PRACTICE Motivation - #OneRule

Practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice, practice.

What's up, Believe Nation? Today we're going to give you some motivation so you can practice, practice, practice. And as always, you know the drill. If you hear something that really resonates with you, leave it down in the comments, put quotes around it so other people can be inspired as well.

Enjoy.

You look for that thing that moves you. I don't know what it is. I like repetition. There's a saying goes, repetition keeps me green. Yeah. I love that saying.

Repetition keeps me green.

Keeps me green, fresh. Because the idea that we do performances over and over again, you'd say, well, doesn't that get boring or stale? But no, it's in the repetition that the creation comes, that the expression comes. Because I'll give you an example. I was doing Richard once, not particularly well, and this show was going on, and we couldn't get this court scene with a lot of people in it. I didn't understand what I was doing in the scene. So we would call rehearsals. I would— we would rehearse it and stuff, and we would talk about it, think about it, you know, like all this kind of work where people together are trying to figure out something. The 85th performance of Richard, I had done it. On my 85th entrance, I knew the court scene. I understood it. I was there. I could play it.

But not in '84.

Not in '84. I might have been getting closer, didn't realize it. I gave up the ghost, I guess. I just gave it up and said, oh, screw it, it's not going to happen, and I'll just keep going on.

And I found it. I'm uninterested in that topic. Which one? The relationship between gift and practice? No, I'm uninterested in natural gifts. I know they exist and I know there's such a thing as talent, but blah, blah, blah. I just feel like, and so what, right? Because there are people, I mean, I always think of, you're a basketball fan, I always think of Derrick Coleman. I remember chatting with a guy who worked for the Sixers and he said, you have to understand that Derrick Coleman was the most gifted man ever to set foot on a basketball court. He said, you know, you've heard a million other names. Nobody was as good as Derrick. And like, who is heard today? Who thinks, who puts Derrick Coleman up there in the pantheon? No one. He didn't want to work. He had bad habits. He had a bad attitude. I mean, so what? Give me somebody who wants to go to practice in the morning and who wants to try in games, and I want to celebrate him.

It wasn't until I started my own team when I realized that there are people with incredible talent and no motivation. And then there are other people that are willing to work their ass off who don't have a natural ability but will become successful because they're so determined. And I saw it, I mean, I saw it especially in a couple of guys that I first put on the Birdhouse team, namely Andrew Reynolds and Matt Beach. Matt Beach, was, in my eyes, the most naturally talented skateboarder that I've ever seen. Everything came easy to him. And I, you know, when I would request these guys to go on tour, all I ask of them is that they skate for exhibitions and whatnot. Matt wouldn't skate half the time. I flew him to Europe. I didn't have any money then, you know, in our company, but I was flying these guys to Europe for competitions. He would go to the contest and not feel like skating. And I was like, how can you do that? I was just thinking, not just to me, but to yourself. Like, you have this incredible talent and you just don't care. And then I saw Andrew Reynolds, who was the scrappy little guy, taking— not very clean, but in terms of his style, but trying some of the hardest stuff, taking the heaviest hits, but always skating his ass off and always trying. And he has become probably the most well-respected street skater today. Andrew Reynolds. I mean, he formed Baker brand. Deathwish Skateboards. The community of the most hardcore skaters these days call him the boss because he developed his style, because he worked his ass off, and he's the shining example of hard work.

People have asked me that over the years, you know, how do I curl the ball, how do I bend the ball? And it's something that just happened. It's not something that I thought, okay, I want to bend the ball. Better than anyone else, so I'm gonna kick the ball in this certain way. I just worked on my striking of the ball. I just practiced every day. It's something that I've done from a very young age. Even after every training session, I'd take balls on my own and just curl and kick and try and find new ways of getting the ball in the net without anyone touching it. And I've been lucky enough to have done that over the years with, uh, with the way I kick the ball. And I know that it's a unique style, and I know, um, I know it's a unique style just because my back hurts a little bit more than, than it did when I was, uh, 15 years old. But, um, no, you know, it's something that I practice, of course. You know, it's one thing I tell kids, and unless you practice, you're never gonna, um, you know, get better at something.

