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Watching Tiger Woods during a a major golf tournament is a great way of learning how to deal with failure. He has two way:

There’s the immature Tiger Woods: He curses, he slams the clubs into the ground, he stares down the gallery and their smart phones. That’s petty Tiger Woods.

And, there’s the mature Tiger Woods: He shakes his head slightly when the ball ends up in the rough, he takes his lumps, he ends a disastrous round, shakes hands and moves on to the driving range to correct whatever ailed him during the day.

Whenever immature Tiger Woods shows up, you know it’s not going to end well. He’s connected to emotions around failure, emotions all of us are trying to avoid, and the shame of personal failure leads him to emotional outbreaks.

The mature Tiger Woods understands that each round is a new opportunity: figuring out what didn’t work and redefine what his best work will be in the future. Immediately getting back to work.

Slamming your clubs into the ground might be sexy for the SportsCenter crowd. It won’t earn you a trophy.