PART IV
NOTES TO MYSELF
PRESEASON LETTER TO THE TEAM
JULY 27, 1967
My experience in teaching and coaching over many years has naturally caused me to become somewhat opinionated in certain areas, but even most of those who are inexperienced will agree that experience is a great, although sometimes hard, teacher.
BELIEF: A MUST FOR ANY LEADER
My opinion is this: I believe that in order to accomplish anything as a leader, you must really believe in what you are doing. If you question what you are doing in your own mind, then your team is going to question it and you’ll have a pretty rough time.
You must believe in what you’re doing and the way you are doing it. When you are in doubt, you’d better think about changing.
ASK FOR 100 PERCENT
Several years ago I was part of a panel discussion on leadership with several other coaches. Someone in the audience asked the coach sitting beside me—one of the most famous in NFL history—what he expected of his players.
“I expect them to give me 130 percent. I don’t care if it’s practice or a game. I want 130 percent,” he replied. Then the questioner turned to me: “Coach Wooden, what about you?”
I thought for a moment and answered, “Well, after hearing my fellow coach just now, I’m embarrassed to answer your question. All I’ve been asking for is 100 percent. Maybe I should raise my standards.”
My friend, the NFL coach sitting next to me, barked out, “Next question please.” Then he turned and gave me a little wink. We were both right, although we had a different way of asking for total effort and commitment.
WHEN IT IS O.K. TO LOSE
EDDIE POWERS
South Bend Central High School Varsity assistant coach, Indiana State Teachers College and UCLA
Coach Wooden was more upset if we won but didn’t work up to our potential than if we lost playing our best.
Nevertheless, I am leery about hyperbole. I set standards that were high but attainable. I requested 100 percent effort; not 101 percent, 110 percent, or 130 percent. You cannot give more than 100 percent. And that’s what I requested.
Making an effort of 100 percent is attainable. It’s a reasonable request.
EFFORT: THE ULTIMATE SUCCESS VARIABLE
You hear it said—with sarcasm most often—“Well, he gets an A for effort. But that’s it.”
The message? Great effort is small comfort, a meager consolation prize. Few things are further from what I practice and preach.
Great and total effort, individually and as part of a team, is not a consolation prize or a second-rate kind of success. It is, I believe, the top prize, the highest kind of success. All else, fame and fortune, power and prestige, trophies and titles, as well as outscoring an opponent, are merely by-products of effort.
Total effort is a true product and the ultimate measure of your success. Some may disparage effort, especially when it doesn’t produce victory.
I do not. I teach that total effort is success.
LEADERSHIP AND THE SHORT STRING
A coach is not allowed even average results. Fans, owners, alumni, the media, and others always have expectations that run too high and too hot. They keep you on a very short string—or try to.
Thus, coaches are often described in one of three ways: “He’s looking for a job,” “He’d better start looking for a job,” or, “He’s a legend!”
The first category, “He’s looking for a job,” means you just got fired. The second category, “He’d better start looking for a job,” means you’ve had a good season, maybe even won a conference title (although perhaps not by enough points).
The third category, “He’s a legend,” usually means you’re dead.
You’ll have to agree, coaches are kept on a very short string. This is true in nearly any leadership position of consequence. It comes with the territory.
FIVE REMINDERS TO MYSELF
1. Be quick, but don’t hurry.
2. No opponent deserves to be feared.
3. Every opponent deserves respect.
4. There is no substitute for hard work and meticulous planning.
5. Valid self-analysis brings improvement.
BE PERFECT NOW
To my way of thinking, perfection is beyond the reach of mortals. However, once you die, it’s a different story.
Walk through a graveyard and you’ll see nothing but tombstones describing how so-and-so was a perfect husband or father, wife or mother, even a perfect coach and leader.
I think to myself, “It’s a shame all these folks are gone because unlike me they were all perfect—each one absolutely flawless.”
Perhaps there is comfort in the knowledge that after we’re gone, we too shall be perfect. But in the meantime, this should not stop us—you and me—from seeking perfection while we’re still here; from trying to make each day a masterpiece before they chisel our names on the gravestones.
LEADERS WORK PLENTY
I enjoyed coaching, but some seasons I enjoyed it more than others. Some seasons I was glad when it ended. Strange as it may seem, that might be a season in which we won a national championship.
Nevertheless, it could be long and full of outside distractions, speculation, and things I had no interest in. So I would be sort of glad when it was over.
At no time, however, was teaching basketball tiresome or tedious. For me it brought joy. Perhaps that’s why I put enthusiasm in the Pyramid as virtually equal to hard work. I knew from personal experience what love for your job can do.
