There is a great audio clip of a speech that the great football player Michael Irvin delivered a few years ago to the Univ. of Miami Hurricanes football team. For those of you that don't Mr. Irvin, he is known as one of the hardest working players ever to run on the gridiron, evidenced by his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame.
He very passionately talks about "the process" involved in being great, not just as a player but as a person. The long practices that left him past tired, pushed him beyond exhaustion. But those were the moments that defined his work ethic. He took those opportunities to keep going, with one foot in front of the other, making him better than all those that came before him.
My favorite part of the speech though is when he cites his fear of letting his heroes down. "I was scared of Eddie Brown and Stanley Shakespeare, the receivers who played before me, saying I didn't carry their [expletive bleeped out] that they gave me!!"He was afraid to stand in front of them as a man and hand them back nothing when they had handed him everything.
Irvin used that fear as a motivation to become a champion and it's something we can all draw inspiration from. There are so many people that have come before us and paved the way for us to be where we are at right now. It's up to each one of us to take the same stand he took. To not take these chances for granted and to one day pass on a legacy that inspires others to do the same.
"Because it's going to take process to get to the prize" - Michael Irvin