69 Most Impactful Stories & Quotes
from John Wooden
“I am just a common man who is true to his beliefs.”
~ John Wooden
John Wooden gave us the template – not only as a coach, but as a human being, a man, a husband, a father of two, a grandfather of seven, and a great-grandfather of ten.
One of the most revered coaches in the history of sports, Wooden’s UCLA men’s basketball team won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period, including a record 7-in-a-row.
Most remarkably, Wooden never became distracted or corrupted by his fame and success. Throughout his career and life, he stayed the same humble, hard-working man he was raised to be, with timeless principles given to him by his parents, growing up on a small farm in south-central Indiana.
Below, I have compiled the stories and quotes I have found most impactful from Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court.
Coauthored in his eighties with Steve Jamison, it is unlike any other book that Wooden has written or had written about him, with stories ranging from his childhood to his retirement, and chapters ranging from a couple sentences to full stories.
The book is structured into four parts:
Part 1: Families, Values, Virtues
Part 2: Success, Achievement, Competition
Part 3: Coaching, Teaching, Leading
Part 4: Putting It All Together: My Pyramid of Success
I deeply hope that reading through these stories changes your life, and your perspective on coaching, as much as they did mine.
Part I: Families, Values, Virtues
Nothing is Stronger than Gentleness
My dad, Joshua Wooden, was a strong man in one sense, but a gentle man. While he could lift heavy things men half his age couldn’t lift, he would also read poetry to us each night after a day working in the fields raising corn, hay, wheat, tomatoes, and watermelon.
We had a team of mules named Jack and Kate on our farm. Kate would often get stubborn and lie down on me when I was plowing. I couldn’t get her up no matter how roughly I treated her. Dad would see my predicament and walk across the field until he was close enough to say “Kate.” Then she’d get up and start working again. He never touched her in anger.
It took me a long time to understand that even a stubborn mule responds to gentleness.
My Mother’s Great Example
My mother, Roxie Anna, had a hard life living and working and raising a family in our little white farmhouse outside Martinsville. She did the washing, scrubbing, ironing, cooking, mending, and canning with no electricity and no inside plumbing. She did it all herself without any modern conveniences while helping with the farming and bringing up four rambunctious young sons: Maurice, me, Daniel, and William.
At night, during the heat of the Indiana harvest season, Mother would offer us cool slices of watermelon as we sat out on our front porch looking up into the stars.
She gave me my first “basketball,” a wobbly thing sewed together using rolled-up rags she had stuffed into some black cotton hose. Dad nailed an old tomato basket with the bottom knocked out to one end of the hayloft in the barn. That’s how I got started playing the game of basketball.
Each day my mother demonstrated great patience and the ability and eagerness to work very hard without complaint.
I learned from her what hard work really means and that it’s part of life. Hard work comes with the territory. She always knew what had to be done and she did it.
Mother provided a model for how to do my job regardless of the particular circumstances.
The Real Coaches and Teachers
A father and mother must be there to set an example for their children, strong and positive models of what to be and how to behave when the youngsters grow up.
Being a role model is the most powerful form of educating. Youngsters need good models more than they need critics. It is one of a parent’s greatest responsibilities and opportunities.
Too often fathers neglect it because they get so caught up in making a living they forget to make a life.
Pride or Punishment
Joshua Wooden was a disciplinarian, but not from a physical point of view. I’d almost rather have taken a whipping than hear him say he was disappointed in something I’d done.
I wanted to please him and not let him down with my behavior. It wasn’t a fear of punishment that motivated me. It was my desire to live up to his model and expectations.
Later, as a teacher, I wanted those under my own supervision to be motivated in the same way, to strive to be their best because I believed in them rather than from any fear of punishment.
What You Are
A favorite observation of my dad’s was the following: “Never believe you’re better than anybody else, but remember that you’re just as good as everybody else.” That’s important: No better, but just as good!
I attempted to keep that in mind both when we weren’t winning national championships and when we were. It helped me avoid getting carried away with myself.
It goes back to the importance of having strong guidance and role models in the home. That’s where the standards are set.
Love and Marriage
Love means many things. It means giving. It means sharing. It means forgiving. It means understanding. It means being patient. It means learning. And you must always consider the other side, the other person. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.
And all those things you must not take for granted, but continue to work at.
I agree with Abraham Lincoln. He once said that the best thing a man can do for his children is to love their mother.
Team Wooden
People ask if I raised my own family the way I ran the UCLA basketball team. I tell them, “No, I ran the team pretty much like I ran my family.” Only with the family I had the greatest co-coach working alongside me, by the name of Nellie.
Parenting and Coaching
I think parenting and coaching or teaching are the same thing. And they are the two most important professions in the world.
Parents are coaches, the first coaches a child has. Too many parents expect the coaches and teachers at school to do what they are not doing at home. The parents must set the foundation early. It is often too late by the time a child goes to school.
The Fundamental Goal
The goal in life is just the same as in basketball: make the effort to do the best you are capable of doing – in marriage, at your job, in the community, for your country. Make the effort to contribute in whatever way you can.
You may do it materially or with time, ideas, or work. Making the effort to contribute is what counts. The effort is what counts in everything.
Make Fate Your Friend
Fate plays a part in each of our lives. I was teaching and coaching at Indiana State Teachers College when I was offered coaching positions at both the University of Minnesota and UCLA. I was inclined to go to Minnesota because it was in the Midwest, but there was a little hitch in the offer. They wanted me to keep Dave McMillan, the fellow I would be replacing, as an assistant.
I didn’t think that would be for the best, so they offered to consider giving Mr. McMillan another position at the university, one acceptable to him. However, this would take a few days for the board to determine.
They promised they would call me Saturday at 6:00 p.m. with their decision. I told them if they could make the change and it was acceptable to Mr. McMillan, I would come to Minnesota and coach their basketball team.
Meanwhile, UCLA was waiting for a decision. I told them to call me on Saturday at 7:00. By then I would know what Minnesota had decided. I informed UCLA that if Minnesota made the offer, I would be staying in the Midwest. But fate stepped in and changed things
On the day the University of Minnesota was supposed to call me, a blizzard hit the Twin Cities and knocked out all phone service in and around Minneapolis. Unaware of the situation, I waited patiently for the call. None came, not at 6:00, not at 6:30. My phone didn’t ring at 6:45.
