I’ve been reading & watching biographies; one recently was “Elway” on Netflix. My takeaway was this: For years, John Elway’s public identity was shaped by what he hadn’t yet done — more than what he could do. Three Super Bowl losses hung over his career like a verdict. In a culture that treats championships as moral proof, the narrative hardened: Great arm, great competitor, but not quite a winner.
That perception was convenient, but wrong.
To me, those losses revealed something often perceived as quite uncomfortable: Sustained exposure to pressure without retreat. Elway didn’t lose once and disappear. He returned. Again. And again. Each return increased scrutiny, amplified expectations; and, narrowed the margin for psychological survival. Repeated public failure doesn’t just test skill; it tests identity.
This caused me to reflect: Most leaders don’t break because they fail. They break because they begin to believe the story others start telling about their failure.
Elway didn’t.
Instead of resisting the narrative, he carried it. He played inside it until that endurance recalibrated something subtle but powerful: Perception shifted from “can’t win the big one” to “won’t stop standing in the fire.” That distinction matters. One is about outcome. The other is about character.
When the Broncos finally won back-to-back Super Bowls at the end of his career, the victories didn’t erase the losses. They reframed them. The same moments once cited as proof of limitation became evidence of resilience. The arc mattered more than the snapshots. Leadership, seen clearly, is rarely about avoiding failure. It’s about remaining present & steady, while being judged through it.
And the more profound lesson isn’t that perseverance guarantees redemption. It doesn’t. The lesson is that perception is elastic — but only if leadership holds steady long enough for reality to catch up. Elway’s comeback wasn’t just athletic; it was perceptual. He outlasted the story told about him until a truer one had no choice but to surface.
That’s the kind of leadership pressure most people never see, and even fewer survive: Not the pressure to win once, but the pressure to keep showing up after the world has decided who you are.
© 2025 Dian Griesel Perception Dynamics
Photo by Grok
