The following is a micro episode on mentality.
It’s just a five minute rant I went on with Nick during one of our recordings, a tangent really. I thought I would clip it and publish it since a few days ago the big story was about Weston McKennie.
Weston reportedly broke rules and, consequently, Gregg Berhalter kicked him out of the national team and sent him home.
Now, Weston is a 23 year old human being, flawed like the rest of us. So it’s not about him. He just happens to be in the news at the moment.
And just to make the point, a couple of years ago, the poster boy for lack of professionalism was Andrew Carleton.
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I don’t know if you remember, but he was a media darling who was supposed to become the next mega-phenom for the United States.
And it turns out his career, which never even got off the ground, was destroyed by the time he was 20.
History is littered with a spectrum of very talented players who either turned out to be absolutely nothing like Carleton, to those who ended up not remotely fulfilling their potential. And all due to poor mentality and professionalism.
Listen, we understand, not everyone’s mentality is built like Ronaldo, or Sergio Ramos, or Kobe Bryant to name just a few ridiculous outliers. But to even have a chance at a long successful career, you still have to be a mental savage compared to common humans. Especially in such a cutthroat business.
Otherwise, as a pro athlete, you’re playing Russian roulette with your career. You don’t get to be a normal human like the rest of us. By definition, you can’t be.
Okay, I’ll stop there with the intro, even though there’s a ton of detail we can go into. Speaking of which, you can always send me your thoughts to gary@3four3.com, or better, respond in the comment section here.
In any case, here’s the five minute rant I went on with Nick. Hope you enjoy.
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