However, right on the button at 7:00 p.m., UCLA called. I assumed Minnesota had decided against offering me the coaching position, so I accepted UCLA’s offer.
Almost immediately after I finished talking with UCLA, the call came through from Minneapolis. I was told about the storm. I was also told that the adjustment had been approved and they were offering me the position of head basketball coach at the University of Minnesota, the job that I really wanted.
Had I been able to terminate my agreement with UCLA in an honorable fashion, I would have done so immediately. But I had given my word just a few minutes before.
If fate had not intervened, I would never have gone to UCLA. But my dad’s little set of threes served me well: “Don’t whine. Don’t complain. Don’t make excuses.”
I resolved to work hard and do the best job I was capable of – even when I discovered upon arriving at UCLA that I wasn’t actually working for the university but rather for the associated students. The president of the student body was actually my boss!
I believe that things are directed in some sort of way. I’m not exactly sure how. I also believe that things turn out best for those who make the best of the way things turn out.
Part II: Success, Achievement, Competition
Preparation is the Prize
Cervantes wrote, “The journey is better than the inn.” He is right and that is why I derived my greatest satisfaction out of the preparation – the “journey” – day after day, week after week, year after year.
Your journey is the most important thing. A score, a trophy, a ribbon is simply the inn.
Thus, there were many, many games that gave me as much pleasure as any of the ten national championship games we won, simply because we prepared fully and played near our highest level of ability.
The so-called importance of a particular game didn’t necessarily add to the satisfaction I felt in preparing for the contest. It was the journey I prized above all else.
Failures and Mistakes
I had mistakes, plenty, but I had no failures. We may not have won a championship every year. We may have lost games. But we had no failures. You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable. I did my best. That is all I could do.
Are you going to make mistakes? Of course. But it is not failure if you make the full effort.
I told my players many times, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.” If you prepare poorly, you may be outscored but you will never lose. I wanted our players to believe that to their very souls because I know it is the truth. You always win when you make the full effort to do the best of which you’re capable.
I also 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, boyfriend or girlfriend, brother or sister. The only person who knows is you. You can fool everyone else.
The Desire to Win
Players fifty years ago wanted to win just as much as players today. Foot soldiers a thousand years ago wanted to win the battle as much as combat troops today. Athletes today have no greater desire to win than athletes at the first Olympic Games. The desire then and now is the same.
The difference is that everybody worries about it more today because of the media and the attention they give to the question of who’s winning and who’s losing.
Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort? That’s what matters. The rest of it just gets in the way.
In classical terms, the courageous struggle for a noble cause was considered success in itself. Sadly, that ideal has been forgotten. But it is well worth remembering.
Underdogs
I have never gone into a game thinking we were going to lose. Never. Even though there have been games where the experts said there was no way we could win. Even if we were big underdogs I always felt anything could happen. Often enough, I was right.
That’s also why I never assumed we were going to win.
Details Create Success
Question: How can I become an optimist?
Answer: Proper preparation and attention to details.
I believe in the basics: attention to, and perfection of, tiny details that might commonly be overlooked. They may seem trivial, but they aren’t. They are fundamental to your progress in basketball, business, and life. They are the difference between champions and near champions.
For example, at the first squad meeting each season, held two weeks before our first actual practice, I personally demonstrated how I wanted Players to put on their socks each and every time: Carefully roll the socks down over the toes, ball of the foot, arch, and around the heel, then pull the sock up snug so there will be no wrinkles of any kind.
I would then have the players carefully check with their fingers for any folds or creases in the sock, starting at the toes and sliding the hand along the side of and under the foot, smoothing the sock out as the fingers pass over it. I paid special attention to the heel because that is where wrinkles are most likely.
I would watch as the player smoothed the sock under and along the back of the heel. I wanted it done conscientiously, not quickly or casually. I wanted absolutely no folds, wrinkles, or creases of any kind on the sock.
Then we would proceed to the other foot and do the same. I would demonstrate for the players and then have the players demonstrate for me.
This may seem like a nuisance, trivial, but I had a very practical reason for being meticulous about this. Wrinkles, folds, and creases can cause blisters. Blisters interfere with performance during practice and games. Since there was a way to reduce blisters, something the players and I could control, it was our responsibility to do it. Otherwise we would not be doing everything possible to prepare in the best way.
When a player came to UCLA, I didn’t ask him what shoe size he wore. We measured his foot. Why? Because when children are growing up, parents buy shoes bigger than their feet, knowing they are growing fast. The youngster might think he’s a size 14 when he’s actually a size 13.
Shoes that are a little too big let the foot slide around. This can cause a blister, especially if there’s also a fold in the player’s sock. I wanted the socks to lie smooth and the shoes to fit correctly.
Next I’d instruct the player on how to lace and tie his shoes precisely: Lace snugly, putting some pressure on each eyelet, and then double-tie each shoe so it won’t come undone during a practice or a game.
An untied shoe is never good, but it can be particularly troublesome if it happens during performance. It was something under our control that we could prevent, and so we did.
I insisted that hair be short. Did it have anything to do with style? No. Long hair flies around and can interfere with vision. And the perspiration on longer hair may get in eyes or on the hands. I wanted no interference with a player’s vision or ball handling.
In addition, practices were often held in the evening, and when players went outside after practice they were susceptible to catching a cold if their hair was wet. Shorter hair was easier to dry. I didn’t want to have a player’s head cold interfere with his practice.
Players understood my thinking, but that didn’t prevent them from testing me, sometimes in a kidding way. “Coach,” one of them said, “how about a mustache? That won’t interfere with my ball handling or vision.”
Well, of course, the player was correct. I knew a mustache, properly trimmed and of an appropriate length, would be no problem. I also knew human nature, especially as it applied to youngsters. The short, trimmed mustache would be followed by the handlebar mustache or more. I had no desire to become a mustache inspector as part of my daily responsibility. Thus, no mustaches at all.
These seemingly trivial matters, taken together and added to many, many other so-called trivial matters build into something very big: namely, your success.
You will find that success and attention to details, the smallest details, usually go hand in hand, in basketball and elsewhere in your life.
When you see a successful individual, a champion, a “winner,” you can be very sure that you are looking at an individual who pays great attention to the perfection of minor details.
