Ken Chapman & Assoc.
Phone: (205) 366-0265
Fax: (205) 366-0401
info@leaderscode.com

Close Window
Motivating Biographical Stories
 

Bobby Jones
Copyright © All rights reserved
By Ken Chapman, Ph.D.
Ken Chapman & Associates, Inc.

     Bobby Jones, one of golf’s greatest players, was only five years old when he first swung a golf club. By the age of twelve, he was winning club tournaments. During this time, he was known for his hot temper and he soon had the nickname, “Club Thrower.”   

     Jones became friends with a man named Grandpa Bart who worked part-time in the pro shop. Bart had been an excellent golfer and had retired when arthritis gripped his hands. After Bobby lost the national amateur tournament at the age of fourteen, he said, “Bobby, you are good enough to win that tournament, but you’ll never win until you can control that temper of yours. You miss a shot, you get upset, and then you lose.”  

     Bobby knew Grandpa Bart was right, and he became determined to improve, not his golf swing, but his mood swing. When Bobby won a major tournament at age twenty-one, Grandpa Bart said, “Bobby was fourteen when he mastered the game of golf, but he was twenty-one when he mastered himself.”   

     Records are always established in relationship to other people’s performance. But the true standard of success is established within the competitor. Let your “standard of success” be one that includes controlling your temper and taming your tongue. As a leader, that is an example that will serve you and the people who follow you very well. 

For more information about Ken Chapman and Associates’ Leadership Development Programs, contact Ken Chapman at 205.366.0265 or email Ken at kchapman@leaderscode.com.

<End>

Close Window