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November 28, 2016

Tom Brady and the LSAT

Tom Brady and the LSAT

Over in our free LSAT Discussion Forum, I’ve been trading messages with one of our students that is working towards a 170. He started at 143, and has increased his score over 20 points already. But, he was running into a few issues with confidence and having the words of others affect his perception of how he will perform. I won’t recount what I’ve said to him publicly because it’s right there on the forum. But I have also been chatting with him privately. I mentioned an example to him that I felt was worth sharing with everyone. As you have no doubt guessed from the title of this post, it centers on Tom Brady, the quarterback of the New England Patriots Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Some Background

First, let me say that I’m not a Patriots or Bucs fan, so this isn’t some Patriots/Bucs love fest (I’m a Vikings fan). Second, whether or not you are a sports fan, this article will still be of value to you. You don’t need to like football or know much about it to understand the message.

In my discussion with Thomas, the student in the messages linked above, we were talking about how the comments of others can directly impact how you feel about yourself. In this case, some people were telling him that there was no way he could go from 143 into the 170s, and it was undermining his confidence. As I talk about at length in our free LSAT Test Mentality Seminar, confidence and self-belief are necessary to doing well. If you don’t believe you can do well, you won’t do well. The conversation turned to Tom Brady, and how some of the facts of his background relate to LSAT preparation.

Confidence

The first fact relates to Brady’s confidence in himself. He came out of college as a 6th round draft choice in the NFL. As a reference, there are only 7 rounds in each draft. And in each round typically every team has a single choice. So, Tom Brady wasn’t among the highest picks in the draft that year (2000), and overall he was the 199th pick. He certainly wasn’t the first quarterback taken that year; he was the 7th QB picked in a year considered very weak at the quarterback position. The QBs selected ahead of Brady were: Chad Pennington, Giovanni Carmazzi, Chris Redman, Tee Martin, Marc Bulger, and Spergon Wynn. You might think that this would have dented his self-confidence, but you couldn’t be further from the truth.

Here’s a story told by Robert Kraft, the owner of the Patriots. During the pre-season camp in 2000 while Brady was a rookie at the bottom of the depth chart for QBs, he ran into the owner. Brady said to him, “We’ve never met, but I’m Tom Brady.” Kraft replied, “I know who you are, you’re the quarterback from Michigan. You were our sixth-round draft choice.” Brady said, “Yes, and I’m the best decision this organization has ever made.”

Think about that for a moment. Here’s a guy struggling to make the team at that point, and he meets the owner for the first time and tells him without any hint of joking that he’s the best choice the franchise ever made. That takes some confidence! Of course, thereafter he famously set out being just that, and he is certainly strongly in the argument for being  the best quarterback ever to play the game. Consider whether that would have happened if instead Brady’s attitude had been, “Gee Mr. Kraft, it’s really nice meeting you. I know you have no idea who I am, but I really hope I make the team—I’m not sure I will but I’ll try hard!” I’d wager that if he had that attitude, I wouldn’t be writing this article about him right now.

Perception

Another interesting point about Tom Brady relates to other people’s initial perception of him. While in college at Michigan, he was reasonably successful. But clearly not so successful that the NFL was frothing at the mouth to draft him. In fact, the general perception given his 6th round draft position was that at best he was going to be a career backup. Football experts didn’t really think he was anything special. If Brady had listened to them, it would have affected his self-belief and then ultimately his actual performance.

And this brings me to my second point: what other people think of you doesn’t matter. What matters is what you actually go out and do. In Brady’s case, he ignored the perceptions of others, and he went out set the football world on fire. I also think this occurred in part due to his famous competitiveness, which is another useful trait for LSAT success. And, ultimately, the opinions of the experts didn’t matter because they weren’t on the field; he was.

In the case of Thomas, our LSAT student, he was having some troubles shaking off the comments and views of others. This is understandable—it’s hard to ignore other people telling you that you can’t do something. But, as he and I discussed, the people telling him he couldn’t do it weren’t going to be taking the test for him. He was taking the test, and whatever they thought was irrelevant to his actions.

Breaking Expectations

In that vein, we discussed how what he had already done had beaten the expectations of others. He started at 143, and if you ask most people if someone with a starting score of 143 can hit the mid-160s, the answer is no, it probably won’t happen (that’s not my answer, however). Against expectations Thomas had already achieved that, and now he was pretty close to 170. But, he remained uncertain as to whether he could make it the rest of the way, in part because people had told him he couldn’t make it to 170.

The point I relayed to him was that, if 20 years ago you asked a panel of NFL experts whether a 6th round draft choice was going to become one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, they would have uniformly said no, it was extremely unlikely. Yet, that very thing happened. In Thomas’ case, he’s already done something that most people didn’t think he could do. So what was stopping him from going just a little bit further?

Ignore Critics

In your life, you’ll always have someone telling you that you can’t do something or that you don’t have the ability. Screw those people. They aren’t the ones taking the LSAT for you or living your life. The only limitations you have are the ones you impose upon yourself. So ignore the negative things people say. Focus on working hard towards your goal, and maintain a steadfast confidence and belief that you can do it. By doing so you will increase your chances of success, and actually make it more likely to happen.

