Daily Motivations - THE ART OF LOSING - for Success

Episode Date: July 24, 2025

The best in the world know they will lose again and again, but they have learned how to deal with it. Speakers: Serena Williams Roger Federer Chris Williamson LeBron James Kobe Bryant Walter Bond Eric Thomas Patrick Bet-David Tom Brady Tim Grover Morgan Housel Chris Bumstead Frank Bruno Mike Tyson Greg Plitt Alex Hormozi Michael Jordan Ryan Holiday Stephen Curry Coach Pain Marcus “Elevation” Taylor Conor McGregor Michael Jordan Tiger Woods Kobe Bryant Muhammad Ali Venus Williams Floyd Mayweather Babe Ruth Instagram - @daily_motivationsorg Facebook- @daily_motivationsorg Kindly support us Support Us

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If you have questions or concerns about gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. Bid MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. I'm Erika Alini, a reporter at The Globe and Mail. I help you understand how the economy affects your finances. I give you the big picture so you can make better decisions. If that's journalism you value,

head to globeandmail.com slash subscribe. I hate losing, I mean that's no secret. But you gotta lose, I feel like every time I lose I get better. And I think it's important for me to have losses. The best in the world are not the best because they win every point. It's because they know they'll lose again and again. And have learned how to deal with it. The Florida Panthers have won the Stanley Cup!

But it's going to be too late for New Zealand. Australia now has their gold medal. And Woodman is inconsolable on the pitch. And the New York Giants, one second away from pulling off this upset. The Giants have won the Super Bowl. And after a 22-year absence, the Boston Celtics are NBA champions once again. What I've learned is to always keep going.

There's been times, particularly early in my career, where you just feel like this is the end. But what I've come to find out is that no matter what happens, the storm eventually ends. And when the storm does end, you want to make sure that you're ready. It's a run by 10, and time is beginning to run out for the Chicago Bulls.

But the Pistons are going to move on to play the Lakers, and the difference... We had a chance to beat them. We just didn't respond. I was devastated. I was absolutely devastated. I cried on the bus. My father came home and said, look, it's just one game.

Bounce back. Come back next year. Jordan from deep. Michael Jordan has stacked it in. Jordan Piston heading back to the locker room. Their season has concluded while the Chicago Bulls advance to the NBA Championship round. Successful people see opportunity in every failure.

Normal people see failure in every opportunity. Both are right. Only one gets rich. You can't control the outcome all the time. Like the ball's going to bounce the other team's way. Like, sometimes it should go the other people's way. It shouldn't always go your way. You get motivated by the losses.

You stay motivated through the winning. What you can control is your process. You can control the work ethic, the consistent discipline, your attitude, your culture, how much you care. All those things are in you. They just need to be drawn out of you. If you don't fail, you're not even trying. The truth is, whatever game you play in life, sometimes you're going to lose.

A point, a match, a season, a job. It's a roller coaster with many ups and downs. And it's natural when you're down to doubt yourself and to feel sorry for yourself and by the way your opponents have self-doubt too don't ever forget that you want to become a master at overcoming hard moments that is to me the sign of a champion Chris Bumstead he is the Mr. O'Leap oia Classic Physique champion four years in a row. This guy is, he looks like he's carved out of stone. He's the modern day Arnold Schwarzenegger, people are making a lot of comparisons.

He doesn't have the tyrannical self-belief that someone like a Michael Jordan does. So you know, a Michael Jordan is, he wouldn't even dream of losing if anybody slighted him. There was this sort of rage fire that was lit underneath him. But Chris's approach is very different. He's like, I think about losing all the time. It's like, I'm scared of losing. I'm scared of losing to my opponent. But his idea was that because he has accepted the fact that he may lose, he believes it's given him the potential to be able to put it all on the line in a way that someone who hadn't considered the possibility of losing wouldn't be able to do it.

