- [Narrator] Most people on Earth have the same fears.
They're scared of snakes, spiders, heights,
they're scared of public speaking, they're scared of
embarrassing themselves in front of a bunch of people.
Some people are scared of getting sick and dying.
They're scared of getting old and dying, or even worse,
they're scared of getting old and dying alone.
I understand all of these fears, but for me personally,
I have a completely different fear.
And it's not something that anybody really talks about.
My biggest fear is getting old and dying with regret.
And by the end of this story, I can promise you
that it will become your biggest fear too.
So this is Part Two of last week's video.
If you haven't seen Part One, go and check it out now.
You can click the link on the screen,
but we were in the middle of me receiving
the glorious red t-shirt, so let's pick up
where we left off.
With a huge smile on my face, I proudly said,
"I'll take a Large, please."
I was so proud in this moment.
That is, until he turned to me and said,
"Mitch, it was a difficult decision,
"but I've decided to not let you on the team.
"I think you're a good player,
"but it's just not a great fit."
(descending bass)
I didn't say a word.
I just looked at him in shock.
I remember when he said that, it felt like
somebody was reaching into my stomach
and just slowly twisting everything around.
It was the first time that I had felt real physical pain
from something somebody had said or did.
And also, when a coach says to you,
you are good, but it's just not a great fit for the team,
it's basically the same thing as when someone says,
it's not you, it's me, before they break up with you.
I think we all know what it really means.
So after a few moments of silence,
I managed to say the words, "Okay, thanks."
And then I took my red t-shirt, and I walked away.
I walked out of that gym without saying goodbye to anyone.
I didn't even make eye contact with anyone.
I just went straight to my car and I drove home.
And when I got home, I immediately just went to my room
and I laid down in my bed, and I began
just staring at my ceiling.
And I kept replaying all the events that had taken place,
just trying to make sense of everything.
I kept thinking to myself, how could the coaches
be so blind to not put me on the team?
Or, how could the players not pass me the ball more
so I could show off how good I am?
Because I really did feel, deep down,
that I was good enough.
And in the middle of my daydream, I hear a knock at my door.
(knocks on door)
And there was my dad, asking if he could come in.
I rolled my eyes and I said, okay.
I was expecting to hear the usual cliche comfort advice
of, you did your best, or, you will get 'em next time,
or, don't sweat it, kiddo.
Stuff like that, that we've all heard
a million times before.
But he sat down on my bed and looked right into my eyes
and he said, "I know you're upset, mad and probably confused
"but if you don't want to experience this feeling
"ever again, then you have to become so good
"that there is no doubt in anybody's mind
"that you are right for the team.
"Become so good that they can't ignore you."
These words really stuck with me.
After he left, I began to think about
what those words really meant, and as much as
I wanted to blame the coaches or blame the players
for what had happened, I knew at the end of the day
that it wasn't productive to think like that.
So instead of telling myself, the coaches are so
blind and stupid, and, the players are out to get me
or whatever, I told myself, the coaches are not blind,
but rather, they're short-sighted and they just
were not looking in the right direction.
And the only cure for short-sightedness
or looking the wrong way is to become so big
that no matter which direction they're looking,
they will see you.
So the next day, I started to practice.
But this time, it was to become the biggest and the best.
When I came to school the next week,
I noticed that there were two players from my school
who made the team, and they were wearing the red t-shirts.
And yes, Blake from Episode One was one of them.
I would see Blake and his friends wearing the red t-shirts
with pride and joy.
I could see in their eyes the confidence that
this t-shirt gave them and the status they received
just from wearing it.
And occasionally, Blake would say things to me like,
"I'd better not see you in that t-shirt.
"You didn't make the team." (laughs)
But it was fine.
I used all of these emotions within me,
and I just channeled it towards becoming better.
So two months go by where I literally just spend
all of my time practicing.
I didn't have a social life, my grades I think
dropped as well, I literally did nothing else.
It was borderline unhealthy.
I then wake up on a Thursday morning to my phone buzzing.
And I see that I had an email with the title,
Are you free this weekend?
And I saw that it was from the regional basketball coach,
a.k.a. the guy who cut me from the team.
I click it and I read that the regional team
was going over to Vancouver for the weekend
for this big tournament, but one of the players
from the team couldn't make it.