There’s an old saying, “If you love your job, you’ll never work a day in your life.” I don’t agree with it in this sense: You will work plenty even if you love your job, but the hard work will bring you deep satisfaction—fulfillment in doing the work itself.
But make no mistake—you will work. It’s a little misleading to suggest that loving what you do will somehow eliminate very hard work.
LESS SELF MAKES YOU SELFLESS
A leader who preens publicly is no different from a player who calls attention to himself by pounding his chest after making a basket. What are they both saying? “Me, me, me!”
Listen to a good coach following a win. He praises members of the team as if he hadn’t been involved with their success.
He accepts blame (at least publicly) for the mistakes made by those under his leadership. A selfless leader puts the team first. A first-rate team is often the reward.
Don’t draw attention to yourself; don’t be like the fellow in church who coughs loudly just before he puts a coin in the collection plate.
WHOSE TEAM IS IT?
During my coaching years and ever since, I have made a point of refraining from referring to the UCLA Bruins as “my team” or the individuals on it as “my players.” I followed the same policy as varsity coach at Indiana State Teachers College and South Bend Central High School.
When asked, “How did you win that game, Coach?” I would correct the reporter and say, “I didn’t win the game. The players did. Our team outscored the opponent.”
This may be a small issue, but it is important to me because it reflects my idea that a team is “owned” by its members. The UCLA Bruins was not my team. It was our team.
I was the head coach—part of a team whose members enjoyed joint ownership.
THE ULTIMATE APPRAISAL
We are judged by what we have achieved. Outsiders will look to the won-loss record (in various forms) to ascertain what you have achieved and whether you deserve to be called a “success.”
But ultimately the only person who can truly give a valid appraisal of personal success is the individual himself or herself—you for you; me for me.
I understood clearly that I could be fired if I didn’t measure up to someone else’s determination of success—almost always based on victories—but I also was strong in the belief that my appraisal, my definition, mattered most of all.
Your appraisal is the ultimate appraisal. It takes fortitude to believe that your opinion matters most. When your appraisal is foremost and is based on the quality of the effort you made to reach your personal level of competency, it is as good as gold.
THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER
Much attention is given to UCLA’s seven consecutive national championships and its 88-game winning streak. What occurred before that, however, receives much less attention—a national championship in 1964 and another in 1965.
Those two titles were perhaps more difficult to achieve than either the seven consecutive championships or the winning streak.
Conditions—our antiquated practice facility, for example—were such in 1964 and 1965 that even now, looking back, I’m most proud of what our team accomplished. But the outside world usually doesn’t know much about what a leader and an organization go through along the way.
It’s just one more reason to be very skeptical about what the outside world has to say—its appraisal—when it comes to your success and that of your team.
THREE OF MY ASSETS
1. I am meticulous.
2. I am organized and very good at time management.
3. I do not feel pressure, because my dad taught me not to measure myself in comparison to others but rather on the quality of my efforts to improve.
THREE OF MY LIABILITIES
1. I’ve had to work hard at being patient.
2. I’ve had to work hard on self-control of my emotions.
3. I’ve had to work hard on seeing shades of gray rather than only black and white.
THE COURAGE TO BE YOURSELF
Leadership personalities come in all shapes and sizes. It is a mistake to think you should necessarily model yourself after someone else. Learn from others, yes, but be yourself.
Coach Tom Landry of Dallas was a leader I admired greatly. He had his own style and way of doing things. Former Dallas running back Walt Garrison was asked if he’d ever seen Coach Landry smile. “No,” said Walt, “but I was on his team for only nine years.”
That was Coach Landry’s style. Smiling or not smiling has little to do with success. Have the courage to be yourself; have the intelligence to make yourself as good as you can be.
ATTITUDE: A TOOL TO LEAD BY
For a period of years at UCLA I was guilty of worrying over some issues that I could do nothing about. It was a form of self-pity, a wasteful attitude.
For example, I was upset because many desirable student-athletes couldn’t get into UCLA because of the university’s high academic standards. They’d go elsewhere, sometimes play for teams on our schedule. And outscore us!
I also moaned about the poor condition of our practice floor and facility at the old Men’s Gym on campus.
Instead of making the most of what we had, I let these and some other things bother me a lot. What did it accomplish? Absolutely nothing—distraction, irritation, frustration. It certainly didn’t help my efforts to be an effective coach.
Eventually I overcame it, in part, by looking at the positive side of the situation. High academic standards that kept some good athletes from attending UCLA? Well, I wanted intelligent players on the team, and UCLA’s standards helped make that happen.
Rundown training facilities at UCLA’s Men’s Gym? In all honesty, I’m not sure I ever found an upside to that, but I got better at ignoring it.
Perhaps you can learn from my mistake—how I wasted time feeling sorry for myself because of the work conditions I faced.