You know, the way I view it is sometimes you have to lose to win. And last year we lost, and I think it set us up and put us in a better position to win this year. The number one goal from everybody here will be to win. And when that is the number one goal of everyone that walks into this building, everything else you figure it out. Sometimes you succeed, Sometimes you fail. And that's just the nature of it. Get rid of fear. It can be an engine to motivate you and make you work hard. But at a certain point though, fear can hold you back. It's easy to get complacent and to start thinking,

man, I've done alright, I'm comfortable. Let me not risk trying to do something I'm not sure I can do. Sometimes you fail, but sometimes you succeed. And you can learn from both, right? As long as you're willing to be self-critical and kind of evaluate when things don't work, why they didn't work, that you don't need to be afraid. And that's going to hold you back. You don't need to be afraid. And that's gonna hold you back. From the outsider's perspective, everything looks like it's easier

and better run than it actually is. But if you have the insider perspective of how the sausage is made, you realize how inefficient virtually everything is. And so I think that's a big part of life, is just realizing that success is harder than it looks. We talked about this earlier with Tiger Woods, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, all these people, like if you actually dig into what their life is,

it's infinitely harder than it looks. I think in most endeavors in life, people perfectly understand the relationship between price and quality. You want a nicer car, it costs more. A bigger house, it costs more. But that like understanding goes out the window when you're talking about career success or career fulfillment or personal health, things like that. The relationship just kind of breaks down in their own mind. But it doesn't go away. The higher the success, the higher the cost.

I love reading biographies of entrepreneurs, of generals, whoever it might be. With very few exceptions, do I finish the biography and think to myself, I want that person's life? What I think is, I'm glad they existed. I'm so glad the world had that person that we can all benefit from. But the crazy success comes with the cost that very few people, including most of the time myself, are not willing to pay.

A lot of things happen in our life. We all face our challenges and adversities, and we all go through things, and I think life is about dealing with a lot of things that you didn't want to have happen in your life. You know, we all face our challenges and adversities and we all go through things and I think life is about dealing with a lot of things that you didn't want to have happen in your life. Whether it's your business or whether it's sports or whether it's personal or you know children and like I said we all have our unique challenges but do the best you can do. Show up every day and and make the commitment to yourself and the people that count on you, the people

that you support you and through a lot failures, you're gonna learn a lot and you're gonna hopefully be humbled. Because sometimes, you know, you give your best and it doesn't work. And I learned that in sports and you learn it in life in different ways too. Sometimes you try your best, you work hard, but it just doesn't in the end go the way you want.

So what are you gonna do, quit? You're gonna just blame everyone else? You're gonna go in there and blame the guy next door and blame that person, blame the dog and go out there and sleep in till 10 o'clock? Or you're gonna get out of bed, wake up and go do something about it? What one small step could I implement in my life? What's one small change that would increase the probability that the next time I'm in this situation that I would come out as a winner rather than a loser that's like okay you can feel good and not learn or you can learn and feel

terrible that's part of the art of learning to lose gracefully. Take a pause before you make a decision and say what if. Take a negative and turn it into a positive. Don't be afraid to fail. For many times I was laughed at and not believed in, but I was still a kid with a dream and a belief in himself. I feel I still have room to improve. I still set goals for myself to strive for. I'm never complacent with what I've achieved.

We have money, we have everything, we have fame. But the most important thing is the family. Keep your family healthy, good, and take care of your family because this is the most important thing in the world. Failing to prepare was preparing to fail. The night before a game, I ate the same food, I went to bed at the same time, I got up, I ate the same breakfast. Some people call it superstition, but it's a routine.

I went on the courts with just a ball and a racket and a hoe. Because you might be actually not feeling great physically or mentally, you're drained, but the confidence somehow gets you through and when you don't have confidence that's then when you have to sort of trust all the hard work you've done and you have to keep on working hard so success comes back. I make mistakes but I strive every day to be a perfectionist. Set yourself a definite goal and work hard toward that goal and don't let anything or anyone stop you in the process no matter what it is. I didn't really care about the standings or the perception of my style or whatever as

long as I could keep learning these new tricks. So as I was successful in competition and winning a lot of the events, my job was to keep getting better. All of you, I know you got him. I know you got him picked, but the man's in trouble. I'm going to show you how great I am. People perform better when there's no safety net. People perform better in sports and everything else if you don't have a Plan B. We were down 1-0 and if you walked into our locker room at halftime, you thought we were up 3-0.

