What does it take to be the best? Is it talent, willpower, luck, support?

Maybe it’s money or hard work or good parenting? Perhaps it’s a little of all that. It’s hard to say, but we got a hint this weekend when perhaps the greatest athlete who ever lived was accepted into golf’s Hall of Fame and he gave a speech, a speech that I will not soon forget.

Of course, the athlete I am referring to is Tiger Woods, who graced the world with his otherworldly talent for the last 30 years.

One is always lucky to be in the presence of greatness. Many of us have seen greatness up close and personal even if it’s only to ask for an autograph. I recall the first time I watched Woods in person. It was at Bethpage during the US Open back in 2002 and I was part of the press corps and had good access to him. I recall standing behind him as he warmed up on the range.

At this point, he was hitting 2 irons and I still remember vividly what I saw. The first time he took the club back I said to myself: “Oh, that’s what they mean by being on plane.”

For those of you who don’t know golf jargon, being “on plane” means that you are taking the club back exactly the way you are supposed to. Then I recall the flight of his 2 irons. I had never seen anything quite like it. Out they went and when one expected them to drop, they just kept on going higher and higher to about 250 yards, then dropped gently onto the ground, one after the other.

This is real talent in action and one is tempted to say it was natural talent, but I had already learned that his talent came from his otherworldly work ethic.

During his Hall of Fame acceptance speech, Woods revealed a simple story that perfectly explained how he got to be the best. It was a series of incidents that he experienced as a teenager. His parents had taken a second mortgage on their home so he could travel around the country playing in AJGA events at prestigious country clubs.

But he soon learned that when he arrived at the clubs, being a child of African-American descent, he was not allowed in to have lunch with the other kids. He then said after that he learned to say only two things when he got to the clubs: “Where is the first tee and what’s the course record?”

That is a chilling story and demonstrates all we need to know about how to get to be No. 1 in any area of life. All you need is to be marginalized as an outsider and made to feel that you do not belong.

This truism is seen in the world of art. Over the last 60 years there have been four major American artists to emerge and to go down in history as true leaders in the field of art. These would be Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel and Jeff Koons. All four have been controversial, wildly successful and have moved the world of art in the direction they wanted it to go in.

Andy Warhol was the founder of Pop Art. Basquiat legitimatized Graffiti Art. Julian Schnabel was responsible for the rebirth of Expressionism in art and Jeff Koons synthesized conceptual art with minimalism and Pop Art. All four of these artists made hundreds of millions of dollars, reached the very top of the art world and were all outsiders and shunned by the art world. In other words, they share much with Tiger Woods in being shamed, humiliated and not accepted.

Warhol was shunned by his peers for being way too effeminate. Basquiat was a Black graffiti artist. Schnabel came from a Jewish home in Brooklyn and moved to Texas where he undoubtedly experienced prejudice. And Koons’s work, like his glass-encased Hoover Vacuum Cleaners, continue to produce consternation, confusion and ridicule by most who see them.

How odd it is to conclude that the essential ingredient of those who climb to the top of the pyramid is to be shunned, laughed and or hated. And this is a lesson I try to teach my patients who suffer from abuse or ridicule as teenagers. As the saying goes, “that which does not kill you will make you strong.”

The future Tiger Woods of the world will be found in the pool of kids who are currently being laughed out and shunned and ridiculed. Those being bullied today will be the ones running corporations, playing in the big leagues or starring on Broadway tomorrow. This is but one of the many ironies of life. Or as someone said in the Bible: “The meek shall inherit the Earth.”

So do not feel defeated and do not lose hope if today you are not in with the in-crowd. And are not considered to be one of the cool ones. Learn to say what Tiger once said: “Where is the first tee and what’s the course record?”