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 NFL 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’re 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’ll be able to work the long, hard hours it takes to become successful.

However, I will offer one caveat about passion. If you’re 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.

When you start to discover your own passion, my advice is to surround yourself with people who are passionate about their jobs. You’ll catch their passion. And remember that you can’t be passionate when you feel like it. You have to be passionate about your job, product or cause all the time. There’s no off switch on a tiger.

I have always admired the passion demonstrated by the late Steve Jobs, who said, “You have to be burning with an idea, or a problem, or a wrong that you want to right. If you're not passionate enough from the start, you'll never stick it out.”

But what do you do when you lose the fire and passion that fueled your ambitions when you were younger? You can regain your enthusiasm by doing a little introspection.

Reflect on the past. Draw up a timeline from the very beginning of your childhood and figure out when you were happiest and what got you down the most.

Find your guideposts. List five or six principles that guide you in life, and decide whether they are values you truly live by or ideas you merely talk about.

Make it real. Write down your thoughts, feelings and hopes and share them with your family, or tell them to a trusted friend. That way, there’s someone to witness and hear you out, and you’ll feel responsible for making some changes.

Don’t panic. You may discover you have developed a new passion for a career change. Follow your dream!

Mackay’s Moral: Passion never goes out of fashion.

Derek Redmond was favored to medal in the 400-meter race for the United Kingdom at the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. But 150 meters in to the semifinal race, he felt a searing pain in his right leg and fell to the ground in agony with a torn hamstring. He was not willing to give up. He wanted to finish the race no matter what. He got up and limped around the track until a man came out of the stands and broke through security to help him. It was his father.

He told his son, “You don’t have to do this.”

“Yes, I do,” he told his dad.

And his dad said, “Well then, we’re going to finish this together.”

And they walked together with arms around each other’s shoulders until shortly before the finish line, when his dad let him finish the race alone. Redmond received a standing ovation from the 65,000 people in attendance, including me.

That is what I absolutely love about the Olympic Games -- the determination and never-give-up attitudes that these athletes bring to their sports. They demonstrate an amazing resilience that is inspiring. And that is why I’ve only missed one Summer Olympic Games since 1972, in Munich.

We’ve all hit roadblocks and dead ends that can make us think twice about whether it’s worth our efforts. Discouragement and disappointment cloud our judgment. It’s exhausting sometimes trying to figure out how to get past a problem.

So before negative thoughts lead to negative actions, you need to develop a strategy to clear your head. It becomes even more important to train your brain to look for positives.

Researchers believe that people who embrace a positive outlook have less stress, an increased sense of well-being, better coping skills and longer life spans. Do whatever it takes to get to that attitude. Learn to look on the bright side.

Or, to put it simply, in the immortal words of the great philosopher, Yogi Berra, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.”

Really, that’s not just a punch line. Keep moving forward. Keep trying. Keep hoping and dreaming and believing you can do it. Be resilient.

Because when you don’t give up, you usually don’t fail.

This is true in life in general and business in particular. Every organization that gets hit with any sort of emergency needs to have people who can respond in a productive and clear-headed manner. Your value to the organization increases exponentially if you are one of those people.

In this ever-changing, fast-paced business climate, resilience is one of the most critical skills you need to master. Clinical psychologist Susan Dunn has observed that people who can bounce back after failure and confront new obstacles without losing their nerve generally do these essential things:

-- Learn from experience. Resilient people reflect on what happens to them, good and bad, so they can move forward without illusion.

-- Accept setbacks and losses: You’ve got to face the reality of what happens in order to get past it.

-- Recognize emotions: Resilient people don’t hide from their feelings. They identify what they’re feeling and express their emotions appropriately.

-- Keep time in perspective: Past, present and future are separate. For example, don’t mix them up by letting what happened in the past determine your choices in the here and now.

-- Think creatively and flexibly: Look for new ways to solve problems and face challenges.

-- Take care of yourself: Resilience is based on good physical and mental health. Get enough rest, eat sensibly and spend time with people who support you.

-- Ask for help: Resilient people don’t try to do everything themselves. Accept that you’ll need to ask others for assistance, and learn how to do so graciously and effectively.

