WARNING: If You Are Clueless On What
Your Future Will Be Like After Being A
Basketball Student Athlete, Don’t Even
Think About Success Until You Become
A Student Of Self Improvement.
Dear Basketball Student Athlete,
If you are in High School, it is vital you read this document with your parents.
Previously I gave you a FREE copy of my book Basketball To Success™. How To Be The Prepared Student Athlete & Not Foul Out In The Game Of Life. Go ahead and look on Amazon.com and search for Basketball books. You will find books Basketball Autobiography books, Coaching books, Basketball Training books…the list goes on. But one thing you won’t find is a book that is concerned about you the person and not you the player and how to be successful after basketball.
What is Basketball To Success™?
The game of Basketball has fundamentals. The game of life also has fundamentals for success. It starts with knowing and applying self improvement principles. My company helps basketball student athletes prepare for their future today through self improvement. Once this solid foundation is set we provide resources that will deliver tools so that players can use Basketball as a ladder in life to go from Basketball To Success™.
As you analyze each word of this document you will shortly feel a sense of focus.
There is a saying that, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” That is so true. I think back to when I was a Basketball Student Athlete, I had no clue on what Self Improvement was and no clue on what I wanted to do with my life after Basketball. If I had the mentality I have now when I played, I can’t begin to imagine what I would have accomplished in life.
My first job was at the Oakland Zoo at the age of 14. Since then I have had over 10 jobs. After graduating college, I transitioned from having a “job” to starting a “career,” in training Doctors Nurses and Hospital staff on a specialized software. I have two certifications and have been to over 20 Hospitals training and supporting the software [www.Epic.com]
Here is a fact for you, according to the NCAA, there are 553,000 male high school basketball players and 450,000 female basketball players. Assuming that one quarter of them graduate each year, 1.3% of male players and 1.8% of female players will get an athletic scholarship.
Even if you are/were good enough to play professionally (overseas or NBA) the average career is about 4 years. I am sorry but 4 years is not a “career.” I want you to realize that you should use basketball as a ladder in life.
Realize, if you work hard on your job you will make a living, however, if you work harder on yourself you will make a fortune!
Why is Cordell sending this?
I want you to take your aspirations to the next level. If you are like me basketball is your passion! From the 4th grade to getting a Basketball Scholarship in the NCAA, I was on a basketball team and was a starter almost on every team I played on. I remember as a kid getting a wire clothes hanger, bending it to look like a rim, put it at the top of a door in my room and get a pair of socks and use it as a basketball playing games on my knees.
I remember practicing basketball by myself doing drills over and over in the dark when I couldn’t even see.
I remember how I would walk through the halls in high school dribbling a racquet ball to improve my handles.
I remember my freshman year in High School, I was on the freshmen team and the very next year I was a starter on Varsity in the 10th grade (started 10-12th grade and 12th grade got to final four in California).
I remember after high school, I gave up on basketball, and how through a unique opportunity, I regained my belief and confidence in myself and was able to achieve a lifelong goal of getting a Basketball Scholarship.
I remember playing Basketball in college, traveling back and forth to Nebraska, New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado for our conference basketball games.
I also remember, while in school, I had no idea on what I wanted to do with my life after basketball. I had no goals. I didn’t know what I wanted to major in college. I didn’t have a vision of what my life would be like once my playing days on a team was over. “ I was not in the driver seat, I was just content being in the back seat looking out the back window.”
I used to only get good enough grades to be eligible to play basketball and not necessarily because I wanted to push myself to achieve academically. I used to spend hours and hours playing video games and never read books to learn. I used to not believe in myself because I didn’t have positive role models whom I could learn from. I used to be clueless on what I wanted in my future career, but more importantly with my life I didn’t know who I wanted to be. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I didn’t know what I wanted to have.