You have to practice over the years. I wasn't great in the beginning. I was all right, And then I got cool, and then I got good, then I got better, and then I got great. Those are steps to becoming great, and a lot of people ain't willing to, to take those steps. It takes 10 years at something continuously to become great at it, and I stuck with it for 10 years straight before I had a record deal, before I had money, before I had lights and camera, before I had, you know, people to sit down and interview me.

I need to practice. Remember, before the day comes, you got to practice. You cannot be standing at the free throw line playing professional basketball in the 7th game of the NBA championship and hope right then you're going to be practiced. Practice is too late. Larry Bird used to— the great basketball player— he used to shoot whatever, 1,000 free throws, 8 in the morning. My friend Adon Ravine trains a lot of the pro basketball players, LeBron James, he trains, he trains Durant, Kobe, Chris Paul, and he says these guys are up when everybody else is sleeping, they're practicing. So everything you want is gonna entail a good bit of practice.

I always believe that natural talent can, can take you so far, but I think you need to have the work ethic and the drive to to achieve your potential. I mean, I'd say, you know, my natural talent, you know, probably brought me 50% of the way, but then after that it was all down to the work that I've done and the volume of work that I've done over the last 15 years, you know, when I really started to take golf seriously and, you know, thought about, you know, making this a career.

Whenever you talk about ethics and integrity in the Indian context, the two companies that come to mind One is the Tata Sons and the other is Wipro. What is so special about these two companies that has been imbibed in these organizations? How is it done?

It's very simple. It's done by practice. There's no other way you imbibe things in an organization. It is practice. Integrity is practice. Leadership is practice. Innovation is practice. It's all practice. You've got to figure out what you want your company to be and what you consider as non-compromisable, not negotiable, and then set those out and keep them as simple keep them as few as possible and practice them and practice them every day, every hour, every minute, and have zero exception to them.

The advice I give to any young kid is anyone can play a game of football, anyone, but practice makes you a real footballer. You see games on a Sunday, pub games, all love a game of football. The real players have had a practice ethic about them. Anyway, you take that. I remember being at lunch in Glasgow many, many years ago, and Gary Player was the golfer, and they asked him that question, why do you keep practicing from the bunker? Because he was famous for going to the bunker. He says, well, I know I'm going to be in the bunker one time in the game, maybe twice in a game, and I've got to put in a hole. Is that's why I practice and practice and practice. That's a great example of what you have to do to be a top player.

Bulls can win it right here. The Bulls can win it. Unbelievable. 13 seconds left.

Jordan left side.

I practice as if I'm playing in a game, so when the moment comes in the game, it's not new to me. That's the beauty of the game of basketball. That's the reason why you practice. That's the effort. So when you get to that moment, You don't have to think. Instinctively, things happen.

Jordan drives, hangs, fires, yes! The Bulls lead 87-86. Michael Jordan with 45 points.

You know, I think it was a very defining moment of what my career was in Chicago.

The Chicago Bulls have won their 6th NBA championship.

If that's the last image of Michael Jordan, how magnificent is it?

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I'd love to know what did you think? What did you take from this? Are you gonna work harder? Are you gonna practice more? Are you gonna hustle more? Leave in the comments below, what was your favorite clip? What did you learn from it that you're gonna immediately apply to your business or life? Leave it in the comments. I'm gonna join in the discussion. I also wanna give a quick shout out to Himanshu Premi. Thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word, and making that awesome YouTube video around it as well. I really, really, really, really appreciate it.

I encourage everyone to read this book because this book has actually helped me to to find my one word, and I'm 100% sure that it will definitely help you to find your one word.

So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon. BB, do you still practice?

Yes, yes I do. Not nearly enough, but MW: I play every night practically, at least 4 or 5 nights a week. And I practice, but my practicing is not what it should be. In other words, to really just get down and play the scales on something, once or twice a week. But by me playing every night usually, I'm always running into something or accidentally falling into something that I hadn't heard before, and then you go back and look for it later on.

When you do practice, what do you work on? Do you have any specific exercises?

Or, uh, my exercises usually, uh, it's the scales mostly. Mostly that, and just all over the neck of the guitar, because if I keep doing it I usually will hear— and you start to playing with them. You keep hearing and you hear things that you can play with. You know, something like that. And that's what I keep doing until my fingers say stop.