6th August 2020
Howard Stern is interviewing Jerry Seinfeld about how hard they both worked at their careers.
Howard Stern: “I thought (to myself), you know, it is possible to will yourself, maybe not to be the greatest in the world but to certainly get what you want.”
Jerry Seinfeld: “I’m going to adjust your perspective a little bit. That was no will. What you were using, what Michael Jordan uses and what I use, is not will. It’s love. When you love something, it’s a bottomless pool of energy. That’s where the energy comes from. But you have to love it sincerely. Not because you’re going to make money from it, be famous, or get whatever you want to get. When you do it because you love it, then you can find yourself moving up and getting really good at something you wanted to be really good at. Will is like not eating dessert or something that’s just forcing yourself. You can’t force yourself to be what you have made yourself into. You can love it. Love is endless. Will is finite.”
It is interesting Seinfeld mentions Michael Jordan. I’ve never fully appreciated how exceptional an athlete he is as Basketball is not a sport I get hugely excited about. But after watching a series which included interviews with him, I have re-assessed and am now in awe of his incredible talent and sheer dedication to excel. In the series Jordan mentions how competitive he and his brother were growing up and how his father used to tell him – but surprisingly not his brother – that he wasn’t good enough at sport or good enough at many other things. For your average person this would have crushed their spirit. But not him. This drove him to achieve. I doubt his parents knew in advance that this was the effect their words and attitude would have on him which re-enforces for me the unknown quantity we are as children and how much parenting is as much art as skill.
In May a pair of Air Jordan 1s that were worn by Michael Jordan and autographed were sold in auction by Sotheby’s for $560,000 which is the second highest sneaker sale ever. A collector wrote that he had a pair of Air Jordan 1 designed for Nike and again Michael Jordan in 1984. This is the oldest known sample of a pair of Jordan 1 and has already achieved an offer price of $750,000. Sneakers or trainers to us out of the loop, have become an asset class just like any other as people buy and sell them like any other valuable object, often not even wearing them before selling on.
I mentioned giant stars that have exploded in a post recently. Unbelievable that just a spoonful of the pure neutrons packed in a dying star would weigh billions of tons. This seems on the edge of nonsense to me as it is not something I can understand but it is jaw dropping science.
Curiosity and the rascal 