Each sport honors the most outstanding individual in history to bestow the title “The King”. But it wasn’t until the 90s that the NBA (National Basketball Association) found the king of basketball and that person was none other than the legendary Michael Jordan.

Going back to the past, Jordan is one of the most influential athletes in American sports history. Because in the 90s, Americans were proud of three great Mikes: Michael Jackson in music, Mike Tyson in boxing and Michael Jordan in basketball.

Although retired, Michael Jordan is still one of the most beloved basketball players of all time. After retiring, Jordan embarked on business and achieved a lot of success. Since 2015, he has become the first billionaire in history to come from the sports industry. It is no coincidence that Michael Jordan is as successful as he is today. His business talent was revealed very early through recorded childhood stories.

The story goes that Michael Jordan was 13 years old that year. His whole family still lives in a shabby slum in Brooklyn. Jordan’s family has 4 siblings, while the father’s limited salary is often not enough to pay for the family’s living expenses.

One day, Michael Jordan’s father gave him an old shirt and asked: “How much do you think this shirt is worth?”

“About $1,” the boy answered.

“Can you sell it for 2 dollars?”, the boy’s father asked while looking at the boy with pleading eyes.

“Only a fool would buy this shirt,” the boy replied.

The father looked at his son again with encouraging eyes: “Why don’t you try? You know, our family is having trouble…”

After hearing his father say that, the boy nodded and agreed: “I will try, but I’m not sure I can sell it.”

The boy washed the shirt very carefully. Because there was no iron to iron the shirt, he used a brush to wash the shirt, then placed the shirt on a flat piece of wood in the shade to dry. The next morning, the boy brought the shirt to a crowded train station. After 6 hours of selling, the boy finally sold the shirt for 2 dollars.

He quickly took the money from the sale and ran home to give it to his father. In the following days, he searched for old clothes in the city’s discarded piles, brought them home, washed them, and sold them.

This continued for more than ten days, one day the boy’s father gave him another old shirt: “Can you sell this shirt for 20 dollars?”

“How is that possible? An old shirt cannot have such a high value, at most it is only 2 dollars.”

“Why don’t you try to think of a way, there is definitely a way,” the boy’s father encouraged.

Finally the boy came up with an idea. He asked his cousin to draw him a Donald Duck and a cute Mickey on the shirt. Then he chose a school where many young men from rich families studied there. He stood at the school gate inviting buyers.

A while later, a butler came to buy a shirt for his young master. That young master was extremely excited when he got the shirt and immediately gave him an extra 5 dollars, in total he sold the shirt for 25 dollars. This was quite a large amount of money for his family, this amount could correspond to nearly a month’s salary of his father at that time.

After returning home, his father gave him another shirt and said: “Can you sell this shirt for 200 dollars?” His father looked at him with eyes full of trust. At this moment, the boy did not hesitate, he received the shirt with both hands, and began to think…

2 months later, the opportunity finally came. That day, the main actress Farrah Fawcett of the famous movie “Charlie’s Angels” came to the boy’s city to promote the sequel of the movie.

After the meeting with the journalist ended, the boy pushed his way to the front, ran to actress Farrah Fawcett, held out an old shirt, and asked her to sign it. Seeing this, Farrah Fawcett was stunned for a moment but then happily signed the shirt with a smile. No one could refuse such a cute boy with such innocent and pure eyes.

After signing, the boy asked her: “Can I sell this shirt?”

“Of course you can, this is your shirt, you can sell it if you want.”

The boy standing on the podium shouted loudly: “This is a shirt personally signed by the beautiful actress Farrah Fawcett, its price is 200 dollars.”

After going through the auction, the shirt was finally sold for an unbelievable amount: $1,200! When he got home, the boy’s father held him in tears and kissed him on the forehead: “You are really good…”.

That evening little Jordan slept next to his father. His father asked: “Son, what did you learn from selling these 3 shirts?”

“I understand, you encouraged me,” the boy looked at his father emotionally and continued: “As long as we brainstorm, everything has a way. Where there is a will, there is a way.”

The boy’s father nodded in agreement, but then shook his head and said: “What you say is correct, but that was not my original intention.”

“I just want to tell you that an old shirt worth only 1 dollar still has a way to increase its value, why do we have to be pessimistic about this life ? We may be a little poor, but that doesn’t mean we can’t increase our self-worth. I see that even an old shirt can do miracles.”

Thanks to the lessons from his father, from then on, Michael Jordan always lived a life full of faith and hope, no matter how dark the reality was. 20 years later, the boy who sold old shirts in the past has become a rich billionaire, the chairman of the board of directors, the largest shareholder of the Charlotte Hornets corporation. That is basketball legend Michael Jordan, the greatest athlete of the 20th century voted by ESPN magazine in 1999.