So he asked me if I wanted to play in for him.
The moment I finished reading this,
I actually became really nervous,
because if I did go over there, it meant that I had to
play in front of everyone, and show my face
in front of everyone after I'd been one
of the two players who got cut.
I didn't want them to see me play and to think,
yeah, it makes sense that he didn't make the team.
He's clearly not good enough.
But it was also an opportunity to show everyone
that It was a mistake for them to not put me on the team.
Plus, I had obviously been practicing really hard
so I knew what I had to do.
I told him that I would see him tomorrow,
and the next day, I packed up all of my bags
and traveled with the team to Vancouver B.C..
Once we got to the hotel, we actually had to go
straight to the basketball game,
because we were already running late.
So after a short warm-up, it was time to play.
I initially started off playing really poorly.
I kept thinking that I had to prove the coach wrong,
I had to prove the players wrong, but most importantly,
I had to prove to myself, to my little ego,
it was in fact a mistake for them to not put me on the team.
So the first quarter was over and man,
I was not feeling good.
I started to even doubt myself a little bit,
even though I knew I was capable of more.
But I took some deep breaths and I thought to myself,
okay, what can I do to improve my play?
After some thinking, I quickly realized that I am
playing for all the wrong reasons.
I need to stop playing to prove all these people wrong
or prove to my little ego that I am good enough.
What I need to do is to just play the game that I love
and play the game that I had been practicing for months.
The moment the second quarter started,
a teammate stole the ball and he passed it to me
for an open lay-up, which made me feel better.
Then shortly after that, I hit an open jump shot.
And I thought to myself, okay,
I'm feeling a little better now,
I'm not playing horribly.
And then 10 minutes after that, I scored a difficult
three point shot.
And before I knew it, I was starting to get into
the zone, but it wasn't until I stole the ball
from the other team and scored another lay-up
when I fully entered the zone.
And the way I would describe the zone is basically
where I cannot do anything wrong.
Everything kind of becomes easy, the ball becomes smaller,
the rim becomes bigger, I can't get tired,
it almost feels like I am running on a cloud.
And I stayed in the zone all the way up until the end
of the game, where we ended up winning by 11 points.
And I remember after the game, I was just sitting there
on the bench and I actually had no idea how well
I had played, because I kind of stopped focusing on
the points, and I just kind of focused on playing
the best as I possibly could during that game.
And it wasn't until the announcer said to me,
"Congratulations to Mitchell, you are Player of the Game,
"scoring 27 points, seven assists and five rebounds."
which blew me away, because I had no idea
that I had played that well, so at the end of the game,
the players, the parents and the coach
all congratulated me, and it was an amazing moment.
So here I was, the guy who originally got cut from the team,
the guy who was told he was not good enough
to becoming Player of the Game.
I'm sure a lot of you are probably thinking to yourself
that, okay, we get it.
Your proudest moment was when you played really well
and you proved everybody wrong.
My proudest moment happened long before this tournament
or long before I saw Blake bragging to all his friends
about the red t-shirt, or insulting me.
My proudest moment was when I started practicing
the day after I had gotten cut from the team.
Because that was the moment when I stopped letting
the opinions of others stop me from getting
what I wanted out of my life.
It was the moment when I truly started to believe in myself
and it was inspired from the advice from my dad of,
"Become so good that they can't ignore you."
In Episode One, I said there was an epidemic today
similar to the Black Plague,
but it's killing human potential.
The Black Plague of today is a combination of two things.
One is caring way too much about what other people
think of you, to the point where you start making
major life decisions based on the opinions of others,
like what career you want to have,
what kind of spouse you want to have,
what sport you want to play, or what type of hobbies
you want to have.
And two is simply not believing in yourself,
even when times get hard.
And the even scarier thing is that this Black Plague
is what leads to my biggest fear, regret.
Oftentimes we don't ask out that girl
because we are afraid of what she will say
or we don't take that art or theater class
because we are scared of what our friends will say.
Or in my case, we don't keep pursuing the sport
that we love because of the opinion of one person.
I'm not saying you should be delusional
and that you should not take the opinions of others
into consideration, especially if they know
what they're talking about.
But you can't let anyone's opinion of you,
no matter who it is, stop you from getting what you want,
especially if you're willing to work hard enough.
You have to believe in yourself before anyone else can.
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