
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Michael Jordan
When I was in Tehran a number of years ago, my movements were limited and closely monitored. I wasn’t permitted to visit any private Iranian homes. But one or two of those who went with me were Iranian-Americans, and they were allowed to visit family and friends. One of them reported having seen not a single portrait of the Ayatollah Khomeini, the “father” of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in any of the homes that he had visited — but that he had seen several photographs of Michael Jordan hanging on the walls.