Have you ever wondered about how there are some Basketball Players who make the right decisions with their athletic gift? Those that “get it,” will recognize and take advantage of the resources provided. Unfortunately, some will squander these assets away and become a victim of themselves. Years later, they will wish they could go back and do things differently but it will be too late! I propose that you not be like them, I want you to become focused and prepared.
As you know, the way you get better in basketball is to have good practice skills. Have you heard someone say, “How you practice is how you play in games?” Do you remember all the hours you have spent practicing on your game? Like, putting a chair on the floor and pretending it was a defender and practice your cross over in front of the chair? Or, having to make two in a row to move to the next spot on the court, and if you miss, you have to start all over? What about practicing going coast to coast and doing pull up jumpers over and over again? What about getting the ball and counting down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and shoot the ball to win the game? When you practice you visualize you are in the game…right? What about you practicing on your skills for the game of life? What are you doing to better yourself? How are you growing?
Recognize game, I am concerned about you the person and not the basketball player. I have learned how to use basketball as a ladder in life for success and want for you to do the same for yourself. Success is to know what you want and get it!
If you havent already checked out my video talks on the web site [www.BasketballToSuccess.com] do so. There I talk about my transformation when my friend gave me over 40 Self Improvement recordings. With those recordings I was introduced to concepts that slapped me around and at the same time put fire under my butt. It motivated me to have a clearer vision. It supplied reasons why in life I was getting the results I was getting. But…”When I changed, everything else changed.” On my website I actually have a speech called “When you change everything else will change,” check it out if you haven’t yet. Anyway, back to what I was saying. Those recordings took months to go through. Those recordings led me to discover more information by the authors and speakers. I truly got addicted to all the material I was learning. If those recordings were not supplied to me, you definitely wouldn’t be reading this now, and I definitely would have not wrote my book or started my company Basketball to Success™. Back then even if I said, “Ok, I got $1,000 and I want to buy all the top programs and books on self-improvement,” I would not know who I should get, I wouldn’t know where to start. There is a saying that goes, “When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” At that time, I was ready. Now I am a teacher of self-improvement. If you see yourself as a “student” in search of learning on how to learn, grow and take charge of your life through self-improvement, keep reading. Please don’t be a victim of yourself, this is serious. This is your life.
Kick your excuses to the moon… Blame or take responsibility!
The reality is, we all complain about various matters. But the difference between the right and wrong type of complaining, only complain about what you can control. While at the same time, don’t complain unless you are going to do something about it. You don’t complain about gravity… complaining will not change gravity. Just like you can’t control the weather, don’t complain about things you can’t control.
Complaining about the events in your life won’t change the outcome. Sadly when you complain and don’t put forward any action you will make no progress. Don’t Blame It. Own It.
Until you accept responsibility and take charge of your life, nothing is going to change. A lot of people would like to have this, get that, become this type of person, have these good qualities as a person, look a certain way etc. Although they may know what they have to do to achieve certain goals, they have the excusitis syndrome. They say, “Someday I’ll, someday I’ll get this , someday I’ll whatever.” Here is the truth, the road of someday will lead to the house of nowhere.
Of course, responding differently means you must give up blaming the event itself. At times when something doesn’t work, we blame what happened rather than our reaction to it.
When you don’t take responsibility and make excuses, you:
Procrastinate React rather than be proactive Blame others Justify your actions or lack of actions Not act humble
Once you begin responding decisively to signals and events as they occur, life becomes much easier. The feelings of hopelessness and lack of control go away. You start seeing differently. No longer do you say to yourself I feel like a victim. I feel used. Only bad things happen to me,” rather now you say “I feel better. I’m in control. I can make things happen.”
Don’t Blame It. Own It. You need to accept the fact that you are the one who has created the way things are. You took the actions, you thought the thoughts, you created the feelings and you made the choices that got you to where you are now. You are the one who decided to go out and kick it rather than work on your basketball game. You are the one who decided to hang around people who could influence you to do crime. You are the one who didn’t study hard enough to pass that class. You are the one who ignored your parents’ guidance. You are the one who is selfish and are only concerned about your stats and not the team performance.