The more concerned we become over things we can’t control, the less we will do to improve those things we can control. Nevertheless, this is easier said than done.
I hope you have more luck putting that into action than I did.
ADVERSITY ACCOMPANIES ACHIEVEMENT
When people tell me they’ve accomplished something “and it wasn’t all that hard,” I have trouble believing they accomplished very much.
In my experience, adversity usually accompanies achievement. There is a price to pay. Goals achieved with little effort are seldom worthwhile or long-lasting. Rarely do they give much personal satisfaction.
IT’S WHAT YOU LEARN AFTER YOU KNOW IT ALL THAT COUNTS
BILL WALTON
UCLA Varsity, 1972–1974 two national championships
I stopped listening to Coach Wooden in my senior year, 1974. All the things that made us a great team as sophomores and juniors evaporated like dust in the wind. It was after this depressing meltdown [UCLA’s 88-game winning streak was broken, and the team lost in the semifinals of the Final Four, which ended the winning streak of seven consecutive championships] that Coach penned his famous maxim, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” This prophetic lesson of life was directed specifically to me. I now have the original sitting as the centerpiece on my desk, personally signed by the master teacher himself. And I can see him this very moment slowly shaking his head with that sad, disappointed look on his face—like a father who’s been let down.
The price tag for significant achievement is usually significant adversity. We must be willing to pay the price. Perhaps there is comfort in knowing that most others are not willing to do that—to pay the price for success and competitive greatness.
CHECKLIST FOR COMPETITIVE GREATNESS
Review the following 17 characteristics in the Pyramid of Success. Circle any that are lacking in your own leadership:
1. Industriousness
2. Friendship
3. Loyalty
4. Cooperation
5. Enthusiasm
6. Self-Control
7. Alertness
8. Initiative
9. Intentness
10. Condition
11. Skill
12. Team Spirit
13. Poise
14. Confidence
15. Competitive Greatness
16. Faith
17. Patience
Don’t be discouraged if you circled a few of the 17 qualities listed above. I also would have circled some of them in the earlier stages of my own career.
There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging our shortcomings as long as we take the next step: improving on and then eliminating the liability.
24/7
There’s a phrase common today in the business world that means you’re working or thinking about your job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: “24/7.” In fact, one young go-getter told me he was plugged into his job “24/7/365.”
I asked, “How much coffee does it take to do that?”
NOT 24/7
My approach was different. During practices, two hours each day from 3:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m., I expected total and absolute concentration and participation in what I was teaching.
However, once practice was over, basketball was over. I asked our players to forget about it, and I told them I didn’t want them working out in the weight room or doing anything related to basketball other than observing good personal habits—everything in moderation.
This made me different from some coaches who wanted players to think about basketball all the time, on the court and off the court—the 24/7 approach.
I didn’t want that. I wanted players to concentrate on other things—first of all their studies. But I also felt it important to refresh and recharge oneself, not to be so consumed with basketball that it becomes a chore.
Of course, my own duties required attention before and after practice, but at the end of the workday, I went home and left basketball on the basketball court.
My dear wife, Nellie, said she couldn’t tell if I’d had a good day or a bad day at practice. I left it behind at the office.
PRODUCTIVE PRESSURE
I never pressured our players to win a game. I pressured them to work exceedingly hard to reach their own level of competency, but I never put any pressure on them to beat a particular opponent.
This philosophy was taught to me in large part by my father, who said, “Prepare through hard work; don’t worry about whether you’re better than someone else; always try to be the best that you can be.”
This philosophy eliminates pressure except for the pressure you put on yourself to think intelligently and work very hard to improve your skills and performance. If you take that responsibility seriously, as I did, it’s more pressure than anyone else can put on you.
That’s productive pressure—the kind that will ultimately produce competitive greatness.
FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION
Walt Hazzard was a key player on our 1964 national championship team. His teammates liked to pass the ball to him and did so without hesitation. Why? Because they knew Walt would pass it back to them without hesitation. He was unselfish, even though he had the same urge to hang onto the ball that most players have.
One of the things that made him so valuable was his desire to facilitate the “free flow of information”—the ball.
He received the basketball so often because he shared the basketball so much. I have a strong feeling that teams that have Walt Hazzards in their organizations win a lot more often than those that don’t.
FOCUS ON TODAY
Preseason Letter to the Team
1968
The past cannot change what is to come. The work that you do each and every day is the only true way to improve and prepare yourself for what is to come. You cannot change the past, and you can influence the future only by what you do today.
EYE ON THE BALL
You must keep your organization thinking in the present, focused on today rather than lingering in the past or dreaming about the future. Team members must truly comprehend that what they do now, this day, determines what they will achieve tomorrow.
