Former Pittsburgh Steelers OLB James Harrison was no stranger to failure. Unlike many, however, he channeled his failures into progress, and that fueled his entire career. Harrison talked about his journey through the NFL recently on former teammate Ryan Clark’s The Pivot podcast. Most interesting was his explanation for how he motivates himself, in my estimation.
“I needed something negative. Don’t pat me on my back,” Harrison told The Pivot. “I’m dead serious. When we get into the meetings, don’t show me what I did great. I know what I did wrong. Show that to everybody. Let everybody see that because this is gonna motivate me and drive me to, ‘I can’t ever make that mistake again.'”
You will hear plenty of players talk about wanting to see their failures more than their successes, of course. Harrison certainly is not unique in that regard. But the extent to which the avoidance of failures drives him does strike me as uncommon. Assurances that he is doing a good job trigger nothing in him, assured as he is in his own self-assessment.
“I’m not the person that [responds to positive reinforcement like], ‘Oh, you could do it!'” Harrison said. “No, tell me what I can’t do. Because that’s what I’ve been told my whole life, and I proved you wrong. So that’s what I’m trying to do. I want to hear what you think I can’t do. Oh yeah, I need all that.”
Chances are you already know some of the highlights of the James Harrison story if you’re reading this. One of 14 siblings, he had difficulty convincing his mother to allow him to play football. His immaturity, on and off the field, threatened to doom his future before it began.
After major schools rescinded offers for him, James Harrison ultimately walked on at Kent State. Despite a strong college career, he went undrafted and bounced around the league for years, even playing in NFL Europe.
It wasn’t until a couple of years into his career that Harrison began to mature in his thinking. He struggled to understand the defense until, one day, he decided he wouldn’t let his knowledge be his source of failure. If his NFL career weren’t going to pan out, it wouldn’t be because of ignorance but talent.
But Harrison had the talent, so once he paired that with the knowledge, he was off to the races. In a few more years, he became synonymous with stellar, hard-nosed defensive football. He was the most feared player in the NFL and quite an intelligent one. He may not have the desire to coach, but he probably has the chops.
If it had not been for his late-blooming maturity, James Harrison would probably have been in the Hall of Fame. He has made peace knowing that he will likely never make it, though. Perhaps that’s partly because he knows he might not have even had a career in the first place were it not for the drive that pushed him beyond his failures.