Paying the Price
People usually know what they should do to get what they want. They just won’t do it. They won’t pay the price.
Understand there is a price to be paid for achieving anything of significance. You must be willing to pay the price.
The Worthy Opponent
Can there be any great enjoyment or satisfaction in doing what everybody else can do? What joy can be derived in sports from overcoming someone who is not as capable as you are? But there is great joy and satisfaction in competing against an opponent who forces you to dig deep and produce your best.
That is the only way to get real joy out of the competition itself. The worthy opponent brings out the very best in you. This is thrilling.
Peace of Mind
Without peace of mind, what do you have? Many people go through life unhappy with what they have regardless of how much they have. No matter how much they accumulate, they never achieve peace of mind because they want more. It never ends for them and they are forever unhappy. Usually it’s a result of comparing themselves to others, of trying to keep up with the Joneses.
Did I find peace of mind by winning a national championship in basketball in 1964? Then a second, a third, a fourth, and so on? No. I had peace of mind as a coach long before a national championship was ever won.
Circle What You Are
Take a moment and draw a circle around the following personal characteristics that you possess: confidence, poise, imagination, initiative, tolerance, humility, love, cheerfulness, faith, enthusiasm, courage, honesty, serenity.
I hope you circled them all because all are within each of us. It is simply up to us to bring them out.
Winners Make the Most Mistakes
My coach at Purdue, Piggy Lambert, constantly reminded us: “The team that makes the most mistakes will probably win.”
That may sound a bit odd, but there is a great deal of truth in it. The doer makes mistakes. Coach Lambert taught me that mistakes come from doing, but so does success.
The individual who is mistake-free is also probably sitting around doing nothing. And that’s a very big mistake.
Characteristics of a Team Player
We all fit into different niches. Each of us must make the effort to contribute to the best of our ability according to our own individual talents. And then we put all the individual talents together for the highest good of the group.
Thus, I valued a player who cared for others and could lose himself in the group for the good of the group. I believe that quality makes for an outstanding player. It is also why the best players don’t always make the best team. I mean by this that a gifted player, or players, who are not team players will ultimately hurt the team, whether it revolves around basketball or business.
Understanding that the good of the group comes first is fundamental to being a highly productive member of a team.
Why Teams Fail
No matter how great your product, if your sales department doesn’t produce, you won’t get the results you want. Different departments must all function well for the company to succeed. Different individuals must also function well for the departments to succeed. It takes all doing their best.
I told players at UCLA that we, as a team, are like a powerful car. Maybe a Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar or Michael Jordan is the big engine, but if one wheel is flat, we’re going no place. And if we have brand new tires but the lug nuts are missing, the wheels come off. What good is the powerful engine now? It’s no good at all.
A lug nut may seem like a little thing, but it’s not. There’s a role that each and every one of us must play. We may aspire to what we consider to be a larger role, or a more important role, but we cannot achieve that until we show that we are able to fulfill the role we are assigned. It’s these little things that make the big things happen.
The big engine is not going to work unless the little things are being done properly.
Remember that Michael Jordan was with the Chicago Bulls for several years before he ever played in a championship game. Was he talented? Of course he was, but that powerful engine called Air Jordan was in a car with some parts that were not functioning properly.
Of course, when I told the players about their roles and the car with the powerful engine, new tires, and tight lug nuts, I also reminded them the car needed a driver behind the wheel or it would just go around in circles or smash into a tree.
I told them the driver was me.
Orange Peels, Pride, and Productivity
I frequently received letters from custodians after we played an away game telling me our basketball team had left the locker room neater and cleaner than anyone who had visited during the year. The towels were put in bins, soap was picked up off the shower floor, and so forth.
The locker rooms were clean when we departed because I asked the players to pick up after themselves. I believe this is just common courtesy. Somebody’s going to have to clean it up, and I see no reason why it shouldn’t be the person who messed it up. Are managers and custodians the players’ servants?
In basketball we often have orange slices or gum at the half. I see no reason why you should throw those orange peels or gum wrappers carelessly on the floor. There are receptacles for that. Again, it’s just common courtesy.
As with many of the rules I had, there are other less obvious but equally important reasons for insisting on them. In this case, it goes to the image of the team, both our self-image and the image others have of us.
I think neatness and courtesy make you feel good about yourself. I believe individuals who feel good about themselves are more productive.
For this same reason, I asked players even during practice to keep shirts tucked in and socks pulled up.
I believe this encourages teamwork and team unity. It establishes a spirit of togetherness that helps mold the team into a solo unit. I really believe that. In fact, perhaps I should say I know it. I’ve seen it work.
Losing and Winning
Long before any championships were ever won at UCLA, I came to understand that losing is only temporary and not all-encompassing. You must simply study it, learn from it, and try hard not to lose the same way again. Then you must have the self-control to forget about it.
I’ve also learned that winning games, titles, and championships isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and that getting there, the journey, is a lot more than it’s cracked up to be.
Please understand that I wanted to win every single game I every played in or coached. Absolutely. I wanted to win. But, I understood that ultimately the winning or losing may not be under my control. What was under my control was how I prepared myself and our team. I judged my success, my “winning” on that. It just made more sense.
I felt if we prepared fully we would do just fine. If we won, great; frosting on the cake. But, at no time did I consider winning to be the cake.
On Talent
Many athletes have tremendous God-given gifts, but they don’t focus on the development of those gifts. Who are these individuals? You’ve never heard of them – and you never will. It’s true in sports and it’s true everywhere in life.
Hard work is the difference. Very hard work.
Make the Most of What You’ve Got
When I came out to UCLA from Indiana State Teachers College in 1948, I had been led to believe we’d soon have an adequate place to practice and play our games. However, that did not occur for almost seventeen years.
During that time I conducted UCLA basketball practice in a crowded, poorly lit, and badly ventilated gym on the third floor of the Men’s Gymnasium building. Much of the time there was a wrestling practice at one end, a trampoline on the side with athletes bouncing up and down, and gymnastics practice on the other side. The gym was known as the “B.O. Barn” because of the odor when it was busy.
In additional to all of this commotion, cheerleaders in leotards often practices alongside the court. Of course, that brought on some additional distractions.
We had no private locker rooms and no private showers. Players climbed three flights of stairs to a gym that had just two baskets amidst all of the hubbub.