Nothing external can defeat the internal. The only thing that can take someone down or break you down is internal. Nothing external is strong enough. You just never give up because you never know what can happen. You never know who you can inspire and who you can influence. I'm not going to go out and say I'm the greatest this or that. I just I was a kid with a dream. That's it. You have to fail in order to climb that ladder. You are fighting the greatest fighter of all time.

And I fought because I knew it was not going to be a losing fight. It couldn't be a losing fight. You know, as long as you believe in what you're doing and you're doing things you love to do, then you can go out there and be the best at it. And that should give you a lot of enjoyment and fulfillment in your life. That should give you a lot of enjoyment and fulfillment in your life. Always keep an open mind that there is something out there for each and every one of you. And it's up to you to go out there and find your niche. You learn to stick with it. There are lots of days where you don't really feel like doing it or you don't feel like grinding it out and

you got to do it. You know, those are the highs and lows of being an athlete and if you want to feel those highs, you got to go through those lows every now and then. This time when you run and you just want to stop, you just want to give up like, to hell with it, you just want to go home. The day when you get up and you know what, you have a training today, you know it's gonna be intense, you're like, oh God, I don't wanna go today, but you gotta go. When you play sports and you're committed to something,

the commitment, the responsibility of showing up to practice on time, to being there for your teammates, to listening to your coaches, it's a responsibility that you have when you're playing with a group, that you have to hold your end in a bargain. When you have to make a putt, you make a putt.

You have to hit the shot, you hit the shot. You just sort of drop into another zone, and you block out everything. Sometimes the wheel can outdo the skill, and sometimes a fellow's wheel is stronger than the man who's actually better physically, and the determination weakens the other man, just to see him so determined. I still feel I have a lot to prove not just as a player but as a person, as a father. When I get to a

point where I feel I can improve as a player I walk away from the game. Hard f**king work. You put it in, you believe in it, you will succeed. Everything was done to try to learn how to become a better basketball player. Everything. Everything. And so when you have that point of view, then literally the world becomes your library to help you become better at your craft. Some of the best athletes, the greatest athletes in the world do things when they're uncomfortable. You just have to stay calm because it's not finished until the last point no matter how close you get. I've been working so hard all my life to be here and I was

determined to get this. You gotta start from way down the bottom. You gotta let it grow up with you. And if you're successful and you try hard enough, you're bound to come out on top. Just like these boys have come to the top now. Mentally, we have a vision, we have a finish that we have to attain, you know. And sometimes you have to do it when you're old and you're tired, you know,

and I think it's the test of your will to succeed. Tired don't mean nothing. Tired is only in the mind. You tell yourself, be tired, you're gonna be tired. I don't get tired. I'm going to beat you. I'm going to, you're gonna be tired. I don't get tired. I'm going to beat you. I'm going to let you know I beat you.

I'm gonna want you to reconsider your professional life choice. My father who raised me, his thing was, son, you may not be the best, but leave everything on the floor. You put 120%. I'm just asking you to do 120. Like, every day when you come in, 120. You gotta want it so bad. You gotta give all of yourself to get it. You gotta be obsessive.

Because I didn't grow up with things being handed to me. I had to work hard, I had to dedicate myself, and I had to be determined, and I was. The bottom line is that if you're talking about beating everybody else on the planet to a thing, what you're actually talking about is what are you prepared to sacrifice psychologically, physically, existentially, relationally, socially, in terms of your self-esteem, your comfort and everything, right? All of that.

That pain you feel, that's a pain in success. You must be willing to shoulder that pain to get success. Success is something that's a very lonely path in this world. Because few are willing to make that down payment of pain, that futurement of success that better life. Very few are. So if you want to be the top, you got to move different. There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with me out there.

