Models of Craft: Coach John Wooden
In the 1960s and 1970s, UCLA won 10 of 12 national championships in basketball – 7 consecutively. All this under the leadership of the now legendary coach, John Wooden.
You can’t read or think much about the topic of excellence without running into Wooden.
If you haven’t already, it is worth reading Wooden: A lifetime of observations and reflections on and off the court. This wonderful little book captures the Coach’s clear thinking on a wide range of topics.
Here are just a few ideas jumped out at me.
If you have it within your power to work twice as hard why aren’t you doing it now? If you sincerely try to do your best to make each day a masterpiece, angels can do no better.
There is a wonderful almost mystical law of nature that says 3 of the things we want most –happiness, freedom, and peace of mind - are always attained when we give them to others
The person you are is the person your child will become
Too often fathers...get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life
There is something wrong if you fail to measure up to your ability because you haven’t prepared
You always win when you make the full effort to do the best of which you are capable. I know that only one person on earth knows if you made your best effort: not your coach, not your employer, not your husband or wife, or boyfriend or girlfriend, brother or sister. The only person who knows is you. You can fool everyone else
I believe in the basics, attention to imperfection of tiny details that might be overlooked
If UCLA had never won a national championship while I was coaching there I would have still considered myself very successful because I was judging myself on other things things I had some control over