The past is for reference; the future for dreamers; the present moment is where your create success.
LET IT GO
Leadership produces adversaries. Adversaries can produce animosity, anger, even hatred within you. Allowing these emotions to have a home in your heart is self-destructive.
Don’t hold a grudge. It takes up room in your heart; it takes up time in your life; it takes up space in your mind. Let it go. Let others hate and be hurt. Don’t do it to yourself.
Remember what Mother Teresa said, “Forgiveness will set you free.”
FIVE THINGS A LEADER SHOULD KEEP IN MIND
1. Adversity thins the ranks of your competitors.
2. Getting individuals to mesh their goals with team goals is your goal.
3. Worthwhile objectives take time, which requires patience, which requires faith that things will work out as they should.
4. You are imperfect; so is everyone else.
5. Meticulous planning is meaningless without hard work.
WHEN EVERYTHING ISN’T ENOUGH
Many years ago, Everett Bennett Williams, owner of the Washington Redskins, hired George Allen as head coach. “George,” Mr. Williams told his new coach, “do what it takes to produce a Super Bowl winner for us. I’m giving you an unlimited budget.”
Two months later, so the story goes, George had exceeded the budget.
The tale is not true, but it illustrates a good point: No matter how much you give some people, it’s never enough.
More time? More money? More staff? Some people will take all you’ve got and tell you it’s not enough.
You must decide when enough is enough.
FINDING THE BEST WAY
Preseason Letter to the Team
1975
It has been said that a true leader is always interested in finding the best way to accomplish something rather than having his or her own way, and I hope that I come under that category. We must work together if we are to measure up to our potential, and anything less than that means some degree of failure.
YOUR PULPIT
Leadership comes with an automatic pulpit. You are expected to talk, to have the answer, to talk, to find a solution, to talk, to make decisions, to talk some more.
Given the pulpit of leadership, it is tempting to pontificate—to talk all the time.
Perhaps the most important part of your job is to listen. And learn. When you’re holding forth from behind your pulpit, you’re not listening, not observing, not learning, not looking for the best way rather than just insisting on your way.
Don’t kid yourself. A pulpit is just a fancy soapbox. Any fool can stand on a soapbox and hold forth. Spend too much time on your little soapbox, and somebody’s going to come along and kick it out from under you.
Pay attention; listen; learn. Don’t get hooked on your pulpit.
IGNORE THE PUNDITS
In the years following my retirement from UCLA, subsequent coaches were subjected to unfair criticism and comparisons. Critics looked for ways to prove the new head coach fell short in doing things my way as if “my way” was the only correct way.
One new UCLA head coach—an excellent, top-notch coach—thought it would be a nice gesture to host a reception for the media, an opportunity to get acquainted. Of course, beverages—including mixed drinks—were available. It was perfectly reasonable, and the event was a success.
However, the next day our coach was criticized publicly by a local media person for throwing a cocktail party “when his predecessor, John Wooden, would not even attend a cocktail party.”
It was an unfair and damaging comparison, but typical of how others will foist their arbitrary standard on you, especially when you have the visibility that comes with leadership.
It takes strength inside to ignore it, to move ahead without letting it affect you. At times, it can be almost unbearable.
Perhaps it helps to know that this is just the way it is.
KEEP ASKING THE SAME QUESTION
I was a poor leader when I started because I had all the answers. Improvement came in direct proportion to my willingness to ask the questions.
Here’s the most important question I asked: How can I help our team improve? When I thought of something, I did it. Simple as that.
An effective leader keeps asking that question because there’s always something more you can do—always room for improvement. Always.
When you’ve asked yourself that question a hundred times, ask it again: “How can I help our team improve?”
A productive leader always finds a new answer, a better way, a superior solution. But only if you keep asking “How can I help the team improve?”
PUT OTHERS FIRST
I have great reverence for Abraham Lincoln and Mother Teresa. They were different in many ways, but each had the ability to put others first.
We know that Mr. Lincoln was a strong and able leader, but we may forget that Mother Teresa also created a large and powerful team, the Missionaries of Charity, who helped the poor in Calcutta and around the world.
One of her leadership skills—and President Lincoln’s—is available to us if we try: selflessness. Put others first. It’s a powerful leadership asset.
THE ART OF LEADERSHIP
Mr. Wilfred Peterson lists a number of important rules in regard to leadership in his book The Art of Leadership. Some of them are as follows:
1. The leader has faith in people. He believes in, trusts, and thus draws out the best in them.
2. The leader sees through the eyes of his followers.
3. The leader does not say, “Get going!” Instead he says, “Let’s go!” and leads the way.
4. The leader uses his heart as well as his head. After he has considered the facts with his head, he lets his heart take a look too.
