How did failing make you better?
Sometimes the simplest questions give the best insight.
Chris Evert, tennis legend
“Losing to Martina [Navratilova] 13 times in a row, if you can call that a failure. (Chuckles.) I don’t know what else you’d call it. I was so stubborn I was playing the same way against her. That opened my eyes to thinking, ‘OK, you’ve got to change the game you play — go do something outside the box. Be consistent, get the ball back and wait for errors.’ I learned to come to the net, to hit a bigger serve. Failure and losses, they should be good things if you see the big picture. If you learn from your losses, even tough losses, you can be better for it. I know I was.”
Jim Larrañaga, Miami basketball coach
“I learned a very valuable lesson in my sophomore year in college. I decided I wanted to make a lot of money. I thought money was very important for me. I took a job unloading trucks and freight cars. They were refrigerated. It was the dead of summer and I was wearing gloves and a coat. I had to in that environment. So I made a heckuva lot of money. But that led me to believe I’m never going to take a job just for money again. I want to do something I enjoy. I enjoy basketball. I enjoy coaching — and I definitely don’t have to wear a coat.
Darrell Bevell, Dolphins passing-game coordinator and QB coach
“When I was 19 years old and on mission for church, I was out knocking on doors. As you’re doing that, there’s probably a 99 percent failure rate, as you’re knocking on doors and talking to people. I think that two years I spent doing that gave me a lot of perspective and helped me to grow in a lot of ways, helped me relate to people. Looking back on it, knocking on those doors and failing so much was a huge help for me.”
John McEnroe, tennis legend
“I played Jimmy Connors at the 1977 semifinals at Wimbledon. I was 18. I didn’t anticipate I could win. I supposed anything was possible, but I was petrified. When I got on the court, my legs were shaking. I lost the first couple of sets. But it dawned on me as it went on that he wasn’t playing well — not up to his ability. I won the third set. I realized this could be possible. I lost that match, but learned something about giving yourself a chance. Also, looking back, I realized if I’d won that match at the time my life would’ve changed so drastically I wouldn’t have handled it well. As it was, I went to college for a year. That was the best thing I could do. If I’d won that match, I’d probably have gone on the tour. So that loss helped propel me to a better life, I think, and to greater things in the future.”
Bill Zito, Florida Panthers general manager
“My mom just mentioned this to me the other night. I went out for a U.S. regional team. I got a phone call at 9:30 at night that I was cut. My best friend made the team. I went upstairs, got my sneakers and went for a run for two hours. I got back at like 11:30. That motivated me, getting cut like that. I was like a third-line guy as a player. But I became the hardest-working third-line guy I could be. If it had to do with work or preparation or something I could control, I was always ready. My mom says I was never cut again. Well, I was cut again. But getting cut that time made an impression on my life. My mom remembers that like it was yesterday. I do, too.”
Garrett Cooper, Marlins designated hitter
“My approach at the plate had to change when I came up [to the major leagues]. Something like picking my foot up high on my stride — that worked at other levels. But when I got up here it was something I had to change. It wasn’t working against the quality of pitching up here. That meant I had to re-think some things to give me the chance to succeed. That took a while to figure out. But that’s helped me become a better hitter right now.”
Brian White, Florida Atlantic athletic director
“I’ve failed at so many things. For me, failing as an athlete was a turning point. Most of us get to that point. As an athlete growing up, you played sports your whole life and realized one day you’re not just good enough. For me, playing in high school was all the ability I had to play. I dreamed of playing at the college level, but I learned I wasn’t good enough and wouldn’t be good enough. That was a real life lesson for me. It showed me I had to find my strengths and they weren’t going to be playing sports. I’d have to open other doors if I wanted to stay in sports.”
Claude Jones, former University of Miami tackle
“My experience when I first got to UM opened my eyes. I came in as a Parade All-American. I expected to get playing time my first year. Once I got there, I realized I wasn’t as good as everyone was saying I was. People had made me bigger than what I was. Jimmy [Johnson] showed me I had to work my way into a position. I had to learn to work, too. Then, going against Dan Stubbs, Bill Hawkins, Russell Maryland, Cortez Kennedy, I got my butt handed to me every day. I struggled big time. And that made me better.”
Mike Westhoff, retired NFL special teams coach of Dolphins, Jets, Saints
“Early on, I had a strong conviction of what I did. I believed in it. Sometimes to a fault. I thought, ‘this is how I have to do it.’ Then, I had happenstance encounter with [college coaching legend] Bear Bryant. I was coaching at Northwestern, stopped at Alabama one summer and walked through their football offices. There was one light on. There’s Bear Bryant sitting by himself. He said, ‘Can I help you?’ I introduce myself. We talk, he puts on his houndstooth hat and shows me around campus. This is maybe a year before he died. It was a hot day and at one point we sit down on the curb by the sidewalk. He said to me, ‘You want to be good in this business? You can’t be afraid to change. Sometimes we’re all a little stubborn. But you have to look at change not as a negative but a positive.’ If there’s one thing I look back on for what I got over the hump in my coaching, it’s that idea. Don’t be afraid of change. Take a look and do it another way. That became a mantra for me.”
