Free How to Be Like Mike by Pat Williams

souls who devote 100 percent.
    —Andrew Carnegie
INDUSTRIALIST
    The National Commission on Productivity once found that only two of every ten employees work to their full potential, and that half of the workforce expends only the minimum amount of energy needed to get by. Which means there are great and expansive numbers of our workforce (perhaps even some at the National Commission on Productivity) who waste their days attempting to shake an extra Three Musketeers bar from the vending machine, or who hide behind the walls of their cubicle playing Tetris.
    Which makes those of us who actually do throw ourselves into work that much rarer, that much more valuable, that much more inclined toward success. One author’s study of self-made millionaires revealed, rather unsurprisingly, that none of them were among those who worked a pedestrian forty hours a week or less, fighting away the cobwebs of boredom while clocking in and out.
    Few people, during their lifetime, come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wheels of strength that are never used.
    —Richard Byrd
R EAR A DMIRAL
    It was not uncommon for Jordan to become embroiled in fights during practice. He didn’t tolerate mediocrity, even on a lazy midseason afternoon with nothing at stake. He had this need to establish himself, to elevate himself and to prove himself with every drill, as if, at all times, his reputation was perched over a pot of boiling water, on the verge of withering. At North Carolina, he’d stay after practice and challenge his teammates to one-on-one contests. Shooting, dunking, dribbling. He’d stay until he won something.
    The day after North Carolina lost to Indiana in the NCAA Tournament, ending Jordan’s junior year—the year after Williams first advised him to take a break— he was once again in the gym, practicing. Later that spring, his Carolina teammate, Steve Hale, saw Jordan in the gym, playing in a pick-up game with nine fraternity guys. “Why bother?” Hale asked.
    “Working on my game,” Jordan replied.
    Always. During the season, during the off-season; even now, in retirement, he continues to push himself. In shootarounds, he would arrive five minutes earlier than everyone else and stay five minutes later. Once, in San Antonio, says former NBA coach Bob Hill, Jordan rode a bike to a health club to lift weights, then rode the bike back to the Alamo Dome in time for practice. The day after the now-immortalized “Sick Game” in Utah, Jordan spent ninety minutes in the gym.
    “I would use one word to describe Michael,” said Charles Barkley. “ Obsessive. He was obsessed with being the greatest player possible. Everything he did was designed to be done better than anyone else.”
    One of the rules I have for myself when I work out is that I’m always going to be the last player off the field. If I’ve been taking grounders for two minutes or twenty minutes, and another player comes out to join me, I’ll stay on the field and continue working until he’s done.
    —Derek Jeter
N EW Y ORK Y ANKEES SHORTSTOP
    “In 1984, when we were on the Olympic team together,” said University of Iowa basketball coach Steve Alford, “MJ would always play after practice with Chris Mullin or me. He knew we could shoot, and shooting was the weak point of his game. By the end of the summer he was winning most of the games of HORSE we played. He amazed me. He worked so hard, even though he didn’t have to.”
    On the day of a game against Barkley and the Phoenix Suns in 1993, broadcaster Nick Pinto got to Chicago Stadium early in the afternoon to deliver some tapes. There, on the court, hours before tip-off, was Michael Jordan.
    “He’s been here all day,” a security guard said. “Shooting free throws.”
    There is a story about a trip to Boston during Jordan’s rookie season that coach Stan Albeck likes to tell. Albeck had the bus arrive at Boston Garden early one day. He had a reason for doing