14 Lessons from Tiger Woods (and Earl Woods)
“Achievements on the golf course are not what matters, decency and honesty are what matter.”
# 1 — Never listen to other people’s expectations.
A lesson that Tiger Woods learnt from his parents is to not listen to other peoples’ expectations. Living your own life and having your own expectations is all that matters and that you should care about. Forget the rest.
# 2 — Appreciate getting paid for doing something you love.
Golf is Tiger Woods’ addiction. He gets paid for doing something he really loves and enjoys doing. Playing golf for a living, there is nothing more one can ask for. If you are so lucky to do so, appreciate your privileged position.
# 3 — Golf is great, but changing peoples’ lives is even better.
Winning a major championship to Tiger Woods feels always great. However, nothing compares to the joy that a child can give you, if they write in a letter “Thanks so much. You’ve changed my life.”
# 4 — Set your modesty an end and expect that you will be the winner.
You need to strongly believe that you are going to win the competition. Let others also know that you have no doubts about your own level of performance.
# 5 — Fake it until you make it.
If you act and dress like a winner it will be easier for you to keep yourself in the right frame of mind, one of a winner.
# 6 — There is always room for improvement.
Winning championships and being the best doesn’t mean that you can’t improve and get even better.
# 7 — Surround yourself with the winners.
If you hang around with the winners, they will be familiar with the situations and pressures that you will find yourself in. Once in a while put yourself in situations in which other people don’t know that you are successful in. This will help you to keep your feet on the ground and look at things in a realistic way.
# 8 — The power of observational learning and the influence of parents.
Tiger Woods used to watch his father Earl practising when he was an infant. At the age of nine months, Tiger came down from his highchair with a mini putter and was able to hit the ball straight into the net. That was the moment when his father knew that Tiger one day would become a great golfer.
# 9 — Don’t push your kids.
If you study several sports professionals’ background, you will notice that many of them had parents who themselves were very active in sports but not as successful as their kids. It’s no secret that very often parents are the driving influence when it comes to their kids’ sportive ambitions. However, as a parent one should never push or even force their kids to practice a certain kind of sport if they don’t like and enjoy doing it. In Tiger Woods’ case it was always Tiger who had this desire to practice and succeed, he never felt that his dad would have pushed him. On the contrary, Tiger always wanted to play with his dad and he enjoyed doing so.
# 10 — Analysing yourself helps you to improve.
Tiger Woods was surrounded by professional coaches at the age of 4 and there was a whole team supporting him. Observing himself by going over videos showed him where improvement and some more perfection was required.
# 11 — Pay attention to your reputation, there is a lot to lose.
Once you are famous you need to take care of your actions because it will have an impact on your reputation. Don’t be naïve in thinking that if you have affairs with other women (while being a husband and father), nobody would find out about it. Once your incorrect behaviour becomes public in the media, it will harm your family life, your career, your relationship with many other stakeholders, such as sponsors, fans etc. It’s not worth it!
Earl Woods Lessons
# 12 — Praise your child for the effort, not the accomplishment.
Tiger Woods’ father had this strong believe that it’s important to praise for the effort that a child makes, not necessarily for the accomplishment. Criticizing in case of failure and defeat is also something that he did not use to practice. The only time Earl scolded Tiger was when he gave up during a junior tournament. His advice was that if he doesn’t want to finish a game, he should not sign up to play in the first place.
# 13 — It’s all about being a good person, not a good sportsperson.
For Earl it was not about raising a successful golfer, but instead raising a good person. He felt that golf was a mean to teach Tiger more about commitment, focus and personal integrity. He felt proud as a dad not when he won the Masters, but when the Tiger Woods Foundation opened an institute for kids called the TIGER WOODS LEARNING CENTER.
