TOP
John Amaechi
Speaker Showcase

John Amaechi Stresses the Importance of Small Choices

By
2.02k
Join John Amaechi for an #IdeasChat Tuesday, August 12 at 11 a.m. CDT, and see him take the CIW stage this October 15, 2014 for Instigators: Voices for Change.
John Amaechi

John Amaechi’s #PayTheFEE stresses the importance of small choices.

As a teen in 1980s Britain, John Amaechi wrote over 3,000 letters to American high schools—a “handful of high schools from every state”—with the goal of playing basketball, the sport he had picked up just shortly before, at the age of 17.  Amaechi’s letter-writing campaign was a success, taking him to St. John’s Jesuit High School and launching a career that included two-time Academic All-American status at Penn and eight years of professional play with the Orlando Magic, the Utah Jazz, the Houston Rockets and others.

“[I was motivated] to become a great basketball player,” he explained, noting that he had no eye on money or a professional career. “It was singularly the expertise, the idea of being the best at something that I wanted to achieve.”

Now, he’s bringing his own brand of quiet tenacity to youth in Britain and beyond with programs like the Amaechi Basketball Centrein his hometown of Manchester, England.  His work extends to organizations outside of basketball, too.  Most recently, he was in Chicago to introduce CPS principals to goal-setting strategies that teachers can use with high school students.
 
“Helping organizations be better [and] helping individuals make better organizations is what I’m passionate about,” he said.
 
#PayTheFEErepresents his current efforts, a social media—not letter-writing—campaign that stresses the importance of doing “the mundane, the ordinary, the boring and banal to achieve the extraordinary.”  Only through concerted focus, effort and execution—the f, e and e of the acronym—can individuals find success on the basketball court and beyond.  Amaechi’s own approach to paying the FEE was one that was largely instinctual for him, borne of his experiences with his single mother, a doctor who recognized the importance of treating the mental alongside the physical. 
 
It’s also an approach that fits well with his introspective personality.  Ever the psychologist, he cites his place on the Myers-Briggs scale: introvert. As a player, he prepared himself for games by placing a towel over his head on the sidelines as the opening music revved the crowd up.  He ate the same breakfast (oatmeal with half a banana) and the same lunch every day (“the same boring lunch of chicken, broccoli or spinach, brown rice or pasta”).
 
“People don’t tie big things like playing in the NBA down to little things like making sure that you eat your oatmeal every morning,” he said. But Amaechi recognized he had a “tiny, finite window to make it” in basketball, and he was determined to make every choice count toward his chances.
 
Like his approach to building his athletic skillset, Amaechi’s basketball career was steady, not splashy.  Much of his social impact on the NBA was felt well after he stepped off the court for the final time as a Houston Rocket.  In his memoir Man in the Middle, Amaechi became the first NBA player to publically come out.  The move sparked a national conversation about homophobia, machismo and NBA culture—one that, perhaps unfortunately, continues to be relevant today.  When the Nets’ Jason Collins came out last year, media were quick to look to Amaechi for perspective.
 
But it is clear that Amaechi doesn’t view any revelations from his memoir as his legacy.  Instead, he remains focused on demonstrating to youth—and more broadly, all individuals—that hard work, determination and those pesky small decisions are central to achieving success.

“There is a way to take your future into your own hands, but it isn’t grand.  It isn’t esoteric,” he said.  “It’s actually about doing it every day.  It’s about considering the ramifications of every decision.”
Tags:
,

Erin Robertson is managing editor at Chicago Ideas.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

Chicago Ideas Week 2018

Chicago Ideas Week 2018

Chicago Ideas Week 2018