5. The leader has a sense of humor. He has a humble spirit and can laugh at himself.
6. The leader is a person of action as well as a person of thought.
I would summarize Mr. Peterson’s tips this way: A good leader has humility and humor, initiative and compassion, perspective and common sense, and faith in those he leads.
How many of these characteristics do you possess?
MY GROWTH CURVE
Lewis Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton are the two most famous players I’ve coached. Teams they were on won five national championships and had a combined record of 174–6 during the years they played at UCLA (Lewis in 1967, 1968, and 1969; Bill in 1972, 1973, and 1974).
Part of the reason the UCLA Bruins did well during those years was my own maturing as a coach. I got better at working with people and understanding human nature.
Lewis came along first. In 1967 he joined the varsity—a superb team player, selfless and sharing, a consummate competitor. Two years later, along came Bill Walton. While he shared those same qualities with Lewis, the two of them were complete opposites in many other ways.
Lewis was not an introvert, but he was not outgoing either; Bill was the opposite. Lewis never challenged me on anything; Bill tested me on many things. Lewis was not confrontational; Bill liked to challenge authority.
Early in my career I would have taken Bill’s “testing” of my authority personally and reacted poorly. (That’s exactly what happened with a football player who challenged me at Dayton High School. When he refused my orders to perform a particular drill, I knocked him down.)
It wouldn’t have worked between Bill and me if I hadn’t found better leadership skills. Fortunately, he came along when I had improved my understanding of human nature and how to work with people.
It would have been a shame if I hadn’t been a good enough leader to work effectively with Bill Walton.
I STOP TALKING ABOUT WINNING
My high school coach at Martinsville, Indiana, Glenn Curtis, was an excellent teacher of basketball. He also was a master at revving up his team before we took to the court—exhorting us to “win” and impressing upon us the necessity of victory and beating the other team. He even used poetry to get us inspired.
Later, at Purdue University, Coach Ward “Piggy” Lambert also spoke of “winning,” although not to any
WINNING IS A BY-PRODUCT OF PREPARATION
MIKE WARREN
UCLA Varsity, 1966–1968
In ever heard him mention winning in the context of beating a particular opponent. He would say, “I would like to win every game we play, but that’s not realistic, but what is possible is playing the best that we can possibly play. Winning becomes a by-product of how well prepared you are mentally, physically.”
great extent. He might, on occasion, tell us, “Go out there and win this game!” but it was not his common refrain.
When I began coaching, I followed Coach Lambert’s example more or less. While I urged the team to “win,” it was not something I did before every single game. Nevertheless, I did use it when I thought it appropriate—“Now go out there and beat these guys!”
But after I’d been teaching for a number of years—maybe three or four years—I came to see this approach as one I didn’t want to use at all ever again.
My attitude on this changed gradually. Perhaps it was because I sensed it was in contradiction to my belief that total effort rather than winning—the final score—counted most to me, and I wanted it to count most to those I coached.
Thus, I began exhorting the team to “give it your best out there.” That gradually evolved to the following: “When you walk back into this locker room after the game, make sure you can hold your head high.”
I wanted the players to understand that winning would take care of itself if they took care of their effort—100 percent or as close to it as they could get.
I doubt if you can find a player I coached over the final 30 years of my career who ever heard me talk about winning or exhorted the team to beat the other team.
Once I made the change, I don’t think I ever mentioned “winning” again.
A LEADER’S TOOL KIT
1. Keep courtesy and consideration for those you lead foremost in your mind.
2. Laugh with, not at, others.
3. Optimism and enthusiasm are more powerful than sarcasm and cynicism.
4. Seek those moments when you can offer a sincere compliment to those who don’t get many compliments.
OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF MISTAKES
Almost always a leader is better off building up someone’s confidence than knocking it down.
I told players that .400 hitters in baseball go hitless more than half the time; .300 hitters miss more often than not. A manager would welcome a batter who gets only one hit for every three times at bat. That’s a .333 batting average!
I wanted our players to understand that I wasn’t perfect and neither were they. Mistakes are part of high performance. Don’t fear making a mistake if you’ve prepared properly.
MIND CONTROL
I kept negative thoughts out. But I also kept positive thoughts, such as winning a championship, at bay.
I understood in certain years that a national championship was a possibility, but I didn’t dwell on it. What consumed me was teaching players what they needed to know to reach their level of competency, which might put them in a position to win a championship.
In turn, I wanted them consumed with making the effort to learn what I was teaching. Teaching and learning occupied our attention, not whether we might, or might not, win a trophy.
We never took our eye off the basketball and started gazing into the crystal ball called the future.
