I want you all to follow me on this one but many of you won’t like it because of the football references.
I know some of you despise sports, but I promise this is about you, the artist.
We just witnessed the greatest Super Bowl of all time.
If you’ve read enough of my posts, you KNOW I’m a diehard Green Bay Packer fan.
I have exactly ZERO allegiance to the Falcons or the Patriots but I LOVE a good game, especially when I think of the mentality of the leaders, you know, how they keep it together in the face of certain defeat.
Sound familiar?
Do you ever feel like you’re not winning, you’re not going to win, and everyone is rooting against you?
Now I have your attention, huh?
We just witnessed greatness, y’all.
Great courage, great leadership, grit, and mental toughness.
We witnessed a plan being put forth and then execution of that plan. The execution of the plan, in the beginning, was clearly FLAWED by the Patriots.
But then they regrouped, adjusted the plan, EXECUTED, and achieved a greatness that surpasses winning the Super Bowl.
That kind of character and leadership comes from THE TOP DOWN. The leaders must have it for the team to have it.
The coach is required to have it.
The QB is also required to have it.
Then the team will respond.
QB’s get paid for the same reason you’re going to get paid; they make big, important game-altering decisions right now.
This is about YOU because these are the attributes that will make you successful REGARDLESS of your actual talent, luck, money, favors, connections, access to studios, what you have, or what you don’t have.
Tom Brady just became the first QB ever to have earned 5 Super Bowl rings.
He surpassed 2 other QB’s, Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw, who were the only other two Quarterbacks with 4 rings received from playing (as opposed to also coaching).
He just surpassed a very small, elite club to create a new club, for the moment, that is all his own.
This is what you are trying to do; create a club all your own.
Hey, it’s totally doable.
Here are some compelling facts about an amazing journey to think about and apply to your own situation.
The NFL didn’t think all that much of Tom Brady when they drafted him.
To be drafted in the NFL means you have a minimal level of talent but we always hear about the #1 draft choices like Peyton Manning, Terry Bradshaw, John Elway, Cam Newton, etc. If they don’t go #1 it’s still impressive (and far more lucrative for the athlete) if they’re drafted in the first round.
Tom Brady was a 6th-round draft pick number 199 overall.
That’s what the NFL’s vetting system thought of him.
Tom and his family were led to believe he’d go in the 2nd or 3rd round, but once they got to the end of the 5th round, Tom had to leave the house to take a walk and grapple with the idea that he might not play football professionally.
Sounds crazy, right?
How in the hell did the NFL get it so wrong?
Let’s look at what Tom Brady didn’t have.
Here’s a scouting report by the NFL
Negatives: Poor build. Very skinny and narrow. Ended the ’99 season weighing 195 pounds and still looks like a rail at 211. Looks a little frail and lacks great physical stature and strength. Can get pushed down more easily than you’d like. Lacks mobility and ability to avoid the rush. Lacks a really strong arm. Can’t drive the ball down the field and does not throw a really tight spiral. System-type player who can get exposed if he must ad-lib and do things on his own.
Summary: Is not what you’re looking for in terms of physical stature, strength, arm strength and mobility, but he has the intangibles and production and showed great Griese-like improvement as a senior. Could make it in the right system but will not be for everyone.
We all look bad on paper at some time.
I wonder, what are your intangibles?
This is where you must factor in perspective to help you with your faith in the future outcome of your career.
Get it?
I’ll bet you feel that way sometimes. Let me restate that, if you occasionally say to yourself, “What the hell am I doing here?†you’re on the right path.
To me, that means that you’re chasing something you love right now, but it looks bad on paper.
Tom Brady was not heavily recruited in college either. He was lucky to get a last-minute offer from Michigan.
So, he was grateful. An attribute that he still possesses to this day.
He had to EARN his way to a starter position and his ultimate satisfaction; being voted as the team-leader in his senior year.
How’s your humility these days?
Are you truly grateful for what you have or are you expending copious amounts of energy negatively stewing about what you don’t have?
What’s more is that he followed in the footsteps of Brian Griese (the prodigy son of one of the greatest NFL QB’s Bob Griese) who took Michigan to a championship.
Have you ever felt overshadowed?
Is there some ghost, legacy, or expectation that deep down inside you feel you have to live up too?
I have news for you, Brady’s numbers weren’t stellar in college. They were decent but they didn’t win a championship under his leadership. In fact, there were zero accolades. No All-American, no Heisman Trophy, no Davey O’Brien Award.
Ho hum.
Clearly, the lack of early blue ribbons has had exactly ZERO to do with the outcome of his career.
