![\"Kareem](\"https:\/\/external-content.duckduckgo.com\/iu\/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flive.staticflickr.com%2F8237%2F8515403407_6df3741d84_b.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=598d9f208c08e5abd077bcac8fc23a9a384fe6239f977b40a9b6ecc8b9f9e847&ipo=images\")
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There are few sports heroes that deserve the word hero, but basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar appears to be one of them. Here is an excerpt from a list of “Twenty Things I Wish That I Had Known When I Was Thirty” as published in Esquire in April 2013. I was especially impressed by this quotation on “Patience.” So well communicated, his growth is evident.<\/p>\n
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“Be<\/strong> patient.<\/b><\/em>\u00a0Impatience is the official language of youth. When you\u2019re young, you want to rush to the next thing before you even know where you are. I always think of the joke in\u00a0Colors\u00a0<\/i>that the wiser and older cop (Robert Duvall) tells his impatient rookie partner (Sean Penn). I\u2019m paraphrasing, but it goes something like: \u201cThere’s two bulls standing on top of a mountain. The younger one says to the older one: \u2018Hey pop, let’s say we run down there and screw one of them cows.\u2019 The older one says: \u2018No son. Let\u2019s\u00a0walk<\/i>\u00a0down and screw ’em all.\u2019\u201d Now, to counter the profane with the profound, one of my favorite quotes is from the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer: \u201cTalent hits the target no one else can hit; genius hits the target no one else can see.\u201d I think the key to seeing the target no one else can see is in being patient, waiting for it to appear so you can do the right thing, not just the expedient thing. Learning to wait is one of my greatest accomplishments as I\u2019ve gotten older.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"