There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with me out there. There wasn't a lot of smiley faces with Michael Jordan. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Kobe Bryant. There weren't a lot of smiley faces with Tiger Woods. Even when I watch sports today and see these guys on the range, like they're all buddies and I'm like, that's not the killer instinct. That's just not. I don't think Muhammad Ali or Mike Tyson were trying to be friends with anybody. I think they were going out there on a mission and if there was someone in their way, they had to crush them. At You can love me. You can hate me. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to win. At the end of the day, even Alexander, one of his famous quotes is, I have met the enemy, it is I, right? And although that is one element of an enemy, that's great. We need that. Michael had it, Brady had it, Kobe had it,

but there's a crazy psychologically, you can call it, you know, psycho competitor that they're constantly in the search of recruiting their next enemy. It's like, you know, life is boring if I don't have my next target. You know, I'm almost, you know, bad for myself if I don't have the next target, the next enemy. And if I choose it the right way, then I'm able to bring out a side of me I've never seen before.

Success is the only revenge. As you expand, they shrink into irrelevance. As you get louder, no one can hear them. You don't beat them. You cast a shadow so louder, no one can hear them. You don't beat them. You cast a shadow so big, no one can see them to begin with. And that's what it comes down to, like what are you willing to sacrifice at the end of the day? You know, people don't understand

the level of sacrifice it's gonna take. And there's been moments where I realized that I compete because I wanna win. I love winning. I love being the best in the world. I've sat many times trying to find the balance of what I want within all this. If I was losing, I wouldn't be competing. I love being the best in the world. I've sat many times trying to find the balance of what I want within all this. If I was losing, I wouldn't be competing. I'm here to win.

It is hard. It's hard when you're young to wake up in the offseason at 6 a.m. to go train and work out, knowing that all your friends are sleeping in and eating pancakes. It's hard when you're on your way to practice, way down with all your gear, and it's 90 degrees out, and all the other kids are at the pool or at the beach. No matter who you are, there are bumps and hits and bruises along the way.

And my advice is to prepare yourself, because success and achievement come from overcoming adversity. When the rest of the world says no to you, you say yes to yourself. You say yes, I believe. You say yes, I can do it. You say yes, nothing can stop me. If you want to be a great player, if you play every single day, two, three hours, every single day, over the course of a year, how much better are you getting? Most kids will play maybe, you know, an hour and a half, two days a week. It's not going to get it done. It's not gonna get it done. You have to be obsessive.

You have to be obsessive. You have to be addicted. You have to be disciplined. The key there is you. Everyone else is looking for other individuals to do stuff for you. Stop looking for f***ing help from everybody else.

Okay? It starts and it ends with you. Your identity starts and it ends with you. Your identity starts and it ends with you. Every day is an opportunity based on your choices on how you look at things, the choices you make every day. That is what you are in the mirror to that. From the captain to the cashier there is more in you. Stay at home father, stay at home mother, lawyer, doctor, hygienist, author. I don't know who you are, where you're from, but there's more in you that becomes a part of who you are. That changes how you think, that changes how you move, that changes how you behave.

If you could become an executor, if you could execute, I'm talking about learn it. I'm talking about put it deep within. Now you hear it. You have to realize that there's always work to do and you want to be the hardest working person in whatever you do and you put yourself in position to be successful.

Mahomet Ali said, suffer now and live the rest of your life a champion because he knew that the training wasn't killing him. The training was making him. It was forging him in fire. I got to trust that nothing out there can stop who I am inside. You got to stand on your faith. You got to stand on your strength. You got to stand on who you are. I will rise again and I will push. I will be the victorious one. I will conquer. Listen to me, if you work forward, if you willing to put in that sweat, that blood and those tears baby, I'm telling you, you can have what you won't be what you won't do what you won't are you hear me? Don't give up don't give in you hang in there you hang in there because if you quit right now You ain't gonna never see it. You ain't gonna never get it, but if you hold on baby

But if you hold on if you hold on everything, everything you dreamed of, everything you envisioned, everything you worked for, it's coming. If you work hard, you can't have it. It ain't nothing you can't have. You deserve it. It ain't nothing you can't have if you willing to work for it. Look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself, how much more can you take? What tried to kill you only made you stronger. So what are you waiting for? You have greatness within you.