How to LEAD With COMPASSION | Javier "Chicharito" Hernández

2 Apr 2026 · 9 min · 4 chapters

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In short

Leading with compassion—how Javier “Chicharito” Hernández handled pressure, ego, and criticism, and what Sir Alex Ferguson taught him about treating people as humans.

Guests

Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, Mexican footballer who played for Manchester United, became the first—and only at the time—Mexican to play in the club’s history, and won the Premier League twice; Lewis Howes hosts.

Key claims

Family support helped him battle ego and always seek improvement; online/off-field negativity often reflects others’ insecurity; compassion from leadership (Ferguson) builds peace and performance.

Notable examples

Ferguson learned his family’s names, invited them to lunch, avoided football talk, and later apologized for not giving him more time, saying he regretted only four players’ limited time.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

Staying Humble and Learning from Family

0:33 to 2:00

Chicharito discusses the importance of humility and learning from family support.

“of never, ever make me feel that I've achieved whatever I've achieved.”

Facing Pressure and Expectations

2:00 to 4:15

Chicharito shares experiences of pressure while representing his country and managing expectations.

“But then, of course, when I was 21 years old, my life changed completely.”

Lessons from Sir Alex Ferguson

4:15 to 7:45

Chicharito reflects on lessons learned from Sir Alex Ferguson and the importance of understanding players.

“is because when people speak about you, they're speaking more about themselves than yourself.”

Lessons from Sir Alex Ferguson

8:07 to 8:23

Chicharito reflects on lessons learned from Sir Alex Ferguson and the importance of understanding players.

“I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Everyone said he'd grow out of it, and maybe he will. But school is a few months away, and you keep thinking, what happens when I'm not there to help people understand him? Coral Care connects families with pediatric speech therapists who come to your home. Book an evaluation online today, covered by insurance. Coral Care. Because waiting shouldn't be the plan. Hi, my name is Lewis Howes, and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:32People don't believe that my family was amazing of never, ever make me feel that I've achieved whatever I've achieved. Or if I play an amazing game and score three goals, they always humble me. It's not about pressure, but they always humble me. And I always create this process of, like, I know every time that I play a match, regardless, we are going to talk about the things that you can improve no matter what. What you could do better. So imagine I'm going out at Cancellab with my friends but I know as soon as I step in the car or in my house or my parents are there we're going to like review their match talk about it and I learn how to battle my ego.

1:16When you're 17, 18 World Cups you can score goals. Of course you don't have those experiences you feel like you are on top of the world and you feel like already made everything and stuff and my family held me that sense of like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Always like, which is the goal. And they teach me something without the words, but I think with actions about like, nothing is going to be enough. If you win a match, you always want to win another one. If you score one, you always want to score one. Right, right, right. If you play one World Cup, you want to play more. If you score 100 goals, now you want to score 200 goals.

1:45Sure, sure, sure. So, unconsciously, they teach me that, like, always like, hey man, there's always better things to, to achieve, or to work for. That's how I handled pressure. And then we can keep going on my story because, yeah, then imagine that was a pressure in my family, in my niche. But then, of course, when I was 21 years old, my life changed completely. And then the entire country knew about me. And then I was representing the country. Right. And it was like you explained it in the beginning, right? Sometimes if I don't score goals, it's like I let down my country. Literally. So then I played the World Cup.

2:21The World Cup was fine for me. And then I go to Manchester. And when I get to Manchester, I start seeing and learning that everyone doesn't see the life that you see. Because in my eyes, in my feelings, and in my brains, I don't understand still people when there's one guy being in the top of the top of the top. And regardless if you like him or not, that you feel proud that a Mexican is there. I don't understand. And it's not in my core. Like if I see another guy doing great, I never feel threatened or less or whatever. It's the other way around. It's like, I want to learn. It's like, oh, what he's doing that is making him great.

