Michael Jordan: Not picked for the senior school team, so he trained harder
At 15 he was left on his school's junior team while a taller classmate went up. He used it as fuel for a year of practice.
Left off the list
Michael Jordan was born in 1963 and grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1978, as a second year student at Laney High School, he tried out for the varsity basketball team. The coach kept him on the junior varsity team and gave the place to a taller player.
A year of work
He has said he went home and cried, then practised every day. He grew several inches, starred for the junior team and made the varsity the next year.
The turn
He won a place at the University of North Carolina and, as a first year in 1982, hit the winning shot in the national championship final.
What came of it
He played professionally for the Chicago Bulls from 1984 and won six NBA championships in the 1990s. In a 1997 advert he said: 'I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.'
Not getting picked is a normal part of any working life. What you do in the next twelve months matters more than the decision itself.
The myth: He was not cut from his school team, as is often said. He stayed in the programme on the junior varsity team, which is less dramatic but still stung.
Where the facts come from: Roland Lazenby, Michael Jordan: The Life (2014); Nike television advert 'Failure' (1997).