You alone have the power to make something happen in your life, whether you actively create it or passively allow it to happen or continue. This goes for outcomes that are both good and bad. But perhaps the worst outcomes are those you simply allow to happen.
You didn’t register on time, now you have to wait until next year. You didn’t take your car into the mechanic when the service engine light came on now you are stranded. You didn’t follow through on your word to your grandparents that you would visit them often and now they have passed away and you have regret. You didn’t graduate and now you can’t get the job or promotion you want. You didn’t leave when you saw the drugs and guns in the car and now you are in jail. When you allow outcomes like these to happen, be aware that you are not a victim. In fact, you can safely take credit for standing passively by and letting it happen. Don’t Blame It. Own It.
What are your favorite excuses for not making the changes you know are necessary if you want to achieve your goals? The starting point of personal liberation is for you to accept complete responsibility for who you are and for everything that you become. You can never give responsibility away. The only thing that you can giveaway is control.
Remember the three critical points you can control:
Your thoughts. Disciplines you choose to keep. The people you associate with.
The acceptance of responsibility is not optional. The words “I am responsible!” are perhaps the most powerful words in any language to short-circuit negative emotions, and gain focus. Your job is to accept responsibility for everything that has happened to you in your life, even if you are only responsible for your responses.
You can only claim you are surprised once, and after that you are unprepared. Former President John F. Kennedy, made a quote that puts things in perspective and makes total sense, he said, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” So for you as a basketball player, the time to prepare for your future after school is now. The way you prepare for the future is to create it now!
“Preparation doesn’t begin with what you do. It begins with what you believe. If you believe that your success tomorrow depends on what you do today, then you will treat today differently. What you receive tomorrow depends on what you believe today. If you are preparing today, chances are you will not be repairing tomorrow.”
John Maxwell
Imagine having a relentless mentality that gives you power.
“If you can control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one.” ? Dr. Carter G. Woodson, The Mis-Education of the Negro
Here is the bottom line, when you are negative, it zaps your energy. It decreases your confidence and blocks your creativity. You then focus on the obstacles rather than the finish line. But here is the key, optimal thinking can be practiced and developed! Pessimism can only survive on a diet of negative thinking. So stop feeding your mind these thoughts if you want to be productive in life!
Always think of terms of “can” vs. “can’t.” Just like you are what you eat, you are what you think.
“Your thoughts make your character.” “Your life is parallel to the thoughts you have.” “You are what you think about most of the time.”
Why is this all important? It is because…
Thoughts change beliefs. Beliefs changes attitudes. Attitudes changes actions. Actions change your future.
Confidence is not everything, there is just nothing without it. Without confidence you will lose before you start!
You need confidence to take action without any guarantees of success. You need confidence to risk failure over and over on the road to success. You need confidence to stay focused and have persistence through adversity.
“Your beliefs can inflate your confidence.
Your passion can invigorate your confidence.
Your goals can activate your confidence.
Your focus can direct your confidence.
Your preparation can position your confidence.
Your practice can sharpen your confidence.
Your determination can nourish your confidence.
Your courage can test your confidence.
Your character can defend your confidence.
Your friends and family can influence your confidence.
Your responsibility can fortify your confidence.
Your teammates can multiply your confidence.”
Cordell Davenport
Imagine having a vision for your life after Basketball
Finding your purpose is really discovering what you want your life to stand for. Your purpose can tell you what to accomplish, how to accomplish it and in what time frame. When you discover your purpose, life flows effortlessly. Opportunity seems to fall in your lap. Resources and relationships find you easily. Small successes build upon one another to create unstoppable momentum.
But how does purpose differ from goals or action plans? Purpose is the “why” — the reason you create the goals you create and pursue the activities you do. It’s the reason you strive to achieve the results you’re looking for. Goals are merely the “what” you’ll accomplish and action plans are simply the “how” you’ll accomplish those goals. Without purpose as the compass, goals and action plans are meaningless.