For sixteen years, I helped our managers sweep and mop the floor every day before practice because of the dust stirred up from the other activities. These were hardship conditions, not only for the basketball team, but for the wrestling and gymnastics team members and coaches as well. You could have written a long list of excuses why UCLA shouldn’t have been able to develop a good basketball team there.
Nevertheless, the B.O. Barn was where we built teams that won national championships in 1964 and 1965.
You must take what is available and make the very most of it.
Is My Ford Better than Your Cadillac?
Preparing UCLA for a basketball game with Louisville or Arizona or Duke or Michigan, I would tell my players, “We can’t control what those other fellows do to get ready. We can only control what we do to get ready. So let’s do enough, yes, to outscore them. But let’s not worry about that. Instead, let’s worry about our own preparation.”
Let’s say I want to build a car – maybe a Ford or a Chevrolet or a Plymouth. I want to build it the best I can possibly build it. Will it be better than a Cadillac or a Mercedes? That’s irrelevant.
If I’m building a Ford, I simply want to build the very best Ford I can build. That’s all I can do: to come close to my level of competency, not somebody else’s. I have nothing to do with theirs, only mine.
To worry about whether what I’m building is going to be better than what somebody else is building elsewhere is to worry needlessly. I believe that if I’m worried about that’s going on outside, it will detract from my preparation inside.
My concern, my focus, my total effort should be on building the very best Ford I can build. I did that in coaching high-school teams and in coaching college teams. My focus was on making the team, that group of individuals, the best they were capable of becoming, whether it was a Ford or a Cadillac.
Some years I understood we were building a Ford. Other years I felt we were building a Cadillac. The effort put forth in all years was the same: total.
And I was just as proud of our well-built Fords as of our well-built Cadillacs.
Being Too Competitive
Competitiveness must be focused exclusively on the process of what you are doing rather than the result of that effort (the so-called winning or losing). Otherwise you may lose self-control and become tight emotionally, mentally, and physically. I think someone who is too competitive as an individual is overly worried about the final score.
Therefore, I never mentioned winning or victory to my players. I never referred to “beating” an opponent.
Instead, I constantly urged them to strive for the self-satisfaction that always comes from knowing you did the best you could to become the best of which you are capable. That’s what I wanted: the total effort. That was the measurement I used, never the final score.
Perceptions of Success
I’m perceived as a very successful basketball coach because of the ten national championships UCLA won while I was there. But I know of coaches I consider every bit as capable as I am – better, in fact – who never won a national championship, never even came close. Did they fail as coaches?
In the first fourteen years I coached at UCLA we didn’t win a national championship, even though I worked every bit as hard as in those years as when we won ten of them.
Did I fail as a coach during the first fourteen years? Was I a success only when I coached a team that won a national championship?
The Importance of Basketball
Basketball is just a game, but if I was doing my job as a coach that game of basketball would help our players by preparing them to do well in life, to reach their full potential as individuals.
When they did that, I felt very proud as a coach. That’s more rewarding to me than all the championships and titles and awards.
I’m asked, “Coach, aren’t you particularly proud of all the players that went on to the pros after they left UCLA, fellows like Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Sidney Wicks, Gail Goodrich, David Meyers, Lucius Allen, Mike Warren, Keith Erickson, Walt Hazzard, Henry Bibby, Marques Johnson, and the others?”
Yes, but I’m equally proud of the fellows who became doctors, lawyers, dentists, ministers, businessmen, teachers, and coaches.
The coach whose philosophy I have admired as much as any coach I’ve every been associated with is Amos Alonzo Stagg. He was coaching football at the University of Chicago when they were a national power. After one very successful year a reporter said, “Coach Stagg, it was a great year! A really great year.”
Coach Stagg said, “I won’t know for another twenty years or so whether you’re correct.”
He meant that it would take that long to see how the youngsters under his supervision turned out in life.
That’s how I feel. I’m most proud of the athlete who does well with his life. That’s were success is. Basketball is just a very small part of it.
The Glory Is in Getting There
When people ask me now if I miss coaching UCLA basketball games, the national championships, the attention, the trophies, and everything that goes with them, I tell them this: I miss the practices.
I don’t miss the games or the tournaments or all the other folderol. As Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “It is better to travel hopefully than arrive.” I tried to do that.
It’s the practices I miss most even now.
Part III: Coaching, Teaching Leading
A Sacred Trust
A leader, particularly a teacher or coach, has a most powerful influence on those he or she leads, perhaps more than anyone outside of the family. Therefore, it is the obligation of that leader, teacher, or coach to treat such responsibility as a grave concern.
I consider it a sacred trust: helping to mold character, instill productive principles and values, and provide a positive example to those under my supervision.
Furthermore, it is a privilege to have that responsibility, opportunity, and obligation, one that should never be taken lightly.
“Why Did Wooden Win?”
There is no area of basketball in which I am a genius. None. Tactically and strategically I’m just average, and this is not offering false modesty.
We won national championships while I was coaching at UCLA because I was above average in analyzing players, getting them to fill roles as part of a team, paying attention to fundamentals and details, and working well with others, both those under my supervision and those whose supervision I was under. Additionally, I enjoyed very hard work.
There is nothing fancy about these qualities. They have wide application and equal effectiveness in any team endeavor anywhere. If there is any mystery as to why UCLA won ten national championships while I was the coach, that may clear it up.
Respect
The most essential thing for a leader to have is the respect of those under his or her supervision. It starts with giving them respect.
You must make it clear that you are working together. Those under your supervision are not working for you but with you, and you all have a common goal.
Remember, you can have respect for a person without necessarily liking that individual. Coach Amos Alonzo Stagg said, “I loved all my players. I didn’t like them all, but I did love them all.” What does that mean?
You love your children, but you may not like some of the things they do. We are instructed, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” That doesn’t mean we have to like everything our neighbor does. That has nothing to do with our love for them.
You must have respect, which is a part of love, for those under your supervision. Then they will do what you ask and more. They’ll go the extra distance, make the extra effort in trying to accomplish the most they can within the framework of the team.
If they don’t respect their leader, people just punch the clock in and out. There is no clock-punching when a leader has respect.
A Leader Is Fair
Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn’t mean treating everyone alike. That’s unfair, because everyone doesn’t earn the same treatment.
