Where Does Greatness Come From?

A few weeks ago I watched a clip of the famous Hall of Fame speech that Tom Brady delivered as he was inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame.

Pause:
Please leave your football preferences out of this lesson!! This is about teaching the kids a lesson on consistency and work - not your favorite team!!

Back to the lesson:
As I am sure you know, Tom Brady is a seven-time Super Bowl champion and is highly regarded as one of the greatest NFL quarterbacks of all time.  According to Wikipedia, “Brady holds many major quarterback records, including most career passing yards, completions, touchdown passes, and games started. He is the NFL leader in career quarterback wins, quarterback regular season wins, quarterback playoff wins, and Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) Awards, and the only Super Bowl MVP for two different franchises.”

Pretty accomplished right?! I think so!

In his induction speech, Tom Brady says this: “The Truth is, to be successful, you don’t have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren’t - CONSISTANT, DETERMINED and WILLING TO WORK FOR IT!!”

When I heard this, it was actually quite profound to me. To hear someone who is so accomplished, who holds so many records, who has achieved the level of success that this man has, say that the reason he is where he is today is not that he is “special”. In his opinion, he didn’t achieve greatness by being born with an unnatural ability to throw or catch a ball. He wasn’t more blessed than others with a miraculous arm or given some weird muscle pattern that gave him an edge. No. According to him, he is where he is today by doing what anyone else could do. “Being consistent, determined and willing to work”. 

What a lesson to pass on to our kids.

We all have certain abilities and areas where we may be stronger than others. Most people have certain things that seem to come easier to them than to someone else. And we all have different dreams. But, according to one of the most awarded athletes in the country, it doesn’t take a miraculous gift to achieve the dream. It simply takes working hard enough and consistantly enough to actually get it done.

Mic drop Mr. Brady! Mic drop!!

Pass this on to your kids. Have a conversation and see what their take is. To me, it’s almost a sigh of relief to know that not all dreams require a miraculous gift that I may or may not have been blesssed with having. Achieveing dreams can just mean wanting it and working harder for it than someone else.

If you would like to watch the video - here it is.
*Starting at time stamp 16:20 is a great place to start!*

Stay consistent my friends and just keep going!

- Amanda