First things first, hats off to the San Antonio Spurs for sweeping the Cavs 4-0 in the championship series. It was well deserved.

This is a spur of the moment type article so I just want to briefly talk about Tim Duncan.

Tim Duncan is as vanilla as you can get. He’s not like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James with their high flying dunks and reel worthy plays.

He’s methodical. He’s repetitive. He’s calculating.

He does it to a point where people have been calling him “boring” for not doing anything worthy of being shown on the sport highlight reels. But he doesn’t give in to their petty complaints and demands. He just keeps on doing what he does best:

The fundamentals.

And it’s amazing how few people truly understand the importance of this today.

The ugly truth of the matter is that nobody wants to acknowledge the simple truth when it comes to fundamentals and that is simply this:

That it works.

It always has, always does, and always will work. Period.

I want you to think about every self improvement book, article, speech, tape, CD that you can think of. Haven’t you noticed that they all pretty much say the same things? Only in different words?

And there’s a reason for that. It’s because everything that all those experts have been saying over and over again work.

Yet, people are always looking for something that will give them a short cut to avoid working on the fundamentals and they fall hook, line, and sinker to those who capitalize on their ignorance.

Buy this magic stone and you’ll have everything you’ve ever wished for. Hang these wind chimes to attract wealth. Wear this amulet and your dreams will come true.

The answers they are seeking are staring them right in the face, but they refuse to look. Some have been blinded. Some just don’t want to acknowledge it. The rest are just ignorant.

It’s as if people are starving when they have a full course meal right in front of them, but they seek the candy, they seek the soda, the chocolate bars and it tastes good at first, but in the end, it has no real substance, no real nutritional value, and in the long run, they lose out.

One of the greatest things about the book Think and Grow Rich is the fact that it stresses the fundamentals. It’s probably the only book out there that really covers all the fundamentals. Just look at the table of contents and you’ll see for yourself. Desire. Organized Planning. Action. Decision. Persistence. Who doesn’t know about these things? Yet, when people read the book, all they say is “Great book!” and they move on searching for something else out there because the fundamentals are too boring, they require too much work, and there’s got to be an easier way right?

The beauty of the Hidden Secret that Napoleon Hill mentions in Think and Grow Rich is that it connects all the fundamentals he talked about in a way so that they all come about naturally when the Hidden Secret is applied. That’s what I loved about the Hidden Secret when I discovered it. It took the perceived pain of applying the fundamentals away because the fundamentals are applied naturally if you utilize the Hidden Secret. The Hidden Secret is still comprised of the fundamentals, but it has a simple, yet profound twist that connects all the dots and fits all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together.

People are aware of the fundamentals. But they seek an easy way out and get burned again and again and again for trying it. Yet people still go on looking for the easy way out. That’s fools gold.

Few will wise up and when they do, they will go back to the fundamentals and apply them. Then, they will see the results and never deviate from the fundamentals ever again.

Kids these days playing basketball want to be flashy. They want to slam dunk.

Never mind learning how to dribble the ball so it doesn’t get stolen. Never mind learning how to rebound so that your team has a greater chance of getting the ball. Never mind learning how to pass the ball so it doesn’t get stolen. Never mind learning how to shoot free throws.

Just learn how to slam dunk.

If you do that, sure you might get a slam dunk here and there, but when the time is up, who’s on top? Who won the game? Who won the series? Who won the championship game?

They don’t call Tim Duncan “The Big Fundamental” for nothing.

So take a page out of his book and start consistently applying the fundamentals.

Better yet, take a page out of Napoleon Hill’s book and figure out how you can apply the Hidden Secret so that the fundamentals will flow naturally.

Fundamentals.

They will always work.

Period.