Imagine having your ideal career ….Exploit your strengths and manage your weaknesses. From basketball to your career. Make a living at what you enjoy, by working with your strengths. Try to find a job you love to do. The idea is to get paid doing something you love. By figuring out what you love to do as soon as you can will help give you direction. Once you have that information then organize your life around that. Something to think about having focus… “When you chase two rabbits at the same time they will both escape!”
Your job should be to find a teacher, coach, mentor, book or resource to help you reach that goal. Find someone who has already done what you want to do and ask or pay them for their time and interview them on how you should proceed with reaching your goal. Volunteer to help them, shadow them do what it takes to listen, learn and observe.
After your playing days are over and you settle down with a career, no one cares that you led your team in scoring, no one cares your team went undefeated…but what is important is how you show what you learned from basketball and apply it to work/life. You have to showcase all what you learned form basketball. Show them, you have discipline. Show them, you can work under pressure. Show them, you are a team player. Show them, you have confidence. Show them, you are coachable. Show them, you are focused. Show them, you love challenges!
The price of success is paid in full. It is paid in advance. Just like going to McDonalds, you pay for what you want before you eat it. If you want to be successful, you have to take 100% responsibility for everything that you experience in your life. Don’t blame anyone, take 100% responsibility of your life. The truth is that all the best habits and skills you have developed to play basketball can be applied to your life. Merge what you know about basketball along with a lifestyle of Self Improvement and you will significantly increase your chances of becoming successful in whatever you chose.
Having self discipline is doing what you should be doing when you don’t feel like doing it. How you do anything is how you do everything. Having persistence is self discipline in action. As Jim Rohn (my favorite Self Improvement Coach) says, “Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.”
As you know with basketball working on your game is a must if you want to get to the next level. That same mentality needs to be applied to your life’s beliefs, habits, goals, focus, discipline, career….life is not all about basketball. You should always be looking out in the future, you should always be preparing for the future.
“I will prepare and someday my chance will come.” Former President Abraham Lincoln
Success is to know what you want and get it. Please understand that success leaves clues. Success is predictable, it is not an accident. The fastest way to success is to find people who are getting the results you want and study them. Copy and paste what worked for them in their lives into your life. If you do what other successful people do over and over again, you will get what they get. Learn from the experts, read their books, go to their seminars. As get on your journey of learning and growing, be on the lookout for: ideas, information and lessons. Recognize, to become someone you never been before, you will have to do what you have never done before. Recognize that if your are not getting better you are getting worse. You are responsible for your life, so take charge of it.
Here is my SPECIAL OFFER
On the “Products” tab on [www.BasketballToSuccess.com], you will notice that I have several items listed. I have a special offer that is not available on my web site. That offer is for you to become a member of Basketball To Success™. The reason why it is only offered to you is because you have already received my book.
You get a program of materials which gives you confidence so that when you are finished with basketball and taking the next level in life you will have a plan so that you can ensure success in what you want in life.
You will receive a monthly newsletter that discusses a variety of topics on self-improvement and career and entrepreneurialism. You will be invited to attend private events with other BTS members. You will receive the 12 week Basketball To Success™ Matrix.
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The following Basketball To Success™ Matrix, will extremely improve your learning curve on understanding the benefits of applying self-improvement as a lifestyle and most importantly how. There are a lot of options to choose from in the self-improvement category and if you were like I was, you would have no clue on where to get started. Another benefit, is that what I have gathered is purposely designed for you the Basketball Student Athlete. Fortunately, you can use my time and experience to move forward. You will get introduced to new people, new concepts and new strategies. Once I pass you the ball, it is up to you to shoot…once you get this material it is up to you to implement principles. In life there are no dress rehearsals.