THE KEY DIFFERENCE
Among experienced coaches, there is little difference in their technical knowledge of the game. However, there is a vast difference in their ability to motivate and teach the game.
I believe this is true for leaders in most organizations. Knowledge is not enough to get desired results. You must have the more elusive ability to teach and motivate. This defines effective leadership.
If you can’t teach and you can’t motivate, how can you be a leader?
THREE BE’S OF LEADERSHIP
1. Be slow to criticize and quick to commend.
2. Be more concerned with what you can do for others than with what they can do for you.
3. Be more concerned with getting ahead than with getting even.
THE BENEFIT OF COMPOSURE
My self-control on the bench improved over the years. While I might have barked out something from time to time at a referee through my rolled-up program—“Don’t be a homer!” or “Call ’em the same at both ends”—I was very contained most of the time.
DON’T MOPE OR GLOAT
LYNN SHACKLEFORD
UCLA Varsity, 1967–1969 three national championships
He used to tell us to walk out of the locker room after a game in such a way that nobody could tell if we won or lost. Coach wanted us to control our emotions always.
One of the reasons I valued composure during a game is quite simple: Emotionalism—flailing about and flaring up, screaming and stomping the floor—tells the team that I’ve lost it.
Where is your team then? When the one in charge, the leader, loses it?
They’re lost. Everybody’s lost when you lose it.
DELUSIONS OF LEADERS
Two of the symptoms of insanity are delusions of grandeur and delusions of persecution. Anyone who has been a leader for any length of time has had one—or both—of these symptoms.
Being afflicted with either of these delusions only means you’re normal—that you’ve experienced the usual violent ups and downs of leadership.
However, when you hang on to the delusion for more than a few days, that’s when you’ve got a problem.
LEADERSHIP GUIDELINES
1. Don’t have so many rules that your team develops rigor mortis.
2. Never brush over details.
3. Teach respect for all and fear for none.
4. Have one team, not regulars and substitutes. No one feels good being a “substitute.”
PRAYING
I never prayed for victory, never asked God to let our team win the national championship, never offered up a prayer that UCLA would set some record or win a particular game.
To my way of thinking, God has more important things on his mind. Whatever level of competency we reach is up to us—only us.
It’s like the story of the Englishman who was walking down a cobblestone path when he came upon a small cottage with a beautiful garden next to it.
The Englishman paused in admiration and said to the gardener who was down on his hands and knees pulling weeds, “Sir, what a beautiful garden God has blessed you with.” The gardener replied, “You should have seen it when God was taking care of it by himself.”
Whatever gifts the Good Lord may have blessed us with, we are the ones who must get down on our hands and knees and do the work. It’s up to us to make the garden beautiful.
A MAN OF FAITH
My own Christian faith has given me great strength. I believe those of faith—and not just my faith—have something powerful and true they can draw on.
That’s why I encouraged those under my supervision to believe in something—a faith that gave them inner strength: “I don’t care what religion you choose, but I think it makes you a better person to believe in something.”
When Lewis Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) became a Muslim, he did so after careful consideration and study. It didn’t bother me. He is still a Muslim, and his faith has given him strength over the years just as my Christian faith does for me.
Occasionally, I wonder how those who don’t believe in something get by.
THE BIG BALLOON
A healthy ego is a leadership asset. Inflated, however, it becomes a leadership liability. Often it’s difficult to tell when you make the crossing from healthy self-esteem—ego—to unhealthy egotism and arrogance.
When it occurs, you begin to shut people out. Unwilling to listen, you hold forth. In a room full of creative people, you take up more and more space like a hot-air balloon that gets bigger and bigger.
Eventually there’s no space left in the room. Everybody leaves—or wants to.
INNER CONFIDENCE
I never had any fear of losing my job—being fired—at any point in my 40 years of coaching. This was true at Dayton High School in Kentucky, South Bend Central High School, Indiana State Teachers College, and the University of California, Los Angeles.
There are a couple of good reasons for this. First, I felt competent both as a coach and as an English teacher. If an administrator or the school board felt otherwise, I believed I could catch on someplace else.
Second, I never acquired a lifestyle that was difficult to pay for. Nor did I get my salary up so high that I might become “unhireable.”
Therefore, in one of the most uncertain professions of all, coaching, I was certain of one thing: No athletic director or school board could hold fear of firing over my head. They knew I had absolutely no fear of being dismissed.
You might examine how you can achieve the same inner confidence about your job. When you do, it’s a potent source of strength and serenity that ultimately makes you a much better leader. You are not vulnerable to inappropriate pressure.
