Most of the time, though, an honest competitor understands that he could just as easily have lost.

Exceptional people really do come to believe that the journey is more important than the destination. It’s another way of saying that the effort is more important than the outcome. John Calipari worked and scrapped for years to build a team that could win an NCAA championship. When he finally did it, he told me that winning the title wasn’t quite

A good philosophy appreciates competition and fellow competitors. Competition teaches us about ourselves. It pushes and pulls us to try things we might not try and change things we might not change in the absence of competition. It would be very hard to chase excellence if you didn’t have competitors who wanted it as badly as you did.

He should understand that over the span of a lifetime, the only lasting failure is the failure to try.

It’s almost as if exceptional people belong to a secret club. In this club, the members know that the average person limits himself. They know that the exceptional person is exceptional in large part because he doesn’t limit himself.

There’s a happy medium between listening to everyone and taking all the advice you’re offered, and listening to no one and stubbornly hanging on to the same flawed techniques and habits. It’s a subtle sweet spot, but it’s one that champions seem able to find.

But as Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, nothing great has ever been accomplished without enthusiasm. Somewhere and somehow, exceptional people find a way to bring that enthusiasm to what they do, and they find it every day.

I still remember what Packer Hall of Famer Jerry Kramer said about Lombardi. He was asked about Lombardi’s toughness. He replied, “All I remember is that once when I was really down, he came into the locker room and put his arm around me and told me that before it was all said and done, I was going to be one of the greatest linemen in the history

He taught me that it was foolish to judge someone else before you could assess that person’s mental qualities—qualities like tenacity, diligence, and confidence under pressure. I use that lesson to this day. I never make a judgment about a golfer’s potential based on an hour or two of watching him hit balls on the range and putt on the practice