5 Leadership Lessons We Can Learn from Jeremy Lin

By Jessica Francisco 

Jeremy Lin, the starting point guard for the New York Knicks, has become an overnight basketball sensation. At 6’3, he went undrafted after graduating from Harvard University in 2010. He was cut by two NBA teams and later on, found his way to the bench of the New York Knicks. On the eve of being cut for the third time, he was given minutes to play after the team went down by a huge margin. He makes the most of his time, scoring at will and leading his team to victory.

Night after night, he scored points, dished out brilliant assists and leads his team to a 7-0 start; including a career-high of 38 points against basketball great Kobe Bryant to silence his critics. His life was never the same again. “Lin-sanity” had started and fans from different cities started watching him and chanting his name. He soon found himself in front of television cameras, not to mention being a trending topic in various social networking sites like Twitter.

With this phenomenon comes the question … how did it all start? What does Jeremy Lin have that makes his rise to the top faster than anyone else? Surely, history and morals played a part. But the most important question would have to be, what leadership lessons can we learn from him? In this article, we will tackle that important question by listing down the five lessons below.

1. Hard Work: Jeremy Lin failed to impress talent scouts during the duration of his high school and college basketball career. He was later on cut by both the Golden State Warriors and the Houston Rockets. Despite all these difficulties, Lin continued to work on his jump shots, added more muscles and increased his endurance that when his coach finally gives him minutes to play, his hard work pays off and he delivered.

2. Humility: Arrogance has hurt many a career, both inside the NBA and outside of it. Lin, by all accounts, has often been commended for his humility. There are actually two examples of it: First, with his newfound fame, he no longer has to sleep on the couch of his teammate. However, it did not propel him either to buy an overpriced condo on theUpper East Side. Second, every time he was interviewed in front of the camera after each win, he always deferred the credit to his teammates and never to himself alone.

3. Believe: There are essentially two parts of “believe” in the life of Jeremy Lin: himself and others. First, he believes in his own talent. He believes that with hard work, he will slowly rise to the top. He also believes that his time to shine will come sooner or later despite all the debacles that he’s facing everyday. Second, he believes in others. That “others” encompasses his coaches and trainers to make him a better athlete every game, to correct his weaknesses and maximize his strength. He also believes in his teammates to be there to bail him out when he needed them the most. It is no wonder then that in just his first five games in the league, he has already notch a double-double in points and assists!

4. Admit Failures: Losing is an essential part in the life of an athlete. What’s important is that you are ready to admit these failures and learn from them. For every loss the Knicks suffered, Jeremy Lin always blames himself and never his teammates. He has learned to minimize his turnovers, improve further his shooting and rack up more assists. With that in mind, we can expect nothing but just a whole lot more brilliance from Jeremy Lin!

5. Seize Opportunities: Jeremy Lin has been sitting on the bench for two years and counting. Given an opportunity despite a tall order in front of him, he quickly seizes and makes the most of it. He never knows what’s coming in store for him and the rest they say, is simply “Lin-sanity” or in a more appropriate term, the “Lin-derella” story.

So there you have it, the five Jeremy Lin inspired leadership lessons. Hope you can all learn something and use it in everyday life. Who knows, you might just become the next Jeremy Lin.

Jessica Francisco is a cheerful 25-year-old with an odd sense of fun. The least of her broad range of hobbies include swimming, hiking and listening to the music of Michael Jackson. Jessica is also one of the editors of Luke Roxas, a renowned Real-Estate Business Tycoon in the Philippines.

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