As soon as you join this is what you will get: This is what you get delivered to your email:
Week 1
You already have EBook version of Basketball To Success™. How To Be The Prepared Student Athlete & Not Foul Out In The Game Of Life. In addition you will get the Audiobook version
Inspirational Letter from Cordell Davenport Featured, Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 46 minutes long.
Week 2
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording by Cordell Davenport- Preparation. 101 Self Improvement Buttons To The Brain Quotes. Featured, Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 9 minutes long.
Week 3
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording by Cordell Davenport- Purpose (with workbook) Featured, Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 31 minutes long.
Week 4
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording by Cordell Davenport- Thinking (with workbook) Feature Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 52 minutes long
Week 5
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording by Cordell Davenport- Goals (with workbook). Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 25 minutes long
Week 6
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording by Cordell Davenport- Vision (with workbook). Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 40 minutes long
Week 7
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording by Cordell Davenport- Belief (with workbook). Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 60 minutes long
Week 8
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording – Focus (with workbook). Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 23 minutes long
Week 9
Basketball To Success™ Matrix Recording by Cordell Davenport- Money Inspirational case study of a Real Estate Entrepreneur and NFL team owner. List of 50 Money and Investing Book Classics Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 18 minutes long
Week 10
EBook, Be The Point Guard Of Your Career. How To Pick The Right Career After School. Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 41 minutes long
Week 11
Success and Motivation Writing from a secret “Basketball Entrepreneur” that is 13 pages long. Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 59 minutes long
Week 12
List of 50 Success Book Classics Featured Inspirational Self Improvement Recording from Secret Guru that is 15 minutes long
When you become a member of Basketball To Success™, you will discover why so many Basketball Players use the contents to help them prepare for their future by creating it today through Self Improvement. Using Basketball as a ladder in life is the goal. By joining you will become a lifelong member!
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Imagine, what your future will look like with having this road map. Directions, steps that put you in charge that help you be the referee of your own life. With this program, you will be able to answer the following question easily, “To feel successful, what specific things need to occur?”
I just remembered this experience I had as I write this. In 2012 I had a booth at book festival at USC in Los Angeles. I was promoting my book. I had a guy approached me. Talking to him, he said he was a Senior and was on the USC basketball team. So, I gave him a summary of my book, and I asked him, so, what are you plans after college? Do you know, he shrugged his shoulders and said I don’t know! I was thinking how can this happen, here he is about to get in the “real world” and doesn’t have a clue, to what he wants let alone where he is going. If he had this offer you have available, he would definitely have a game plan. In life, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. My offer will give you a plan, a focus, it will be a huge resource for you.
STOP and realize that you have never ever seen an offer like this before anywhere!
I want you to go deep into your own mind and visualize you have the Basketball To Success™ Matrix: You fall asleep, wake up and look around – five years have passed!
Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing? What is your lifestyle?
If you are feeling that all of this effort to learn and grow is not that serious, let me correct you right now. Casualness, leads to casualties!
Pay close attention! Success is to know what you want and get it. My program will help you in ways you don’t realize now. As I said in the beginning you don’t know what you don’t know. If you were like me, you don’t realize the impact adopting self-improvement as lifestyle can have on your life now and in the future.
What is amazing about this program is that it applies to your life…something you can implement now. I am telling you there is nothing in the world out there that is dedicated to helping basketball players like what I have assembled.
To be honest I could of easily started my company, made my products and provide them to be corporations and neglect basketball players, but since, I lived the life you lived and actually still play basketball once a week, because basketball is my passion and self-improvement is my lifestyle, I want to give back and help. I am serious, I really do. It saddens me to see people I grew up with or people who are doing well in basketball, but after basketball they fail…fail big time and don’t use BASKETBALL AS A LADDER IN LIFE! I truly believe that I can help current basketball players in providing them life skills so that they can be successful in whatever they choose…but only if they have the right combination to the lock. I found the code. I want to share it. We choose and continue to choose our direction in life. I want you to have the attitude of thinking, “if it is to be, it is up to me.”
You are ready for success, aren’t you?
