5% More. Alden Michael

and judge. I don't blame those people. However, if you are one of those people, suspend your judgment and read the book. What I'm discussing, and have discovered, has propelled me to levels that not only seemed unattainable to most, but downright unrealistic and preposterous to even think about. I was and am a kid from the projects who grew up around poverty and despair and learned how simple concepts like 5 Percent More could get me more than most. If that's you, then let's get real and learn from someone who should have nothing but has more than most, from financial freedom to material things people usually dream about.

      High School Hero to College Zero – What Does It Take to Be a Star?

      In my book Ask More, Get More, I discussed tidbits of my past and how I grew up in order to illustrate how I had many obstacles and struggles as well as many accomplishments. But what even I didn't realize when I wrote it was that so much of how my success came about had to do with the 5 Percent More concept, although I didn't realize it at the time. When I achieved great things it was usually because I was applying the principle. When I didn't, it was usually because I was stagnating, unable to see the importance of 5 Percent More. Sometimes it was because I was doing everything but 5 Percent More.

      One major accomplishment in my youth was being accepted to college. In 1993, I was fortunate enough to be accepted to Springfield College in Springfield, Massachusetts, a small college with a primary focus on physical education and athletic training, but it had a decent liberal arts school as well. They had a political science program, which is what I was interested in. I remember feeling a little uneasy and nervous my first few days in college, somewhat like a fish out of water, a kid from the projects who still had a chip on his shoulder and was now in a setting that was unfamiliar. I was, in essence, alone and left to my own devices, left to try to figure out how I was going to make my way there and in the world in general. Like many students, there was certainly an adjustment period with relation to basic things such as time management of the day-to-day activities. I was on the football team so I was able to be a part of a group, which was somewhat comforting.

      This is where I really began to realize that small things such as your GPA or your 40-yard dash time or your vertical leap can have a dramatic impact on your athletic and academic career. I remember being on campus one day with just the football team and meeting with the football coaches and becoming acutely aware of how small things have a huge impact. We were getting our body fat measured, height, vertical jump, and a few other things. I was waiting in line and it was my turn to have my height measured. The coach asked me how tall I was, and I said I was six foot one inch. He didn't say anything. Then he measured my height. Apparently according to him I was six feet. He then looked at me and said if I was six foot one I wouldn't be playing at Springfield College and would be playing for a bigger program. One inch? Really? Well, except for a few outliers in athletics, small things such as your height do impact your future. Well, I can't control my height, but other things – such as body fat, vertical jump, and 40-yard dash – are all things I could change or improve upon. During that same time, one coach sat me down after taking my body fat and told me that I was essentially carrying around 20 pounds of fat and I needed to improve my body fat if I wanted to play on the team. Now, I thought I was in decent shape, but when you look at college athletes, especially the elite ones, I was practically obese.

      I never became a star football player but I got on the field, and every year I played a little bit more because of things like improving my 40-yard dash from a 5.0 to a 4.75 or my bench press from a one rep max of 315 to a three rep max of 365. Now, though it was true that the guys who really had success on the field had a whole lot of natural talent (as did I), quite frankly, they worked just a little bit harder than me in the off season, in the weight room, and nutritionally. I worked hard, but just hard enough to stay on the team and get a little playing time, not hard enough to be a little bit faster and stronger. Instead of always trying to give 5 Percent More as they were, I was focused only on those simple goals, and then once I attained them, I lost interest in giving more effort. I can't tell you why, but I can tell you that I was very unhappy on the football team. I remember making excuses and blaming my lack of playing time on things like the performance-enhancing drugs some of the guys were taking, but my unhappiness was due to me just not working hard enough. In high school, I was able to dominate due to my size and natural speed and didn't really work that hard at it, but when you climb up to the next level, in order to have success you need to try harder. It really doesn't take a lot more effort or time, just a little bit more.