PROMISE YOURSELF
1. Promise to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
2. Promise to be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are of your own.
3. Promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the press of trouble.
DON’T CHEAT
If you are a lazy leader; if you are not willing to pay the price to go to clinics, conferences, and seminars; if you don’t read all that you can; if you don’t seek information from all sources; if you don’t analyze those under your supervision as well as yourself (and then let yourself be governed by that analysis)—if you are not willing to do all these things—then you are cheating somebody.
You are not doing what you are being paid to do. No one else may know because in the final analysis you will be the only one who can reveal it.
Nevertheless, you are cheating. You are not doing your job to your fullest ability.
WHY?
• Is it so much easier to give blame than offer credit?
• Is it that we dread adversity when we know that facing up to it makes us stronger?
• Is it so difficult to develop the belief that our team is working with us, not for us?
• Is it so much easier to talk than to listen?
• Is it that we often forget that big things are accomplished only by the perfection of little things?
• Is it that we aren’t more interested in finding the best way rather than in having our own way?
• Is it so much easier to be a critic than a good example?
• Is it that we see the faults of others so much faster than we see our own?
MAKE NO MESS
I did not believe in scouting opponents because it’s a negative approach. (I do believe in having a general knowledge of the competition, which comes from knowing the background of the other coach.)
Our players had enough on their hands perfecting my system. Where would they have been if I had started teaching them how to react to every little thing the competition might or might not do? It would be a mess.
Let your competition figure you out. Let your competitors deal with the mess.
THE TEAM I SCOUTED HARD
While I did virtually no scouting of other teams, I arranged to have our own team carefully scouted about three times a year.
Often you can’t see the forest for the trees, and it’s beneficial to have constructive criticism from outside neutral sources, to see your organization through the eyes of somebody else.
It is perhaps misleading for me to say I didn’t scout teams. I scouted the most important team on our schedule: UCLA.
What measures do you take to have your own organization scouted? Keep in mind that scouting your team is just another way of scouting your own leadership.
PASSION’S SLAVE
Passion is cited as a prerequisite for success and high achievement. Not to quibble, but I view passion as emotional agitation—uncontrollable and overmastering.
Few would argue that the passion you feel when you’re in love is wonderful. Few would deny that you are often irrational in that passionate state of mind.
How can irrationality bring success on a consistent basis (except perhaps when it comes to being in love)?
Passion is unsustainable over the long term. Success is a long-term process even when it’s just 60 minutes on a clock above a basketball court.
For this reason, I never gave rah-rah speeches, never invoked the great urgency to “win” this or that game or “beat” this or that opponent. I never even permitted the players to charge out onto the court all fired up.
I didn’t want them all fired up and jumping up and down. I wanted them bristling with intensity, finely focused, and in control of themselves.
When these attitudes are combined with talent and good teaching, you may find yourself leading a team competing and prevailing at the highest levels.
This will not occur if you are a slave to passion. Passion is temporary.
I WONDER
• Why are there so many who want to build up the weak by tearing down the strong?
• Why is it so difficult to realize that you cannot antagonize and positively influence at the same time?
• Why are we are so slow to understand that failing to prepare is preparing to fail?
• Why is it so much easier to complain about the things we do not have than to make the most of and appreciate the things we do have?
• Why is it that so often we permit emotion rather than reason to control our decisions?
THE PROGENY OF WINNING
It’s true: Winning breeds winning. What people forget to mention is that winning also breeds complacency. My observation is that complacency is the more common offspring of winning.
A LEADER’S DESTINY
A leader destined for success asks, “What can we do to improve?”
A leader destined for failure says, “That’s the way it’s always been done.”
Which are you?
—Anonymous
GETTING THERE AND STAYING THERE
Staying on top is very difficult, but not nearly as difficult as getting there. I believe this is true, in part, because you learn so much along the way. If you persevere and prevail, by the time you get to a position of dominance, you’ve accumulated a great body of knowledge and experience.
Additionally, the visibility you receive when you’re on top can make your organization attractive to the best talent. Top talent coupled with leadership experience and knowledge is a pretty good hand to play. And that’s the hand you’ve usually got when you’re on top.
Of course, everyone is aiming at you at that point, but I’d much prefer to be the target than have it the other way around.
Staying on top is easier than getting there. Most of those in positions of leadership don’t know this, however, because they’ve quit trying long before they reach the top.
THE EXPECTATIONS OF OTHERS
Usually when Hoosier friends visit me in Los Angeles, they want to see the homes of the movie stars. However, one fellow from Mooresville, Indiana, had a different request. “John,” he said, “will you drive me out to see the Pacific Ocean? I’ve never seen an ocean.”
We got in my car and drove to a bluff overlooking the Pacific on a beautiful sunny day. My friend got out of the car, walked to the edge of the cliff, and stood in silence for a while—hands on his hips, just looking out at the vast expanse of gently rolling waves sparkling in the sunlight for hundreds and hundreds of miles.
