Leadership from Sports In Woods’ case his wife had just discovered he was cheating on her. Soon a shocked world discovered that the supposedly doting family man preferred infidelity and sexual promiscuity to an appalling degree. Not everybody may see how his success and such behavior were linked. We shall try to make the connection. Tiger Woods was successful by creating his own sense of reality. He projected an air of invulnerability that demoralized opponents. It brought him back to win from the brink of failure on many occasions. His superhuman competence gave him absolute self belief. Regrettably, it also fed a sense of entitlement and arrogance. He was the great, the supreme Tiger Woods. Lesser men had to play by social rules and public expectations. He could do what he wanted. In his 13 and a half minute televised apology Tiger expressly admits this.
In other words, I thought I could live my personal life as I win on the golf course. It is because he never thought of himself as normal, as ordinary that he became such a force. This alas is Hubris, overwhelming pride at one’s success, which activates Hamartia, also defined as the mistaken event –texting on a phone accessible to his wife‐ the error of judgment that follows the flaw of personality. He never really thought he would get caught, just as he never really thinks he can be beaten. Hubris leads the Hero to break moral laws, try futilely to transcend social limitations, to ignore scruples with dire results. Epic literature understood that the Hero may begin with self‐esteem but may fatally over‐reach his stature in thinking exclusively of one’s greatness.
“I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn't apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around me. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn't have to go far to find them.”
Normal rules didn’t apply. Never thought of who I was hurting. Only thought of myself. Ran straight through the boundaries. Get away with whatever I wanted to. And so on…
“The tragic hero's hamartia is an accident of his excellence: his purposes and energy make him susceptible to a kind of waywardness that arises from his character" said Henry M Alley in his critique of The Picture of Dorian Grey. Tiger did so and now his projected world of perfection has crumbled. Still he is admirable. Nobody famous and caught out has been so excruciatingly honest that they were jerks. The point is that some such thing was inevitable. Only psychologically ripe people escape such a turn in their life Tiger’s life has been limited to getting good at golf and then making money off it. All other aspects of the psyche seemed irrelevant. “That which we don’t bring to consciousness is experienced as Fate,” warned Carl Gustav Jung. It is the consequent indulgence and perceived hypocrisy that is being punished severely, not least in sponsors fleeing. Woods has not done anything criminal. Society yet found his behavior inexcusable at an ethical level. But hamartia still holds Woods, he still wants to be loved as in the past, {his charity foundations have helped millions, he carefully and irrelevantly pointed out} and continue to rake it in. For all his contrition, there is considerable anger, especially at the press who have derailed his gravy train.
The Leadership Review
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