I know I have written about this topic before, but it reminded me again when I had the rare opportunity to listen to two of the most successful golfers of all time - Justin Rose and Jason Day. Justin Rose, the current world number 1, was born in Johannesburg, and his parents moved to the UK when he was 2 years old due to the uncertainty that South Africa faced at that time.  He is somebody who believes in hard work and put in many hours into being the best at what he is, as does Jason Day, the Australian born player who is a former No 1 in the world and currently rated No 13.  As Tiger Woods’ former coach, Sean Foley, said, a lot of people believe that Jason Day is extremely talented at putting and he is just so lucky that he is so good at it.  His perspective, having coached both Tiger Woods and now Justin Rose, is that talent is a word that mediocre people use to have an excuse as to why they have not achieved success.   

In other words, despite the fact that he has coached two separate players who have been No 1 in the world, and one who is considered the greatest player ever to have played the game, not to mention the richest sportsman in history, Tiger Woods, is that hard work (and not talent) is what sets aside No 1 from the rest.  Of course, some people will never have a certain talent – they might not have much sports ability, but you don’t get to being the best in the world at something simply because you have talent.  You invariably get there because you are the hardest working player in the world.  Tiger Woods was always famous for the hours that he put in as is Jason Day.  Jason begins every day with 2½ hours practicing putting.  Only after that does he get onto other aspects of his game.  By comparison, I would be lucky if I do 2½ hours practice of putting in one year which is why I play golf, not too badly, for a hobby and he does it as the best player in the world.  This applies to everything – we all think, when we watch somebody like Mylie Cyrus sing, she has just been lucky, has stumbled across the right people and has become a famous pop star.  It’s just absolute nonsense – they don’t get there without years and years of practice, training, support from their parents and a single-minded determination to become the best at what they do and it applies to the office and at home.  Are you, for example, being the very best mother or father that you can be in the limited time available to you, etc?  You cannot be everything or being good at everything, but there are some people who only work 2 or 3 days a week and then have excuses as to why they were not able to help their child in their spare time to do better at school – and I am speaking about somebody I know.  It is just laziness truthfully, but that is another topic for another day.