3:01And it's like he's or she's in their own path. Let me learn. So that was when I was realizing like, man, I know things probably cannot go in the most successful way in the beginning, right? Because I need to get used to it. I need to play more. I didn't play as much in the first six months. But I was reading and seeing people speaking like, yeah, look. He doesn't deserve to be this Mexican. Oh, wow. And things like that. People bring you down. He will never play there. Honestly, I was speaking with my family and it was like... Why is this happening? They weren't celebrating you. Exactly. And those supposed to be the people that I would love to feel the lifting up, the support of.

3:37No matter what, we support you. You will play. Be more positive in that sense, right? So I start learning of like, oh, this thing of like, nothing is going to be enough. And everyone has their own opinion. I think there's a lot of people that they don't feel so secure and so happy with their life. And they are not at peace. Of course, they feel and they see lagness. So they want to see that in front of me. So imagine a Mexican, 22 years old, playing Manchester United. And the only thing that they could be seeing is like, he's sitting on the bench. That's the only thing that we're talking about.

4:09He cannot play. Instead of seeing the glass half full, they were seeing the glass half empty. But not because it was half empty. is because when people speak about you, they're speaking more about themselves than yourself. There are people that probably you don't like what they do or how they do things, but that doesn't mean that they're doing the things wrong. If you don't like something, it doesn't mean that they have a bad taste or it's not great. Like, you cannot like something that is great and it's fine. why discredit people just because probably you don't like it. It's fine to don't like me.

4:52But that doesn't take the fact that in the story of my life, I'm in Manchester, man. I'm the first, and so far, the only Mexican player that have been playing in the Manchester United history. And I'm the only Mexican player that have won Premier League and I won two. I'm the only Mexican player that was a Sir Alex Ferguson player. What was the biggest lesson that he taught you? Imagine, in my 22 years of life in Mexico, not any manager or coach treat my family like Sir Alex Ferguson did. The way that Sir Alex Ferguson welcomed my family, well, myself, obviously, but my family, learning the names of my sister, my father, and my mother, invite us to a lunch.

5:40He even said, we're not going to speak about football. I'm gonna speak about yourself and yours. Explain to me, I want to know about you. Doing that, like making yourself like you're human. Like of course, he's good at what he does, but he's still a human, like us. In some areas, of course, he's greater than other people, but we're still humans, man, Luis. We're still human, we're still people. So that lesson. The other one that I'm gonna take with me forever, because it's not even a lesson, but it's something that it brought me so much peace, and as well, he showed as well that humbleness he was.

6:16He said to me, when he retires, he brought me into his office to speak with me, no? And I thought he was like, okay, I don't know what he's going to say. He's going to retire on the next season. It was like he retired like three months before the end of the season. I thought he was speaking with the players to say goodbye, et cetera. Right, right. So he invited me and I went to his office and we started talking and he said like, small talk and everything and appreciate it. And then in the end he said, look, I want to finish this meeting, something that I want to tell you. There's been only in my whole career four players that I regret.

6:47I didn't give them more time. And I took the decisions that I took already. I regretted them because I thought it was the best for the team, always. But those four players, you mentioned the other three, you are in that category. I would have loved to give you more time because you deserve it because of the way that you are, the way that you work, and the love that you have for this club. and I want to say that I'm sorry but you didn't get that time. And then of course the way that he treats the way that he managed humans he knew if Lewis needs probably a little bit of like I'm going to ignore you you don't need to talk there's others that they need to have a battle or something like that and there are others that you need to a little bit more hard on them but he knew how to manage 25 but for that he needs to know people and focus on people.

7:36he knew that the most important part a part of tactics and the sport is how I'm going to take the best out of my players. And that's why he stayed for 26 or 28 years being the manager changing players and changing coaching staff too through that time and keep winning. Wow, that's crazy. Keep winning, it's insane.

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8:48Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Daily Motivation, and I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description. That will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you wanna get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

9:38Again, have an amazing day, and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

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Check out the full episode: https://greatness.lnk.to/1435DM

Chicharito, a true soccer legend and international sensation, shares his personal journey and how embracing humility has been the cornerstone of his success both on and off the field. With heartfelt stories and valuable insights, he highlights the importance of staying grounded, being open to growth, and maintaining a strong work ethic.

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