That’s why I didn’t treat all players alike. I didn’t treat Walter Hazzard like I treated Gail Goodrich. I didn’t treat Bill Walton like I treated Keith Wilkes. Contrary to what you might think, it enhanced teamwork, because almost every player I coached knew that he would be treated fairly, that he would be given exactly what he had earned and deserved. They worked harder as a result. It’s true in sports and elsewhere in life.
In all circumstances, whether as a coach, teacher, or business leader, you must begin by determining exactly what is fair. That means you must eliminate prejudice of all types. Can you do it 100 percent? Probably not, but you can try.
Those under you will recognize that you at least are making a sincere effort. They will realize that you will be wrong on occasion. They must understand, as must you, that you are imperfect. But as long as those under your supervision know that you are trying hard to be fair, you’ll do fine – whether it’s with your children, employees, or athletes.
Walk the Walk
A leader’s most powerful ally is his or her own example. Leaders don’t just talk about doing something; they do it. Swen Nater, a former player at UCLA, told me once, “Coach, you walked the walk.” He meant that I led by example.
Leadership and Punishment
Leaders have to discipline. Those who dispense discipline must remember that its purpose is to help, to prevent, to correct, to improve, rather than to punish. You are not likely to get productive results if you antagonize. Punishment antagonizes.
Furthermore, it is important to understand the purpose of criticism. Criticism is not meant to punish, but rather to correct something that is preventing better results. The only goal of criticism or discipline is improvement. You must keep that in mind and try to the best of your ability to use tact.
The Worst Punishment of All
The worst punishment I could give a team was to deny participation in what was very hard work. I wanted my players to understand that practicing together on our UCLA basketball team was indeed a privilege, a privilege that could be taken away from them.
If they weren’t working hard in practice I would say, “Well, fellows, let’s call it off for today. We’re just not with it.”
The vast majority of the time the players would immediately say, “Coach, give us another chance. We’ll get going.” Usually that was all it would take, the threat of taking away their privilege of practicing. Keep in mind that our practices were physically and mentally grueling.
On rare occasions when that didn’t work, when the players continues to coast, I would simply terminate the practice session, turn out the lights, and leave.
The privilege of practicing had been taken away. It was the worst punishment of all: “Gentlemen, practice is over.”
Emotionalism
I believe that for every artificial peak you create, there is a valley. I don’t like valleys. Games are lost in valleys. Therefore, I wasn’t much for giving speeches to stir up emotions before a game.
If you need emotionalism to make you perform better, then sooner or later you’ll be vulnerable, an emotional wreck, and unable to function to your level of ability.
My ideal is an ever-rising graph line that peaks with your final performance.
I prefer thorough preparation over some device to make us “rise to the occasion.” Let others try to rise suddenly to a higher level than they had attained previously. We would have already attained it in our preparation. We would be there to begin with. A speech by me shouldn’t be necessary.
Spiking, Dunking, Taunting, Flaunting
Today’s showboating runs contrary to what the spirit of the game is all about. Excessive dunking, pointing at other players, and taunting them, all belittle your opponent and show a lack of respect.
I believe you should go out and work hard, play hard, and compete hard in sports and in life without the extra histrionics.
We played ten times for the national championship while I was coaching at UCLA. Each time we were fortunate enough to win. And each time near the end of the contest when I felt we had the game in hand, I told the team during a time-out, “Now, remember when this game is over to behave in an appropriate manner. Do not make fools of yourselves. Let the alumni and study body do that if they choose. Don’t you do it!”
Your reaction to victory or defeat is an important part of how you play the game. I wanted my players to display style and class in either situation – to lose with grace, to win with humility.
A Coach’s Best Friend
I used the bench to teach. When future two-time All-American Walter Hazzard first came to us at UCLA, he had a tendency to get a little fancy. He didn’t continue being fancy because he liked to play. Early on we may have lost a couple of games because I sat him on the bench for being too fancy.
I tell coaches at coaching clinics, “The greatest ally you have to get things working well and players performing as a team is the bench. Don’t be afraid to use it, whether for a star player or anyone else. In fact, the overall effect can be better when you bench a star. The other players see it and play harder because of it.”
Even if there is a price to be paid, don’t be afraid to use appropriate discipline. It may hurt in the short term, but it will pay dividends in the future.
Being Prepared
I used to say to an individual player who was unhappy because he wanted more playing time, “Young man, tell yourself, ‘I will be prepared and then perhaps my chance will come, because if it does come and I’m not ready, another chance may not come my way very soon again.'”
The time to prepare isn’t after you have been given the opportunity. It’s long before that opportunity arises. Once the opportunity arrives, it’s too late to prepare.
The Gym Is a Classroom
I felt that running a practice session was almost like teaching an English class in that I wanted to have a lesson plan. I knew the detailed plan was necessary in teaching English, but it took a while before I understood the same thing was necessary in sports. Otherwise you waste an enormous amount of time, effort, and talent.
I would spend almost as much time planning a practice as conducting it. Everything was listed on three-by-five cards down to the very last detail.
Everything was planned out each day. In fact, in my later years at UCLA I would spend two hours every morning with my assistants organizing that day’s practice session (even though the practice itself might be less than two hours long.) I kept a record of every practice session in a looseleaf notebook for future reference.
My coaches and managers also had three-by-five cards each day so they knew – to the exact minute – when we would need two basketballs at one end of the court for a drill, or five basketballs at midcourt for a different drill, or three players against two players at a certain place and time, or the dozens and dozens of variations I devised.
I kept notes with the specifics of every minute of every hour of every practice we ever had at UCLA. When I planned a day’s practice, I looked back to see what we’d done on the corresponding day the previous year and the year before that.
By doing that I could track the practice routines of every single player for every single practice session he participated in while I was coaching him. In those days freshmen were ineligible. Otherwise I would have gone back three years in reviewing the drills.
It was very important that I learn about each player and then study that player so I would know if he needed a little more time on this or that particular drill. I needed to know which drill had greater application to this player or that player, because individuals vary.
So I devised drills for both individuals and the group and studied and analyzed them. Some drills would be goof for all and some drills would be good for just certain players.
I needed to understand how to apply these drills in practice. I learned I must not continue them too long. I must know as the season progressed how they were going to change and then devise new ones to prevent monotony, although there would be some drills we must do every single day of the year.
