LeBron James has become an all-star NBA player;
There’s no doubt that if you’ve heard of the NBA you’ve heard of LeBron James. He’s been absolutely shredding it in the NBA and caused one of the biggest stirs in basketball history, with his decision to move to Miami Heat in 2010.
There are so many things LeBron James can teach us about greatness, not just in basketball, but in life, entrepreneurship, self-development. His net worth is also over $400 million… so there’s that…
What LeBron James Can Teach Us
Achieving the success that he has done, taking the risks that he has done, there’s no reason for us not to pick up a pen and some paper, and start taking notes.
So, what can LeBron James teach us about greatness?
Check out the top 9 lessons we can learn from LeBron James, and how you can start adopting these within your own life, to take it to the next level.
1) Don’t Be Afraid to Make Decisions
For those who are fairly unaware of LeBron James; in 2010 he made ‘The Decision’ to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to join Miami Heat.
The fans were outraged, and his decision became one of the most publicized interviews in NBA, receiving a lot of hate from Cleveland.
Even though he’s now re-joined the Cleveland Cavaliers, this decision was such a crucial pivoting point in his career. It shows that he wasn’t afraid of making decisions, upsetting people and potentially making mistakes. He was willing to find out for himself whether playing for Miami was a better option for him.
And so, don’t be afraid of taking risks and making decisions. Without these factors in life, your years will remain the same and you won’t know what could have been.
Look at LeBron, he’s back at the cavaliers and he’s happy. But he’s experienced playing at Miami and so this is why he has the necessary life experience to have a clear conscience about his current life choices.
2) Encourage Improvement in Others
LeBron has said that his mindset is to think about his team first. To think about his team first allows the team to succeed and therefore allows him to succeed. So he encourages others and encourages his teammates to improve their game.
Last week, I wrote an article of some of the greatest short stories I’d heard. One of them was about a group of frogs travelling through the woods, and two of them fell into a pit.
The rest of the frogs told them to give up trying to jump out, it was too deep. One frog gave up and died, but the other kept on going and made it out. The difference was that the frog that made it out was deaf, and he thought the others were encouraging him.
Encouragement can be the difference between someone living and someone dying, between a team succeeding and a team failing.
By helping others, you help yourself.
3) Don’t Show Weakness
In the spirit of encouraging others, LeBron James has said that he’s determined not to show any weakness around his other teammates.
When you first read the subheading you probably thought I was talking about not showing weakness to other teams, right?
Well let’s look at it from another angle first. After a heavy defeat to the Chicago Bulls a month or so ago, LeBron said he will not show any weakness around his Cavalier teammates.
James is considered as the team’s leader and therefore to be a good leader and keep morale up within the team, he won’t show weakness. The others look up to him, and when they see his spirit, it will lift their own.
4) Always Stay Humble
LeBron’s family have never been the type to always agree with him and tell him he’s doing the right thing. They’ve often expressed their feelings to him when they think he’s wrong. He reckon’s this is why he’s manage to stay so humble over the years.
As a team leader, being humble is incredibly important for team morale and really being able to pull together as a team during tough times.
If you are arrogant, think the world of yourself and always act condescendingly towards others, then you will never be a good team leader. Your team won’t respect you.
Always stay humble.
“You know, my family and friends have never been yes-men: ‘Yes, you’re doing the right thing, you’re always right.’ No, they tell me when I’m wrong, and that’s why I’ve been able to stay who I am and stay humble.” – LeBron James
5) Take Notes From Other Greats
Taking notes from some of the other greats, not just in Basketball, or even sport for that matter, is crucial. This is because it allows you to continuously be picking up new wisdom and knowledge, not only in your own specialty, but in other closely related areas.
LeBron James isn’t the only NBA player to be chatting with other successful people to improve his knowledge. I mentioned a few weeks ago that Kobe Bryant also reaches out to successful people in order to learn more about what they do and why they do it.
It’s also worth mentioning that when successful figures reach out and ask to learn more about what people do, it shows just how humble they truly are.
So take notes.
6) Surround Yourself With Supportive People
The complete reverse of encouraging other people, actually surround yourself with people who encourage and support you.
Hate to refer to the whole ‘frog story’ I spoke about back in point number two, but this also works the other way around. If you’d fallen in a pit, you’d want the people around you encouraging you to get out of it.
Surrounding yourself with people who always put you down and don’t have your back, is a cause for disaster. Especially when you’ve been supporting them through the tough times.
7) Accept Others For Who They Are
Accepting others for who they are is the root to having fun and succeeding as a team. There’s no arguing, no putting others down, and it allows the team to gel and just have fun, rather than constantly be conflicting.
This is yet another thing that not only LeBron does, but that Kobe also realized during his career. When he gradually began to start bossing players about less, and focus on having fun as a team more.
8) Keep up the Persistence
There is absolutely no doubt that LeBron is persistent. Not just on the road to success, but after he’d become an established all star NBA player.
His various awards for ‘most valuable player’, ‘finals MVP’, ‘rookie of the year’ and so on is real life evidence. Not to mention that he’s the Cavaliers all-time leading scorer.
Whenever you reading up on successful people, or the habits that you need to become successful, you will always see persistence on the menu. Nobody becomes great in a day. Improvement requires persistence.
9) Don’t Let Fear Destroy You
Don’t let the fear of something destroy you. Whether it’s making a decision and upsetting people who might support you, or fearing your competitors and the work that they’re putting in.
Don’t let this get to you. Just keep putting in the work, focusing on yourself and your team, and making sure you’re doing all you can to achieve greatness. These are some of the fears that LeBron had to get over when he made the decision to switch teams, upsetting many of his loyal fans and teammates.
But he made the decision for himself and his own life.
“I always say, decisions I make, I live with them. There’s always ways you can correct them or ways you can do them better. At the end of the day, I live with them.” – LeBron James
To Sum Up
Just to recap, here are the top 9 things LeBron James can teach us about greatness, in short:
- Don’t be afraid to make decisions
- Encourage others to improve themselves
- Don’t show weakness
- Always stay humble
- Take notes from other greats
- Surround yourself with supportive people
- Accept others for who they are
- Keep up the persistence
- Don’t let fear destroy you
Thanks for reading guys, is there anything else LeBron James can teach us about greatness?
