter that no one recruited me out of high school. I reached out to colleges on my own. It didn't matter that I got cut once. I busted my ass that summer to make the team again & become one of the best pitchers that fall. Heck, even when I got cut the 2nd time as a senior, at that point I was still convinced that I'd be this crazy success story that would play in the big leagues someday. Obviously, that never happened. But sometimes you have to intentionally have freaking outrageous goals that make you look like an idiot if you don't accomplish them. Because that FORCES you to work your butt off to hit them. And it forces you to succeed to some extent. And if you don't hit them? You learn a TON. And you usually come out learning SOMETHING new. Very rarely do you walk away empty-handed. Plus, the people who laugh at you just proved that they were snakes the whole time anyway. That's what happened to me in baseball. I didn't accomplish my goal. But I learned how to think... How to be delusional... How to convince myself that I'm a winner, no matter what's going on in my life. At which point, I became an entrepreneur. And once again... It didn't matter that I had no experience. I applied for hundreds of jobs on Upwork until someone hired me. It didn't matter that no one believed in me. My clients became my friends. It didn't matter that I lived in $250/mo apartment in Ohio. It was big enough for a home office. It didn't matter that I had no money. It meant no distractions. I eventually made it freaking work. And today I'm SO happy that I was delusional enough to think that I'd run a 7 figure (profit) business... Because I do. You couldn't convince me that I was going to lose. And you still can't. Because I'm going to hit 8 figures revenue. I'm NOT freaking losing. See where I'm going with this? WAY too many people get influenced by the crappy attitudes of the other people around them. You get convinced that the haters are right... Then you quit. Don't do that. They only say that because they're too scared to look bad if they fail. It's EASY to convince those people that they're going to lose. So they play scared forever. Don't let that rub off on you. If you don't take this advice from me... Take it from Tom... the 7x Super Bowl Champ. Back in 2000, he was picked 199th. Yep, 198 other players were picked before the most successful football player of all-time. At that point, he was delusional, and believed that he was going to win the Super Bowl one day. Since then, he's done it 7 times. 23 years later, in his old age, you still can't convince him otherwise. Hopefully he wins hiss 8th. If not, he'll still be a better person for believing it. Are you THAT resilient? Do you ACTUALLY believe in yourself? Or do you give up too easily? It's up to you. - Troy