So has Tom Brady ever taken the test? I don’t know, but if he did, I bet he’d destroy it.

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Posted by Dave Killoran / Studying / LSAT Prep, Mentality 1 Comment

  • Doreen Walker
    November 28, 2013 at 6:54pm

    This is an excellent article. When I stopped listening to negative comments. I started focusing better with LSAT. I only talk about LSAT with positive people. Thank you so much for making me MORE confident.

  • Dave Killoran
    November 28, 2013 at 7:13pm

    Thanks Doreen! I appreciate your very kind comments. You’ve got a good strategy there–thanks for sharing it 🙂

  • Nadia
    November 30, 2013 at 4:12pm

    Hi Dave,
    I have been following your exchange with Thomas on the forum and wanted to thank you. Your advice is so helpful to so many of us preparing for the LSAT and personally has helped me tremendously in dealing with my own self-doubt and self-limiting behavior. I’ve also found myself anxiously waiting for news of Thomas progress – I’m really, really rooting for him and it’s going to be SO cool when he gets that 170 he’s worked so hard for. Go Thomas, go!

  • Dave Killoran
    November 30, 2013 at 4:51pm

    Hi Nadia,

    I’m so glad to hear this has been helpful! I’m rooting for Thomas too, and I think it’s great that you are as well. I’ll make sure he sees this, because I think it helps to know that others want you to do well, especially so when it is people you do not know.

    Thanks again!

  • Vicki
    December 01, 2013 at 3:03pm

    I believe that so many famous people are successful because of positive thinking. When you realize how many of them have talked about the effects of positive thoughts and visualization, you start to wonder if they know something the rest of us don’t. Here’s a small sampling of my favorite quotations:

    “A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes.” Mahatma Gandhi

    “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right.” Henry Ford

    “Whatever the mind can conceive it can achieve.” W. Clement Stone

    “Success comes from within, not from without.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

    “The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”
    Frank Lloyd Wright

  • Wangeci Warui
    December 11, 2013 at 4:47pm

    Hi Dave,

    Thanks for sending me this link.

    Also, Thomas’ comments after the test were very inspiring. I have started focusing on the LSAT at a whole new level and attitude. I see that most of my fear comes from lack of automating the techniques and self-doubt which sabotages my efforts.

    In addition, I would like to say that I ought to have read my notes in the archives and I would have reread a similar message of the article on applying to law schools. Sorry.

    I’m on a new LSAT path and I can see the change in my performance already. For the first time I scored 21 out of 25 questions in a logic games section. It was timed. I am working towards repeating at this level on a more regular basis on all the sections.

    RC and LR are my most difficult sections. But nothing is impossible now.

    Thanks!!!

  • Dave Killoran
    December 11, 2013 at 4:55pm

    Hi Wangeci,

    That’s a great attitude! And congrats on nailing 21 in an LG section. That is an excellent performance 🙂

    As long as you believe you can do it, and you work diligently with that thought in mind, you will improve and ultimately succeed.

    Keep up the good work, and I look forward to helping you out more on the PowerScore LSAT Forum (for those not familiar, our free LSAT discussion forum is at http://forum.powerscore.com/lsat/index.php )

    Thanks!

  • Sandy
    August 25, 2015 at 2:37am

    Hi Dave! I recently read your post regarding how your nose can help you increase your LSAT score and it lead me to this post. I just want to let you know that posts of this nature are extremely motivational when one is feeling quite crappy about their LSAT performance. I’m a very negative person and I notice that my negative outlook undoubtedly affects my LSAT score. I get so anxious halfway through a preptest that I can barely finish taking it. Once I set the preptest aside and look back at it hours later, I realize that there were so many questions that I could’ve gotten right if I wasn’t so caught up in the idea of failing. I know the material but I don’t trust myself enough to believe that I do (if that makes any sense). I want to thank you for these posts as they serve as a reminder that I can absolutely nail this test. 🙂

  • Dave Killoran
    August 25, 2015 at 4:13am

    Hi Sandy,

    Thanks for the comment! I’m really glad this helped you out. You recognizing that there is an issue is actually a huge step in the right direction, and puts you in a great position to make even more improvements. Studies have shown that you can retrain you mind away from negativity if you make a concerted effort each day. So, focus on being positive, and on believing in those skills you already know you have. You can do it!

    Good luck and please keep me posted. Thanks!

  • Sam Sachs
    September 05, 2018 at 12:47pm

    I love this post!

    It might be time to update though, you could use the Nick Foles experience. I’m sure you are well aware of it as a Minnesota Fan 😉

Comments

  1. Jay Paik says

    March 31, 2023 at 3:58 pm

    Came here after listening to one of the podcast episodes.
    Just like you said, one of the best posts for sure.
    Thank you for amazing post and always giving us students confidence and supporting 100%

    I started from 147 and I am finally hitting early 160s. I know I can do this because Tom could!

    Thank you!

    Reply

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