The children’s book “The Hugging Tree” tells the story of a little tree growing all alone on a cliff by a vast and mighty sea. Through thundering storms and the cold of winter, the tree holds fast. Sustained by the natural world and the kindness and compassion of one little boy, eventually the tree grows until it can hold and shelter others.

The resilience of the Hugging Tree calls to mind the potential in all of us: to thrive, despite times of struggle and difficulty. To nurture the little spark of hope and resolve. To dream and to grow.

Mackay’s Moral: When the wicked winds blow, learn to bend, not break.

According to a new biography, a man who became infamous for deception got his start at a young age. As a high-school sophomore, this young man was assigned to present a book report to his class.

Because he never got around to reading anything, he stood up in the classroom and proceeded to tell his classmates about “Hunting and Fishing” by Peter Gunn -- a book that didn’t exist. When the teacher asked him to show her the book, the student calmly replied that he couldn’t because he’d already returned it to the library.

The young student was Bernard Madoff, who later in life became notorious for his Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars.

Santa Claus may know who’s been naughty and who’s been nice this time of year, but spotting a liar isn’t always simple.

In the 1991 book “The Day America Told the Truth,” by James Patterson and Peter Kim, research showed that 91% of Americans admit to lying routinely, while 36% confessed to big, important lies. Eighty-six percent of those surveyed said they lie regularly to parents, 75% to friends, 73% to siblings, 69% to spouses, 81% about their feelings, 43% about their income and 40% about sex.

Psychologist Michael Lewis of Rutgers University says there are three types of lies: lies to protect feelings, such as saying a gift is nice when you actually hate it, lies to avoid punishment and lies of self-deception.

While the first type might be acceptable, the other two are never OK. It’s important to know that you are dealing with honest people who can be trusted. But how do you know?

The TV show “Lie to Me,” which ran from 2009-2011, featured a psychologist who could recognize lying by observing the slightest change of expression or a subtle unconscious gesture. Most of us aren’t that skilled, but you can learn to spot a lie by paying close attention. Here’s what to watch and listen for:

-- Words and gestures that don’t match. Look at the timing of people’s words and gestures (or expressions). Example: Joe says, “I’d love to help you with that,” but frowns, or else flashes a smile a moment or so afterward. Sincere, spontaneous gestures and expressions are normally simultaneous with statements.

-- Repetition. Liars are more likely to repeat your question or rephrase it when answering. You: “Did you take the last piece of cake?” Liar: “No, I didn’t take the last piece of cake.”

-- A thoughtful pause. Most people need time to think before they tell a lie. “I had to ... take my mother to the dentist,” for example. Be sensitive to hesitations and pauses when they answer your questions.

-- Try changing the subject. When you suspect someone is lying, switch to a different topic. Liars will be relieved that you’ve moved on, and eager to engage the new topic. People telling the truth are more likely to be confused by the abrupt switch.

-- Don’t jump to conclusions. All of these behaviors may have alternative explanations. If the matter is serious, investigate the facts before making any accusations.

A CIA agent was told to find a small village in Ireland and pick up some highly sensitive information from a secret operative stationed there whose name was Murphy.

The CIA man was told the agent would identify himself when he heard the code phrase, “The sun is shining, the grass is green and the cows are ready for pasture.”

So the agent located a small village in County Cork and checked into a local guest house under an assumed name. Seeking to stretch his legs, he was walking down a country road when he saw a farmer coming toward him. He stopped the man and said, “I'm looking for a man named Murphy.”

“Well, you've come to the right place,” said the farmer, “but we have a butcher who is named Murphy, a baker named Murphy and an auto mechanic on the edge of town who is named Murphy. In fact, my own name is Murphy.”

Thinking he might have stumbled onto the right man already, the CIA agent softly repeated the code phrase, “The sun is shining, the grass is green and the cows are ready for pasture.”

“Oh,” said the farmer, “you're looking for Murphy the spy -- he’s in that town in the other direction over there!”

Mackay’s Moral: Honesty is not just the best policy -- it should be your only policy.