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Performance Area => Article & Video Discussion => Topic started by: joejoe22 on January 24, 2011, 03:28:22 pm
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I watched a special on John Wooden the other day and it got me thinking about great motivators and winners. The special was on HBO and titled "The UCLA Dynasty". Definitely worth watching. Has some great interviews and film from their dynasty years.
For those of you that don't know, John Wooden (October 14, 1910 – June 4, 2010) was an American basketball player and coach. Nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", he won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period — seven in a row — as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat. Within this period, his teams won a then-record 88 consecutive games. He was named national coach of the year six times.
Pretty freakin impressive. He coached players like Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Bill Walton. He was an amazing coach and leader.
He had a rule that you had to shave and have a short hair cut to play on his team. Bill Walton (2 time player of the year at the time) showed up to the first practice of his senior year with long hair and a beard, and Coach Wooden said "You've got 20 minutes to get a hair cut and shave or you're not playing this year." Bill Walton responded, "Coach, but I'm the best player in the country." And Coach Wooden responded, "We sure will miss you this year, Bill." Needless to say, Walton had a haircut and shaved before practice started. Think what you will about the rule, but that's fortitude right there.
Anyhow, that show really inspired me and I looked up some other things about him and some of his quotes, which no doubt everyone has heard a few of already.
"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."
"Talent is God given. Be humble. Fame is man-given. Be grateful. Conceit is self-given. Be careful."
"Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."
"For an athlete to function properly, he must be intent. There has to be a definite purpose and goal if you are to progress. If you are not intent about what you are doing, you aren't able to resist the temptation to do something else that might be more fun at the moment."
"I always tried to make clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior. Until that is done, we are on an aimless course that runs in circles and goes nowhere."
"The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move."
"It is most difficult, in my mind, to separate any success, whether it be in your profession, your family, or as in my case, in basketball, from religion."
"Our land is everything to us... I will tell you one of the things we remember on our land. We remember that our grandfathers paid for it - with their lives."
"What you are as a person is far more important that what you are as a basketball player."
"Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters."
"Although I wanted my players to work to win, I tried to convince them they had always won when they had done their best."
"The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team."
"It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it."
"You can't let praise or criticism get to you. It's a weakness to get caught up in either one."
"Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."
"Young people need models, not critics."
"It is what we learn after we know it all that really counts."
"I'd rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent."
"Consider the rights of others before your own feelings, and the feelings of others before your own rights."
"Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character."
"If you're not making mistakes, then you're not doing anything. I'm positive that a doer makes mistakes."
"Never mistake activity for achievement."
"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."
"Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be."
"A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment."
"Success is never final, failure is never fatal. It's courage that counts."
"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming."
"You cannot attain and maintain physical condition unless you are morally and mentally conditioned. And it is impossible to be in moral condition unless you are spiritually conditioned. I always told my players that our team condition depended on two factors / how hard they worked on the floor during practice and how well they behaved between practices."
"Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then."
"Ability is a poor man's wealth."
"Be prepared and be honest."
"The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones."
"Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there."
"Don't measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should have accomplished with your ability."
"If you don't have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?"
"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
"Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out."
"It isn't what you do, but how you do it."
"Sports do not build character. They reveal it."
"There are many things that are essential to arriving at true peace of mind, and one of the most important is faith, which cannot be acquired without prayer."
Some of them get a little preachy, but that's some good stuff. From a man that dedicated his life to winning and being the best, and succeeded. Here's another funny thing I found, his pyramid of success. Check it out:
(http://static.technorati.com/10/06/19/14023/woodenpyramid72.jpg)
Pretty deep stuff. I like to read this stuff when I feel like I'm wavering or after I've slipped up (like I did with 5 Guys for lunch today!). I hope some of yall get something out of this.
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Wooden's basically my hero, wisest man I've ever seen.
I recommend reading some of his autobiographies,
throwing a couple of quotes out here really doesn't do his whole concept on life and style of thinking justice.
Forget about that pyramid of succes stuff and just read the first two chapters of THIS (http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Lifetime-Observations-Reflections-Court/dp/0809230410/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295901385&sr=8-1) book first.
RIP
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I'll look into it. I'm certainly no expert on the subject and I'm always interested in learning more.
Just thought I'd give him a shout out. Did a search on the forum to see if the topic was discussed and it wasn't, so I just wanted to bring it up.
Gotta recognize game!
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Yes sir!
By no means did I mean to offend you, just though I'd help a hand.
Wooden's favourite quote;
There is a choice you have to make, in everything you do. And you must always keep in mind that the choice you make, makes you.
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(http://static.technorati.com/10/06/19/14023/woodenpyramid72.jpg)
IS the most important one from down or up?
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I'm not really sure it's set up that way, but if I had to venture a guess, I would say that each level builds on the level prior. What I mean is, all of them rely on each other for support and if you take one away, your structure falls down (to a certain degree). Does that make sense? I don't know, maybe someone else has a better answer.
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this is what I mean by SKIP THAT DAMN PYRAMID
people focus on that shit way too much.
Read a book b*tches! It'll greatly enrich your life, promise.
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I only read Audio-books!
Is that reading?
ABSOLUTELY!