RUSH: I want to say something to you, because I know every one of you almost, without exception, every one of you can learn from this.<\/p>\n
If you waste time worried about what other people think of you, I want you to remember two words: Tiger Woods. If you ever worry — I mean — this has been a pet peeve of mine. People so concerned with what other people think, it\u2019s what drives Washington. The Republican Party is obsessed with what the media thinks of them, obsessed with what the Democrats who are perceived to run that town think of them. And it\u2019s paralysis.<\/p>\n
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And it\u2019s irrelevant what people think of you. It shapes who you are instead of allowing you to be who you are. If you\u2019re always worried about what people think of you or what people are going to say, and every one of us is. Well, I\u2019m not. I used to be, but I\u2019m not anymore. This job taught me I had to get rid of being worried about what other people think, particularly people I don\u2019t even know and then particularly people that don\u2019t even listen here.<\/p>\n
But for those of you worried that you can be eternally damaged or hurt by what people think of you, never forget Tiger Woods. How many years ago was it, 12 years now, 11, 12 years ago, Tiger Woods was the biggest joke in this country. He had reached the pinnacle that few ever reach in any endeavor, and in one Thanksgiving weekend, it all came crushing down. And he lost not everything, but he lost a significant amount of things that were of dire consequence and importance to him, including his wife and for a time he was worried about losing his kids.<\/p>\n
He lost all of the respect, and he knew that when he began playing golf again after going through the necessary rehab, that no matter where he went, the only thing people were gonna be thinking about was all of the controversy involving that news which led to his decline and fall. He couldn\u2019t escape it. When he started playing golf again, people aren\u2019t looking at him to see how well he plays. They\u2019re looking at him and he thinks they\u2019re laughing. But he had to fight through it.<\/p>\n
Then he has all of these injuries and all these back surgeries. And then there\u2019s that video where he\u2019s pulled off the side of the road and can\u2019t walk a straight line because his doctors had him on some kind of drug cocktail to deal with the pain and everything else from all of these back surgeries that he\u2019s had in his never-ending quest to get back to being able to play professional tournament golf.<\/p>\n
And it went on for 12 years. He started playing well in tournament golf late last year, won the tour championship at East Lake in Georgia. And when he started playing well is that moment in time when people started seeing him as he was prior to the big fall. And, folks, do not underestimate this when I tell you.<\/p>\n
His first trip back to the Masters, the club president at the time after the decline and fall, after the story about all the hookers and the girlfriends and all of that, the sex rehab, all of that, the most humiliating stuff and every bit of it was public, every step he made, everything he had done was made public, and there wasn\u2019t anything about it that was redeeming. It blew up every image of him anybody had. It destroyed everything.<\/p>\n
So bad that on his first trip back to the Masters, after all of that, the then chairman of Augusta National at the time, Billy Payne, felt it necessary to make a speech on the opening day of Masters week about how the Masters is not crazy about all that immorality in people that don\u2019t treat things with respect. It was a direct message to Tiger Woods. And he had to take it.<\/p>\n
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People that had treated him as the greatest on earth were now mocking and laughing and lecturing and preaching. I have people ask me all the time, “You think Tiger will ever win again?” I said, “I don\u2019t know.” They meant win a major, which he did yesterday. So now he\u2019s up to 15. Now he\u2019s three away from tying Jack Nicklaus\u2019 record.<\/p>\n
Prior to yesterday people didn\u2019t think it was possible, one win, and now everybody says, “Ah, look out, may even do it this year,” because the next two majors — well, in the United States, Bethpage Black, which he has won there on Long Island and Pebble Beach, the U.S. Open in June. Pebble Beach, which was the site of his greatest victory, beat the field by, what, plus 12 or plus 15. It was an incredible tournament.<\/p>\n
So now people are talking about he may be able to come back just in one victory. But people ask me, “Do you think he can win a major?” I really don\u2019t know, but I\u2019m gonna tell you — I don\u2019t know Tiger, but I\u2019m gonna tell you what I think happens. Whenever he plays golf, you\u2019ve got the gallery, and he knows — you can see the gallery as you\u2019re playing. He knows that they\u2019re looking at him and thinking about all that stuff they learned about him that he hoped nobody would ever know.<\/p>\n
Golf is a solitary sport. You\u2019re playing against yourself. You\u2019re playing against yourself and the course. It takes an unbelievable level of focus. Every shot. In tournament golf, you cannot take a shot off. You have to focus. You have to be concentrated. But more than anything, you have to be confident. And there was no reason for Tiger Woods to be confident, not after the things that had happened to him — well, the things he did that were discovered.<\/p>\n
Well, let\u2019s jump forward from all of that to yesterday. There was nothing but overwhelming happiness, love, respect, and welcome back on the part of virtually everybody in the gallery, among the patrons. You gotta call \u2019em the patrons when you talk about the Masters. But everybody in the gallery.<\/p>\n
The media loves Tiger Woods, they can\u2019t wait, they\u2019re so happy Tiger Woods is back. They couldn\u2019t contain themselves either Saturday or Sunday. Everybody in the gallery was thrilled to have Tiger back. The people watching on TV. When it was over, look at the comparisons that were made. Tiger\u2019s first victory in 1997 comes off the 18th green, hugs his late father, Earl. Well, father wasn\u2019t late then.<\/p>\n
Now, 20-some-odd years later, he comes off the 18th green having won again, something nobody thought he would ever do, and there is his mom and his kids, and the cycle is completed. If there is ever any doubt in your mind that you think you have been humiliated and embarrassed and put down to such degree that you can never again face people, just think of Tiger Woods. It is not only possible, America loves a great comeback.<\/p>\n
America loves champions. Americans love greatness. They love people who pursue it, they love people who excel at it, and they love people who achieve it. I can\u2019t tell you the number of people who sent me texts, “Hey, hey, how can that happen in such a racist country? See all those white people cheering Tiger Woods?”<\/p>\n
Exactly my point, folks. We\u2019re not a racist country. If we were, the wealthiest woman in America would not be an African-American, overweight TV star. And I\u2019ve maintained that for I don\u2019t know how many years. Could America love a comeback story any more than this one? Do you wonder what it feels like to have literally the entire world — let\u2019s just say the entire country — now, granted, there are gonna be some exceptions, but you get my drift here.<\/p>\n
You wonder what it must feel like to have the entire country write you off as a loser, write you off as a joke, laugh at you, point at you, smirk at you every time they see you, put you down, say, “Yeah, I always knew he was a phony. I always knew he was a fraud. Nobody\u2019s that good. Nobody\u2019s that popular. I always knew it.” Because people revel in the failures of others. Human nature. People feel better about themselves when other people tank.<\/p>\n