All those things I had a responsibility to do to the utmost of my ability because they were things over which I had control.
The attention to detail meant players would move quickly from one drill to another. We didn’t achieve conditioning by doing laps or running up and down stairs or doing push-ups. We did it through the efficient and intense execution of individual fundamental drills.
A shooting drill was a conditioning drill the way I ran it. There was no standing around and just watching or resting in between. The players were always working and running and moving. “Move! Move! Move! Up, back, up, back, move. Quickly, hurry up!”
A player who wasn’t running in a scrimmage would shoot free throws until he had made ten in a row and then would go into the scrimmage while someone else came out to shoot free throws. Everyone wanted to be scrimmaging, so players put tremendous pressure on themselves to make free throws and worked intensely while they participated in the scrimmage. “Move! Move! Move!” No resting. No standing around. No idle chatter.
The pressure I created during practices may have exceeded that which opponents produced. I believe when an individual constantly works under pressure, he or she will respond automatically when faced with it during competition.
I engaged in very little discussion. I’d talk while drills were going on, mostly to individuals rather than to the group. I did more individual coaching in that sense.
Following the drills, I would make notes. Perhaps we needed two more minutes on this drill or less time to complete that drill.
By reviewing and analyzing everything, we were able to get the very most out of our practice time. That was necessary to reach our goal: getting the very most out of our abilities.
Then I would say, “Young men, you have a responsibility for the attainment and ‘maintainment’ of all the little details that we do in practice. Your responsibility begins each afternoon when practice ends, because you can tear down more between practices than we can possibly build up during practices. So, please practice moderation in what you do.”
But it all began with attention to, and perfection of, details. Detail. Details.
Develop a love for details. They usually accompany success.
The Value in Feeling Valued
The individuals who aren’t playing much have a very important role in the development of those who are going to play more. They are needed, and you must let them know it.
Everyone on the team, from the manager to the coach, from the secretary to an owner, has a role to fulfill. That role is valuable if the team is to come close to reaching its potential. The leader must understand this.
Every single member of your team needs to feel wanted and appreciated. If they are on the team, they deserve to be valued and to feel valued. Do you want someone on the team who doesn’t feel necessary and appreciated? How do they find out unless you let them know?
Right after each UCLA basketball game, there would be a press conference with representatives from all the media, I could predict what questions they would ask and which players they wanted to interview.
I always tried to use this opportunity to praise those individuals the media would overlook. I would say, “When I put so-and-so in just before the half and he made that steal, it quite possibly could have been the turning point in the game.” I wanted to let other players know they were very important to the team.
The press would give plenty of attention and praise to so-called stars: Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Gail Goodrich, Walter Hazzard, Sidney Wicks, Marques Johnson, David Meyers, and others. I would be more likely to praise these particular players privately.
I wanted the public acknowledgment for players to be balanced. The average basketball fan may have been unfamiliar with names like Neville Saner, Bill Sweek, or Gary Franklin, fellows who were an important part of UCLA teams.
I tried to let them know they were important, that they were valued. All members of the team are important. Each role is critical.
In Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Thomas Gray wrote,
Full many a gem or purest ray serene,
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
The star knows he’s important and hears it from a variety of sources. You must make sure that others on the team, those “born to blush unseen,” understand that their role is also very, very important. They should never feel their efforts are wasted in the star’s shadow.
It’s up to the leader to do that, in sports and elsewhere.
The Laws of Learning
The four laws of learning are explanation, demonstration, imitation, and repetition. The goal is to create a correct habit that can be produced instinctively under great pressure.
To make sure this goal was achieved, I created eight laws of learning; namely, explanation, demonstration, imitation, repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition.
A Coach’s Highest Compliment
One of the finest things a player could say about me after he left the team was that I cared every bit as much about him as an individual as I cared about him as an athlete.
It was important to me because I really did care about them. I often told the players that, next to my own flesh and blood, they were the closest to me. They were my extended family and I got wrapped up in them, their lives. Their problems. There was a great deal of love involved in my coaching. That’s what a team should be to a coach.
Walton’s Whiskers
There was a rule against facial hair for players on UCLA basketball teams. One day Bill Walton came to practice after a ten-day break wearing a beard. I asked him, “Bill, have you forgotten something?”
He replied, “Coach, if you mean the beard, I think I should be allowed to wear it. It’s my right.”
I asked, “Do you believe in that strongly?” He answered, “Yes I do, coach. Very much.”
I looked at him and said politely, “Bill, I have a great respect for individuals who stand up for those things in which they believe. I really do. And the team is going to miss you.”
Bill went to the locker room and shaved the beard off before practice began. There were no hard feelings. I wasn’t angry and he wasn’t mad. He understood the choice was between his own desires and the good of the team, and Bill was a team player.
I think if I had given in to him I would have lost control not only of Bill but of his teammates.
Negotiating and Giving Speeches
I frequently give talks around the country about my ideas and philosophy of coaching and about life. Many times my audiences are youngsters at coaching clinics.
However, when companies ask me to make a personal appearance, they ask what my fee is. I reply, “What is your offer?”
I also tell them I am not inclined to dicker. “Tell me what you wish to pay and if I say yes that’s final, and if I say no that’s final. And if I say no, please don’t say, ‘Well, we can pay you more.'”
It saves a lot of time and talk.
I’ve given hundreds of talks over the years. One thing I’ve learned is that the most popular speaker is often the person who follows “Thank you for that nice introduction,” by saying soon afterwards, “So in conclusion…”
On Race
Dad helped set my thinking in place on the issue of race. He told me and my brothers many times, “You’re just as good as anyone, but you’re no better than anybody.” Because of him I’m better than I might have been on many matters, even though I fall short of what I could and should be.
One of my players said to a reporter once, “Coach Wooden doesn’t see race. He’s just looking for players who will play together.” I’d have to say that gave me about as good a feeling as I could have.
My dad was a very wise man.
Part IV: Putting It All Together: My Pyramid of Success
Are You a Failure if You Do Your Best?
Parents wanted their children in my English classes at South Bend Central to receive an A or a B even though many were not capable of earning that. The parents judged an A or B as success and anything else as failure.
