Tiger Woods, The Sequel

Posted by Pinky on Apr 6, 2010 in Blog | 3 comments

Do you guys remember that one time when Tiger was totally caught with like 15 chicks in a gigantic sex scandal and it was all over the news and everything?  And like, all of his sponsors totally bailed and then he came back and won all those tournaments and everyone completely forgot about the scandal and all the companies that swore they would never pay such a scandalous character to hock their wares totally did and he ended up making more money in the end than he would have otherwise?

Man… that was crazy.

Disclaimer: I wrote that from the future, where everyone is less intelligent and fully aware of how mighty-a-comeback Tiger Woods made by doing what he always has done – playing golf better than anyone ever has and keeping his personal affairs personal.

If I were “reinventing” the Tiger Woods brand right now, I would focus on just one word.

Perseverance.

All he has to do now is maintain that he screwed up, faced his demons and is a better man for it.

And win.

And he will.  I say with great confidence, two days before his comeback appearance in this year’s Master’s Tournament, that Tiger Woods will win multiple majors before he retires from the sport, and we will remember him as one of the greatest athletes of all time.  But more importantly, it will be his resurrection from the scandal that will cement his place as a true legend of golf.  Lots of guys break records, but the greatest player of all time broke them all, was destroyed by his own actions, and rebuilt his legacy from the ashes.  It’s a far more powerful story than simply being the best and being a great guy, as much as we would like to think otherwise.

Same with Brett Favre.  Granted, his fall from grace was more about fan nostalgia and his indecisiveness about retirement than about fast times and even faster women, but he was written off by most of the world as a has-been and a sore-loser, and then came back for multiple playoff-earning seasons, becoming the oldest quarterback ever to play the game on such a level.  And now we like him again.  Yay!

People are easy, wired for drama and forgetful.  This stuff writes itself.  But the lesson of the day is this:

Be the best at what you do and do it it consistently.

Piece of cake.