What is Jeremy Lin’s Secret to Success?

There’s a new superstar in the world of sports that has shined brightly this week. He plays the NBA wearing the New York Knicks jersey; he’s a Harvard graduate of economics degree, he’s a Taiwanese-American, and his name is Jeremy Lin. Even if you’re not a big fan of the National Basketball Association, if you’re always watching the news and always lurking on the social media, you’ve probably heard of the “linsanity” – the newest craze about Jeremy Lin’s breakthrough performance in the NBA and its effects on the media, people, culture and economics.

Lin has set a new record scoring 136 points in his first five games with the Knicks, more than anybody since the NBA and ABA merged back in 1976. He has also brought his team into a 7 game winning streak with the New York Knicks winning a 100-85 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night, where Lin also scored a career-high 13 assists. With the win, New York got back to .500. Prior to that, Lin led the Knicks in their 92-85 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on February 10, where he outscored the Laker’s star player Kobe Bryant.

With Lin’s phenomenal performance, he has become one of the most mentioned topics in the social media. The number of his followers on Twitter has skyrocketed from 18,000 followers three months ago to more than 395,000 followers as of today. His Facebook page has already more than 706,000 likes as of this moment. His Youtube Channel has already earned 643,000 views, while he already accumulated more than 4.6 million on total upload views. Those figures are expected to grow more in the coming days.

The Lin-mania has also contributed great economic results. New York Knicks jersey sales has multiplied over the week. Sales of Lin’s number 17 jersey are soaring high. Live attendance has also become crowded whenever the team is expected to play. More importantly, the whole NBA franchise has also benefited with a dramatic growth in viewership in the worldwide television (online and mobile) and with an increasing visitors to their website. Madison Square Garden (MSG) stock has also jumped a record high that contributed $170 million to the company’s market cap according to Forbes.

Now with all of these phenomena, we might be asking ourselves, what is the secret behind Jeremy Lin’s success?

Lin’s success has been attributed to his faith. Jeremy Shu-How Lin (Lin’s full name) is an evangelical Christian who was a leader in Harvard’s Asian American Christian Fellowship during his time there. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News (his hometown paper), Lin said his faith in God has triggered “Linsanity:” Despite of his rising stardom and success, the Knicks point guard star player is still thinking about how can he trust God more, how can he surrender more, and how can he bring Him more glory.

But of course many people who claim to have been faithful to God may also ask why they cannot achieve the kind of success that Lin has achieved.

Jeremy Lin’s extraordinary achievement is not accomplished through an ordinary faith. His faith is produced and justified through patience and constant practice. He has been in so many trials and battles that caused him to almost give-up many times in his career – but he continues and even made his faith stronger. Being the point guard of his team and with everyone counting on him, it needs a great ability to control his posture and concentration, and overcome even the highest pressure. But Lin is like a deep blue ocean, quite, calm, yet powerful.

Unlike other NBA stars, Lin is not only a leader in scoring points, but also a selfless player who scores several assists. This shows that aside from having faith on himself, he is also faithful on his teammates. This also makes the whole team have faith on each other. And of course that faith is justified through consistent practice.

To simplify Jeremy Lin success, it goes as follows:

1. Lin continues to produce faith to God
2. He produce faith for himself by consistently practicing and not giving up
3. He shows faith to his team mates by assisting them to their high performance
4. New York Knicks produces faith as a team
5. People and fans show their faith to the team
6. Faith continues to produce and grow more
7. and more people become faithful to God

Therefore, the secret behind Linsanity is not just a mere faith, but a constantly working and producing faith.

“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” – James 2:26

Photo by Nikk_la on Flickr