Keep in mind that most of us are about average, and C is an average grade. For parents to think their youngster, a child who might have only average ability in English, had failed with an average grade after performing to the best of his or her ability seemed unfair to me.
Apparently the grade of C was all right for their neighbor’s child but not for their own. It brought to mind Mr. Shidler’s assignment: what exactly is success (and failure)?
The First Cornerstone: Industriousness
Industriousness? I mean very simply that you have to work and work hard. There is no substitute for work. Worth-while things come only from work.
I challenge you to show me one single solitary individual who achieved his or her personal greatness without lots of hard work.
Michael Jordan? More important than his physical ability is the way he has worked hard to improve any weaknesses he had. Jack Nicklaus? Mr. Nicklaus is legendary for his hard work. Cal Ripken Jr? The same. And anyone else you might care to mention who has achieved personal success and competitive greatness. Businessperson, clergy, doctor, lawyer, plumber, artist, writer, coach or player, all share a fundamental trait. They work very hard. More than that, they love the hard work.
You may suggest that Babe Ruth achieved greatness even though he broke training in every sort of way over and over again. But just imagine what he might have done if he had focused on bringing out the best that he had within him.
He may have achieved greatness in the eyes of many, but did he achieve his own personal greatness? Did he try to be the best that he could be?
The Other Cornerstone: Enthusiasm
On the other side of the Pyramid foundation is my second powerful cornerstone: enthusiasm. By that I mean simply that you have to like what you’re doing; your heart must be in it. Without enthusiasm you can’t work up to your fullest ability.
I have a little problem with those who complain about their jobs – coaches who tell me how hard their job is, businesspeople who whine about this or that, teachers who complain about how tough they have it working with youngsters. Gracious sakes alive! The opportunity to teach and coach and work with youngsters hard? I believe otherwise.
And I believe it’s true in any profession. If you’re knocking it all the time, get out! Don’t whine, complain, or criticize. Just leave. Maybe you can’t leave immediately, today, right now, but understand you must eventually do it.
Because if you don’t enjoy your endeavors, it is almost impossible to have enthusiasm for them. And you must have enthusiasm to prepare and perform with industriousness. Enthusiasm ignites plain old work and transforms it into industriousness.
Enthusiasm brushes off on those with whom you come into contact, those you work with and for. You must have enthusiasm, especially if you’re a leader or if you wish to become a leader.
Friendship
For success, either individually or for your team, there must be a level of friendship. It is a powerful force that comes from mutual esteem, respect, and devotion.
It isn’t friendship when someone does something nice for you. He or she is simply being a nice person. Friendship is mutual; doing good things for each other. There’s no real friendship when only one side is working at it. Both must give for there to be friendship.
Friendship takes time and understanding. Rarely will you find in working toward a common goal that others will be able to resist friendship if you offer it sincerely and openly. However, you may have to prime to pump first. Be brave enough to offer friendship.
Toward the end of the Civil War, reparation were being discussed in the White House. Abraham Lincoln was told by one of his advisors who favored punishing the South, “Mr. President, you’re suppose to destroy your enemies, not make friends with them!”
Mr. Lincoln replied, “Am I not destroying an enemy when I make a friend of him?” He understood the tremendous force of friendship. Friendship includes others and add strength to your foundation.
Loyalty
My goodness, how can you work to the best of your ability unless you have someone or something to whom you are loyal? Only then do you gain peace and an increasing ability to perform at your highest level.
Loyalty to and from those with whom you work is absolutely necessary for success. It means keeping your self-respect, knowing who and what you are allegiance to. It means giving respect to those you work with. Respect helps produce loyalty.
Great loyalty was stressed on all my teams, from Indiana State Teachers College to UCLA. Loyalty is a cohesive force that forges individuals into a team.
Loyalty is very important when things get a little tough, as they often do when the challenge is great. Loyalty is a powerful force in producing one’s individual best and even more so in producing a team’s best.
Cooperation
In order to reach the full potential of the group, there must be cooperation at all levels. This means working together in all ways to accomplish the common goal. And to get cooperation, you must give cooperation.
You are not the only person with good ideas. If you wish to be heard, listen. Always seek to find the best way rather than insisting on your own way.
All of this requires cooperation. It allows individuals to move forward together, to move in the same direction instead of going off in different directions.
Ten strong field horses could not pull an empty baby carriage if they worked independently of each other. Regardless of how much effort they exerted individually, the carriage wouldn’t budge without their mutual cooperation.
Self-Control
Self-control is essential for discipline and mastery of emotions, for discipline of self and discipline of those under your supervision.
You cannot function physically or mentally unless your emotions are under control. That is why I did not engage in pregame pep talks to stir emotions to a sudden peak.
I preferred to maintain a gradually increasing level of both achievement and emotions rather than trying to create artificial emotional highs. For every contrived peak you create, there is a subsequent valley. I do not like valleys. Self-control provides emotional stability and fewer valleys.
Remember, discipline of others isn’t punishment. You discipline to help, to improve, to correct, to prevent, not to punish, humiliate, or retaliate.
When you punish you antagonize. You cannot get the most productive results when you antagonize. Self-control is essential to avoid antagonizing.
When you lose control of your emotions, when your self-discipline breaks down, your judgement and common sense suffer. How can you perform at your best when you are using poor judgement?
In the many years before we won a championship I overcame disappointment by not living in the past. To do better in the future you have to work on the “right now.” Dwelling in the past prevents doing something in the present.
Complaining, whining, making excuses just keeps you out of the present.
That’s where self-control comes in. Self-control keeps you in the present.
Strive to maintain self-control.
Alertness
Alertness is the next building block in the Pyramid. There is something going on around us at all times from which we can acquire knowledge if we are alert. Too often we get lost in our own tunnel vision and we don’t see the things that are right in front of us for the taking, for the learning.
My favorite American hero is Abraham Lincoln. He had alertness. He once said that he never met a person from whom he did not learn something, although most of the time it was something not to do That also is learning, and it comes from your alertness.
As you strive to reach your personal best, alertness will make the mask much easier. Be observing constantly, quick to spot a weakness and correct it or use it, as the case may warrant.
Initiative
You must not be afraid to fail. Initiative is having the courage to make decisions and take action. Keep in mind that we all are going to fail at times. This you must know. None of us is perfect. But if you’re afraid of failure, you will never do the things you are capable of doing.
