Hanan was not our most gifted athlete

I asked my high school integral calculus teacher (who was also my junior varsity soccer coach) to write a college recommendation for me. He smiled and scribbled it out in like 30 seconds. His first sentence shook me up a bit.

“Hanan was not our team’s most gifted athlete.

But, he never quit. Whether it was during the summer’s double session practices or in actual games--he was a relentless competitor. His tenacity helped raise everyone’s game.”

As an 18-year-old, I dwelt a bit too much on the fact that Coach M didn’t think I was quite the talent that I had imagined I was. Self-perception at that age was a rare gift that I did not yet merit to possess. After many years though, I have come to understand that the words that followed were the point.?

I was pretty sharp when it came to math but so were a lot of other kids. I was expecting he’d write about my mad polynomial chops--but instead, he knocked the air out of my big fat ego-balloon, and then he wrote about something more important than having been gifted, through no fault of my own, with a numbers head. Instead, Coach focused on character and on grit.

Whether it’s in business or just life, we’ve all seen our full share of massively talented people, average people and everything in between. The dogged ones, however, the ones with grit and character--they win out over the talent-only people. Every single time.

OK, so here is my takeaway for you. Your life will never be a mediocre one as long as you are relentlessly learning and pursuing your best every day.??

My high school coach taught me that.

I guess that good advice is like a fine wine--it gets better with age.?