The documentary ‘Sir Alex Ferguson: Never Give In’—made by Alex Ferguson’s son Jason—was recently released on Amazon Prime. Charting Ferguson’s beginnings in Scotland to his five decades of success with Manchester United, as well as his recovery from a 2018 brain haemorrhage, the documentary is a compelling and honest portrait of the man, as football manager, husband and father.
Ferguson has a lot to say about great leadership and success, as well as the importance of remembering where you came from. Because whether it’s football or business, the core principles of leadership remain the same.
Here is a roundup of our favourite quotes from the documentary:
- “I would talk about miners, shipyard workers, welders, toolmakers… people who have come from poor backgrounds. I used to ask them, ‘What did your grandfather do? What did your father do?’ I had to get the feeling inside them that what their grandfathers and grandmothers worked for is part of them and they have to display that meaning.”
- “Don’t miss a big opportunity. You might only get one in your life… I made a vow that I would not look back. I was committed.”
- “A player can’t do it himself. A player’s only part of a team. The manager’s in control of that, he’s in control of all that destiny. I’ve got to make decisions that are correct; you have to make really difficult decisions. I was never afraid of that. I never looked back because there was always tomorrow. Whether you lose or win, there was always tomorrow.”
- “A long term approach always suited me—to go the long road to shape my future.”
Photo by Jesse Bowser on Unsplash
- “My experience of human beings, they like to do things the easiest way. The minute you accept a bad performance, they’ll do it again.”
- “It wasn’t as if I was [the players’] best pal. But they always knew I would find a way to help them. If you want to be a proper manager and in control of a unit as big as that, you have to know them all. All these different people with all these different stories.”
- “Psychology is someone else’s work. I call it management.”
- “You have to treat losing as part of the progress. Throughout my life, a defeat or a failure sparked something inside me, and I did something about it. As human beings, you have to accept that adversity is part of your life; when it happens, you find yourself.”