Motivation Quote by Lee Trevino

For an athlete whose job was once built on face-to-face charisma and competitive nerve, Lee Trevino's "I stay away from the telephone if at all possible" lands like a small act of rebellion. It is funny because it is stubbornly analog, but the humor cuts deeper: the phone represents demands you didn't agree to, conversations you can't steer, and obligations that arrive disguised as friendliness.

Trevino came up in an era when celebrity was more controllable. You could leave the course, go home, and the world would mostly let you. The telephone punctures that boundary. It turns privacy into a public utility: anyone can ring you into a role, whether it's the grateful legend, the available buddy, or the guy who says yes to charity requests, interviews, favors. Avoiding it isn't just avoidance; it's a strategy for staying the author of your own time.

There's also an athlete's superstition in the line. The phone call can bring news that tilts your mental game: criticism, temptation, distraction, drama. Trevino's brand was the wisecracking everyman, but that persona required control of the stage. On the phone, you can't read the room, you can't deploy timing, you can't exit cleanly. The joke is that a man who made a living with composure under pressure admits the one pressure he doesn't want: immediate access.

In today's always-on culture, the quote reads less quaint than prophetic. It's a reminder that being reachable is not the same as being connected, and that sometimes the sharpest boundary is simply not picking up.