What separates the good from the outstanding? The cream of the crop from the rest of the pack? No matter what walk of life you examine the difference in attitude between the most successful people and everyone is often what sets them apart.
A perfect example of this is Kieran McGeeney. You don't become an All Ireland winning captain with a 'sure I'll give it a go' outlook.
The drive of the former Kildare manager is perfectly shown in this great story from Johnny Doyle, which is part of a great interview with the retired player in today's Irish Times. Here he tells the tale about the day McGeeney left him playing with the B team in training:
The thing with Kieran is, he always challenged you. No matter where you thought you were or where anyone else thought you were. If you were only new onto the team or you were there as an established player.
We were playing an As versus Bs on the Tuesday before we played Donegal in a league match and I was on the Bs. I wasn’t overly happy with it and I went to him and I said ‘what are we looking at here?’.
He said: ‘you’re not where I need you to be’. And I said ‘what do you mean? I’m training hard’. I was sort of getting a bit vexed and I said ‘look, if you think there’s six better forwards in Kildare than me, fair enough.’
And he said ‘see Johnny, that’s your problem. I need you to be one of the best in the country. Not the best in Kildare’. My level of expectation wasn’t where he saw it. And that sums up what it is about Kieran for me. There is always more and he always looks for more.
via: Irish Times