I always cautioned my teams, “Respect your opponent, but never fear them. You have nothing to fear if you have prepared to the best of your ability.”
Never fear failure. It is something to learn from. You have conquered fear when you have initiative.
Intentness
The fourth block in the second tier of the Pyramid of Success is intentness. I could say it means determination. I could say it means persistence. I could say it means tenacity or perseverance.
I will say it is the ability to resist temptation and stay the course, to concentrate on your objective with determination and resolve.
Impatience is wanting too much too soon. Intentness doesn’t involve wanting something. It involves doing something.
The road to real achievement takes time, a long time, but you do not give up. You may have setbacks. You may have to start over. You may have to change your method. You may have to go around, or over, or under. You may have to back up and get another start. But you do not quit. You stay the course. To do that, you must have intentness.
Here’s a little example of what I mean. In 1948 I began coaching basketball at UCLA. Each hour of practice we worked very hard. Each day we worked very hard. Each week we worked very hard. Each season we worked very hard. For fourteen years we worked very hard and didn’t win a national championship. However, a national championship was won in the fifteenth year. Another in the sixteenth. And eight more in the following ten years.
Be persistent. Be determined. Be tenacious. Be completely determined to reach your goal. That’s intentness.
If you stay intent and your ability warrants it, you will eventually reach the top of the mountain.
Condition
You must be conditioned for whatever you’re doing if you’re going to do it to the best of your ability. There are different types of conditioning for different professions. A deep-sea diver has different conditioning requirements from a salesperson. A surgeon has different physical conditioning requirements from a construction worker. A CEO has different conditioning requirements from a food server.
You must add to physical conditioning mental and moral conditioning. I stressed all forms of conditioning for my teams.
Some believed my players were simply in better physical condition than the competition. They may have been, but they also had tremendous mental and emotional conditioning.
You must identify your conditioning requirements and then attain them. Without proper conditioning in all areas, you will fall short of your potential.
It is impossible to attain and maintain desirable physical condition without first achieving mental and moral condition.
Skill
At the very center of the Pyramid is skill. You have to know what you’re doing and be able to do it quickly and properly.
I had players at UCLA who were great shooters. Unfortunately they couldn’t get off any shots so they didn’t help us. I had players who could get off plenty of shots but couldn’t shoot a lick. You need both; the ability to do it quickly and properly.
Skill means being able to execute all of your job, not just part of it.
It’s true whether you’re an athlete or an attorney, a surgeon or a sales rep, or anything else. You’d better be able to execute properly and quickly. That’s skill. As much as I value experience, and I value it greatly, I’d rather have a lot of skill and little experience than a lot of experience and a little skill.
Team Spirit
The last block in the third tier is team spirit. This means thinking of others. It means losing oneself in the group for the good of the group. It means being not just willing but eager to sacrifice personal interest or glory for the welfare of all.
There is a profound difference between mere willingness and eagerness. A prisoner on a chain gang may be willing to break rocks to avoid punishment. But how eager is he?
Of course, we all want to do well and receive individual praise. Yes, that’s fine, if you put it to use for the good of the team, whatever your team is: sports, business, family, or community.
Team spirit means you are willing to sacrifice personal consideration for the welfare of all. That defines a team player.
Poise
My definition of poise is very simple: being yourself. You’re not acting. You’re not pretending or trying to be something you’re not. You are being who you are and are totally comfortable with that. Therefore, you’ll function near your level of competence.
You understand that the goal is to satisfy not everyone else’s expectations but your own. You give your total effort to becoming the best you are capable of being.
It takes poise to accomplish this.
Confidence
You must have confidence. You must believe in yourself if you expect others to believe in you.
However, you can’t have poise and confidence unless you’ve prepared correctly. (Remember that failing to prepare is preparing to fail.) Every block is built on the others. When all are in place, poise and confidence result. You don’t force them to happen. They happen naturally from proper preparation.
Competitive Greatness
Ultimately, all fourteen building blocks in the Pyramid of Success are necessary for competitive greatness.
What is competitive greatness? It’s being at your best when your best is needed. It’s enjoying the challenge when things become difficult, even very difficult.
True competitors know it’s exhilarating to be involved in something that’s very challenging. They don’t fear it. They seek it. Is it fun to do that which is ordinary, easy, simple, something anyone can do? Not at all.
Yet most of the tasks we do in our everyday lives are very simple. Anybody could do them. They will not produce the joy that comes from being involved with something that challenges your body, mind, and spirit.
Competitors love that challenge. They know it offers the chance to produce their very finest. It brings forth their competitive greatness.
Patience
Most of us are impatient. As we get a bit older, we think we know more and things should happen faster. But patience is a virtue in preparing for any task of significance. It takes time to create excellence. If it could be done quickly, more people would do it.
A meal you order at a drive-through window may be cheap, it may be quick, it may even be tasty. But is it a great dining experience? That takes time. Good things always take time, and that requires patience.
Competitive greatness requires patience. Excellence requires patience. Most of all, success requires patience.
Faith
Of course, I believe we must also have faith that things will work out as they should. Please keep in mind that I’m not saying things will necessarily work out as we want them to.
However, we must believe they will work as they should as long as we do what we should do. And we must let that suit us. That should be satisfactory.
The Apex: Success
The highest point of a pyramid is called the apex. In our Pyramid, it is success. Above the block of competitive greatness and above patience and faith, at the very pinnacle, representing the culmination of all the qualities working together below, those powerful blocks we put in place, is success.
True success is attained only through the satisfaction of knowing you did everything within the limits of your ability to become the very best that you are capable of being.
Success is not perfection. You can never attain perfection as I understand it. Nevertheless, that is the goal.
Success is giving 100 percent of your effort, body, mind, and soul, to the struggle. That you can attain. That is success.
As a coach, leader, and teacher you’re trying to bring individuals up to their greatest level of competence, and then meet the real challenge of putting them together as a group. That can be extremely difficult. The Pyramid shows the way.
As an individual you strive to bring forth your best. The Pyramid has allowed me to accomplish that, and with it, to achieve a very precious commodity: peace of mind.
What is so important to recognize is that you are totally in control of your success – not your opponent, not the judges, critics, media, or anyone else. It’s up to you. That’s all you can ask for; the chance to determine your success by yourself.