“9. That Little Bit Extra

Have a guess what the difference is between a £1 million racehorse and a £100 racehorse.

Well, obviously the £1,000,000 one is 10,000 times faster than the £100 one. Right? That’s clearly ridiculous. Is it even ten times faster? No way. Twice as fast? Unlikely. At best, the difference is only ever going to be a few seconds. There is often just a nose between first and fourth place in a horse race.

And it is the same in life.

Champions and ‘might-have-beens’ aren’t all that different: we all have one brain, one set of heaving lungs, a couple of eyes, ears and a mouth. Yet it is the little things that set champions apart.

A lot of horses, and most people, have what it takes to get them to fourth place in life. But the winners are those who know that when things get really hard and others start to fall away, that is the time to dig deep and give that little bit extra.”