Practically every team in professional sports has one or more players who were not high draft choices but have excelled. Look at the National Football League. Quarterback Tom Brady was drafted 199th in the 2000 NFL draft and has led New England to six Super Bowl titles. Joe Montana led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowl victories, yet was only a third-round pick. John Randle from my Minnesota Vikings wasn't even drafted, yet the defensive tackle is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
How can draft experts and team executives be so wrong?
Easy. You can't always gauge passion, desire, effort or heart.
As author T.S. Eliot put it, "It is obvious that we can no more explain a passion to a person who has never experienced it than we can explain light to the blind."
You can detect passion in someone, but trying to predict how far it will carry or what will result is more intangible. But without real passion, a job is just a place to go.
Passion is at the top of the list of the skills you need to excel at, whether you are in sports, sales or any other occupation.
There is no substitute for passion. If you don't have a deep-down, intense, burning desire for what you are doing, there's no way you will be able to work the long, hard hours it takes to become successful.
However, I will offer one caveat about passion. If you are not good at what you are passionate about, it doesn't matter. I was passionate about becoming a professional golfer at one time, but my mother helped me realize that because I lived in Minnesota, where you can play golf only about half the year, it would be difficult for me to catch up with young golfers from warmer climates. Now I'm passionate about golf as a hobby.