I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.

Source: Goldman, Robert and Papson, Stephen. Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh. SAGE Publications Ltd., 1998.   Additional Information: As quoted in Nike Culture: The Sign of the Swoosh (1998), by Robert Goldman and Stephen Papson. The famed basketball player is saying here that the reason he is so successful in his career is that he takes risks and does not let failure hold him back.