The most missed shots in NBA history

Kobe Bryant missed more shots than any other NBA basketball player, ever.

14,481 failed attempts.

Worst player of all time, right?

Well, alongside being the leading failure, he is also the fourth highest point scorer of all time.

38,652 points scored. In 1,421 games.

So maybe not the worst after all.

He failed a lot because he tried a lot.

And because he tried a lot he also suceeded a lot.

44.7% of the time, to be precise.

We’re told we won’t know if we don’t try.

But I think we will know.

We know that we will fail some if not most of the time.

And at least half of the time.

Kobe failed 50.3% of his attempts.

And he’s the fourth best. Ever.

So if we enter in knowing that, we have less to fear.

In my 20s, I spent 5 years applying for 37 Assistant Director jobs and was rejected for all of them.

Except one.

That’s a success rate of 2.7%.

At the time that felt like a tidal wave of failure.

But if I’d applied for half as many, the maths says it would have taken me 10 years instead of 5.

And if I’d stopped at 36 applications I’d never have succeeded at all.

Things are generally worse than we hoped but better than we feared.

And don’t forget, you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

So be more Kobe.

Fail. Fail again. Fail better.

And at some point, you’ll succeed.