It's all about the team first, then myself. As I continue to help the team, I'll continue to build on my success, but it all starts with the team.
I have always said I want to work harder so I can develop, learn, grow, and improve. I love to play football, and when I come on the pitch, I want to do my best to help the team. It's up to the coach the position I play.
You want a better, more fraternal, more just world? Well then, start building it: Who is stopping you? Build it inside yourself and around you, build it with those who want it. Build it small, and it will grow.
As a player, you want to win everything as much as you can. If you're a footballer, you're a winner. When you then step up to the first team and you win something with them, that feeling is multiplied massively because you're at the top of the club and now you're winning so you want it more and more.
We can find athletes. The biggest challenge is personality. It's finding charisma. In most sports, they tell you to turn down the personality. Look like everyone else on the team. It's the team; it's not you. In this, it's the opposite. It's you, not the team. We want you to become the big star.
I don't think I've changed very much. I think I'm the same kid that I was when I got here. When I came here all I wanted to do was win games. I wanted to play baseball for LSU and be the ultimate team player. That's all I want to do. If we don't end up being the last team to win the game at the end of the year then I won't be happy. That's all I'm worried about this year.
Saying you want to be a model when you grow up is akin to saying you want to win the Powerball when you grow up. It's awesome, and it's out of your control, and it's not a career path.
Saying that you want to be a model when you grow up is akin to saying that you want to win the Powerball when you grow up. It's out of your control and it's awesome — and it's not a career path.
When I was younger I thought success was something different. I thought, " When I grow up, I want to be famous. I want to be a star. I want to be in movies. When I grow up I want to see the world, drive nice cars. I want to have groupies." But my idea of success is different today. For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity and not to give into peer pressure, to try to be something that you're not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. To contribute in some way.
The desire for success is inherent within all of us. It is a part of our nature to want to grow, to improve the quality of our lives. However, nothing improves by accident, it requires conscious attention. When you are being bombarded by negatives, improvement, growth and success are easy to forget.
You think if you make it to the NFL, it's a success. You make it there, but quickly you say, 'I want to be a starter,' and that becomes success. Then it's, 'I want to win a Super Bowl,' and that becomes a success.
That's probably the biggest thing for any team in the playoffs, for every team - if you want to win. It's not about your numbers. It's not about scoring. It's about the team and whatever it is you need to do to help the team win. Whether it's rebounding, taking charges, getting steals, blocking shots or guarding somebody.
If all the members of a team have synchronized their energy and they have all subordinated their egos to success of the team, then we have a functioning unit. If we have a lot of hotshots who want attention, you won't really play that well.
You want to win in the NBA you want to build a culture and teams will always do that and try to win. It's cutthroat. All 30 teams want to be that way whether they are rebuilding, have young players, have a style of play. It doesn't matter, everybody wants to win.
My success is the team's success. It's one of those things to a certain degree that it's effort and ability but also how I benefit from what my teammates do, and then it is up to me to perform.
I think Bellator gets it, they want to build a character around each and every guy on the roster. They want to build up the names and let people see the real sides of them and they can build that up.