The total cost for the 12 week program is $179. Instead of paying that, I am going to give you an alley oop …I am going to “make you an offer you can’t refuse.”
Don’t worry the cost is going to be much less than you think.
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By joining Basketball To Success™ NOW, you will also get these two FREE ebooks I wrote valued at $23:
Be The Point Guard Of Your Career. How To Pick The Right Career After School.
The Sucker Punch Resume. How To Swing Your Resume In Front Of An Employer To Get An Interview.
In regards to the Basketball To Success™ Matrix, I have basically pulled out all of the key content out of all those recordings and books, I have learned since 2006 and got the best of the best concepts and put them into a format that you can benefit from. To do this on your own, you will spend hundreds of dollars on the books and recordings, hours and hours spent learning. That is first if you even know what to buy. I am not saying that my program is all you need, I will tell you it will leap frog your progress and if you want to take it a step further, you will know exactly what to aim at, which books you should read and who you should google to learn from.
This offer is your only opportunity to join Basketball To Success™. I want to only have a community of people whose passion is basketball and their lifestyle is based upon self-improvement.
Invest in yourself…by two ways and get Basketball To Success™ Matrix:
Make three monthly payments of only $46 (total $138). That is 23% off! Make 1 payment of $99 and save $80. That is 45% off!
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I guarantee that if you invest in yourself and obtain The Basketball To Success™ Matrix Program, you will make self-improvement:
Your way of life. Your standard of living. Your routine.
No one makes it alone. One of the most important lessons you learn on the journey through life is that everything you accomplish will be accompanied by someone who helps you at a certain point in your journey. For you to accomplish great things in life, you must have the help of many people. Your ability to find and develop mentors for success can save you weeks, months and even years of hard work trying to figure it out on your own. Most of the successful people that have successful careers, got their positions by identifying mentors earlier in their careers and working with them over the years. This is such an important process that you cannot leave it to chance. One of your goals should be to deliberately seek out and develop high quality mentor/mentee relationships with knowledgeable people who can give you advice as your career progresses. One good piece of advice at the right time can save you months and even years of hard work and frustrated effort.
Invest in yourself now …learn, grow and take charge of your life now!
When you’re lying in bed tonight, you will think of all the benefits of the Basketball To Success™ Matrix.
My Guarantee
Imagine having the chance to return the Basketball To Success™ Matrix for a full refund if you’re not satisfied. Well it is true, with this program you will have a 60 day money back guarantee! If you really feel that this program has been a waste of time and it has not benefited you, you will get a full refund, no questions asked.
If you can find a better product, don’t buy this program, however, I am telling you, you will look and look, but you seriously won’t find anything out there like what I have assembled. As mentioned, this program I offer is the only way to join Basketball To Success™. I only want serious basketball players that are serious about being successful in life after basketball.
Now that you’re at the end, you’re just minutes away from the feeling of being the referee of your life by having a game plan to follow in life. I’m sure that by now you can see that you won’t find these benefits anywhere else.
If this program is not for you, at least you have my book and hopefully you have taken time to see my video presentations on my web site for tips. I wish you the best. However, if you do see the many benefits of joining, trust your gut…join today. Remember, you can’t score if you don’t shoot!
Sincerely,
Cordell Davenport
“The Playmaker of Progress”
[www.BasketballToSuccess.com]
[Cordell@BasketballToSuccess.com]
P.S. By joining you:
Save time, and money Get extra value if you invest today Get a guarantee You have my book, so know where I am coming from It makes total sense to invest in yourself once and become a lifelong member of BTS
P.S.S. Here are 9 principles you should implement:
Winners never quit and quitters never win. Optimism gives resilience. Setbacks are speed bumps to success. Be resolved to not give up, it is not how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get back up. Procrastination is the thief of dreams. Character is born through adversity. Integrity guarantees all other values in life. You are the average of the top five people we spend the most time with. If you keep on doing what you have always done you will keep on getting what you always got.
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