University of Minnesota - UMN Executive Leadership Insights
Greatness
Book

Greatness

The 16 Characteristics of True Champions

Don Yaeger
Center Street, 2011
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Editorial Rating

6

Qualities

  • Well Structured
  • Concrete Examples
  • Engaging

Recommendation

For more than two decades, journalist Don Yaeger, a former Sports Illustrated editor, had a front-row seat for observing greatness at sports fields, boxing rings, basketball courts, Olympic swimming pools and racing tracks: wherever great athletes competed. Yaeger spent hundreds of hours discussing greatness with elite sports performers. In his solid exploration of how to achieve greatness, he draws on the inspirational lives and character traits of great athletes. This is great fun – if not exactly great literature – and filled with triumphant stories. Yaeger’s insights will engage athletic adolescents and anyone who loves sports (particularly US sports, given the terminology) and who wants to learn about the personalities of champions.

Summary

Greatness

Everyone can cite an example of greatness, but defining it isn’t easy. Those seeking illustrations of greatness know that it often manifests in the world of sports.

Small, subtle differences separate the world’s greatest athletes from their rivals. Those tiny margins spell the difference between levels of greatness. For instance, during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Usain Bolt beat Michael Johnson’s 1996 world-record time in the 200-meter event by only 0.02 seconds. In 2010, during the Butler University vs. Duke University National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s basketball championship game, Gordon Hayward failed to make a basket from half court with his last-second buzzer shot. If the ball had struck the backboard one inch to the side, he would have made it, and Butler would have won.

Research concerning the world’s greatest athletes shows that longer practice, superior stamina and sustained effort distinguish true champions. Such research suggests that anyone can become great through exceptional, concentrated and sustained exertion. “You have to be willing to do things the masses would never do,” says Steve Bisciotti, owner of the Baltimore...

About the Author

Don Yaeger, an associate editor at Sports Illustrated for 10 years, is a journalist and the author of numerous books, including Running for My Life, which he co-wrote with Warrick Dunn.

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