That should be encouraging.
The year Tom was drafted, there were a TON of QB’s in the draft including Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith, and Tim Couch all of whom went in the first 3 picks of the first round.
Have you ever felt passed over?
Have you ever felt a little inferior?
How about feeling like the competition is too stiff or too abundant?
Do you covet the success of your friends, acquaintances, and heroes who seem to have figured out their path before you?
Here’s the deal, Brady LOVES THE GAME. All aspects of the game, all times of the year.
In the pre-game banter, Michael Strahan shared a Brady anecdote. He recalled being at a small party, 4 couples, 8 people in April (after football season) a few years back. Michael went to make a drink and asked Brady if he wanted one. Brady replied, “No, I’m trainingâ€.
When you’re a student of the game, you seek to master all the facets of the game, even the not-so-fun parts.
This is a little gross, but effective, so forgive the reference, but y’all are students of the game when it comes to taking a crap.
There’s paperwork to be done afterward. Sometimes it’s real messy. But you do it, and you do it well because the outcome of a poorly executed plan in this situation is intolerable.
Marketing, for most of you, is the nasty paperwork that you don’t want to deal with.
Without an effective marketing strategy, I PROMISE, the outcome of your artist career will be intolerable.
Yes, you’re not good at it. YET.
This is where you need to have faith in your ability to learn about a MISSION CRITICAL piece of your success strategy.
 All you need to do is work for it. Who knows, you might actually begin to LIKE it.
In yesterday’s Super Bowl the Patriots were down 28-3 as late as half-way through the 3rd quarter!
To put it another way, the Patriots have now set a record; the biggest comeback in Super Bowl history.
BTW, don’t forget that Tom Brady was unfairly singled out and made a scapegoat for “Deflate Gate†from 2 years ago. With zero evidence (of a sin I believe every NFL team commits) they punished Tom Brady this season with a 4-game suspension, to show the world they meant business
Have you ever felt unfairly punished?
When was the last time you got a little angry or disgruntled because life is unfair?
Tom was at the top of his game and he got stung; badly.
It never stops, y’all.
Life is unfair to everyone of all races, creeds, and colors. We ALL get screwed over early and often. NOBODY has a life on a boulevard of unbroken green lights.
It just seems that way, man. That’s a story you’re telling yourself.
Who thinks that Tom Brady focused or stewed about this stuff?
Leadership is the key here.
Leadership and mental toughness.
YOU are the leader of your destiny.
If your leadership is effective, others will follow. If you’re not an effective leader, you’re going to feel alone.
Most of us watching last night’s game wrote it off as a blowout about half way into the 3rd quarter.
Brady only saw that he had a job to do and it wasn’t done yet.
He didn’t focus on the immediate past. He was in the present.
In the NOW. Always.
Brady has an interesting perspective on this. He says [paraphrasing], “You have to live in the present. Live like a kid. Why do kids have so much fun all the time? They are always only focused on what they’re doing right now.â€
This is how I want y’all to think. Forget about what you don’t have and focus on what you do have.
Forget about your last defeat and move forward to figure out how to get a win.
He and the Patriots were SO SCREWED half way through the 3rd quarter that statistically they weren’t going to recover.
Have you ever felt like that?
Do you feel like that now?
Has nobody from your circle, family, hood, or group of friends ever made a living as an artist?
What are the speedbumps that you’re allowing to become catastrophic, monumental career crushers?
The first 2 ½ quarters of last night’s game were a huge speedbump!
There were players, just on that field (let alone the entire NFL), with far more natural talent, who had far more early career breaks, who could run faster, jump higher, throw farther, who looked unbelievable on paper that couldn’t do what Brady did.
They didn’t do what Brady did.
I believe Brady is the only player and certainly the only QB with 5 rings received from PLAYING.
Whether you like football or not, this article provides UNDENIABLE PROOF that you don’t have to look like the best and the industry doesn’t have to think you’re the best to achieve greatness.
The past doesn’t matter.
Tom Brady had zero college accolades, barely made it into the NFL, has a mediocre arm, he’s slow, he’s tall but not as big as other QB’s, he had NOTHING going for him.
Wait, except for one thing; he really wanted to play football.
Some of you are a bit disgruntled because you have tons of talent and you’re getting no love from the industry.
Other of you are disenfranchised because you don’t have the incredible amount of talent you see with other artists, so you low-key feel you don’t belong here.
In both of these scenarios, y’all are not taking responsibility for your own careers.
The ONLY thing you can control is RIGHT NOW.
What can you do to step up your game as an artist with your art?
With your marketing?
Stay
In
Tune
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