Finally, he turned and said to me, “John, it’s not as big as I expected.” I could only chuckle at his response. “Would you like see where Jimmy Stewart lives?” I asked.
As we walked back to my car, I turned for a last look before we drove away. I may be wrong, but the Pacific Ocean seemed unfazed by its failure to meet my friend’s expectations.
There is a little practical lesson here on how silly it is to live and die on the expectations of others.
The next time you’ve worked hard, done your best, and still find that someone is unhappy with you, remember the Pacific Ocean. It too had failed to meet someone’s expectations.
“YOU LET US DOWN, COACH”
In 1975 UCLA captured its eighth national championship in nine years. (The previous year, 1974, UCLA was outscored by North Carolina State in a double-overtime in the semifinals. Before that loss, the Bruins had won seven championships in a row.)
At the final buzzer in 1975, a UCLA booster ran out onto the court and shouted, “Congratulations, Coach! You let us down last year, but we got ’em this time.”
I had let him down—failed to meet his expectations—by not winning an eighth straight NCAA national championship the previous year.
The UCLA booster was like my friend from Indiana whose expectations about the Pacific Ocean had gotten out of hand.
FIVE THINGS TO SHARE
1. Share the work.
2. Share the credit.
3. Share the enthusiasm.
4. Share the information.
5. Share the love, care, and concern.
NO LEADER HAS ALL THE ANSWERS
For a couple of seasons at South Bend Central High School, I instructed players on exactly what I wanted them to eat at home before a game: a vegetable, a small piece of steak, water, and some Jell-O. My goal was to be sure they ate something that would give them strength but that would also be very easy on the stomach. I didn’t want them to get indigestion or become tired because of their pregame meal.
I later found out that one of our players—the most inexhaustible person on the team—never ate what I prescribed.
I was upset that he disobeyed and confronted him, “What do you eat before a game?” He looked down at the ground sheepishly and replied, “Coach, I eat plenty of chili and beans with lots of milk. That’s all we can afford at home.”
His pregame meal of chili and beans with lots of milk worked great for him. It was a little reminder that I didn’t have all the answers.
This is a reminder most leaders need from time to time.
MAKE A LIFE
Wealth doesn’t necessarily bring real happiness. It may provide things that bring momentary happiness, but they won’t endure.
Sometimes we get so concerned with making a living that we forget to make a life. That’s how families are lost—when we get sidetracked chasing money, or recognition, or other false trappings of success.
We have to make a living, but we also must make a life with our family. It’s easy to lose sight of that when we start chasing money and its traveling companions fame and power.
I was paid $32,500 during my final year as varsity basketball coach at UCLA. You will probably not agree, but I was a wealthy man. I made a living, but I also made a life.
THE TRAPPINGS OF SUCCESS
I drive a 1989 Taurus. It works just fine. Since I purchased my Taurus, many automobile dealers around Los Angeles have offered me fancier cars—free. I wouldn’t have to pay a penny as long as I gave the car my endorsement by driving it. I have politely turned them all down.
Fancy things—cars or otherwise—have never meant much to me. Maybe it’s because when I was growing up in Indiana, we were surrounded by families that worked hard on their farms and seemed content being able to feed the family and provide a home, some education—the good things. The same was true for Joshua Wooden and our family.
We worked hard, but we had a very good life—even without an abundance of the material things.
For whatever reason, that stayed with me. I never developed a taste for fancy living or all the trappings of success. My dear Nellie felt the same way.
Life can be just fine without them. Better, perhaps.
HOW TO FOOL 10,000 PEOPLE
Basketball is the greatest spectator sport of all. The ball is the biggest, the arena is the smallest, and the crowd is the closest. Because they’re up so close, spectators think they know the most, and they let you know it.
Abe Lemons, a basketball coach who like all of us got plenty of advice from the peanut gallery, once told me, “John, when you’re in the huddle during a timeout, at least move your mouth up and down. That way the crowd will think you’re doing some great coaching.”
Abe wasn’t far off the mark. Sometimes all you have to do is move your lips to fool the peanut gallery. However, in my own experience, if your lips are moving you better be saying something. And it better be something worth listening to.
ADAPTABILITY
My leadership style was originally rigid—rules, regulations, and penalties. This forced me to ignore human nature, extenuating circumstances, and ramifications. A good leader doesn’t ignore these things.
I eventually started incorporating something else leaders often neglect: common sense.
Replacing many of my rules and regulations with common sense and good judgment didn’t weaken my authority; it strengthened it.
HOW TO GIVE STRENGTH
Because of my advanced age, which is sometimes mistaken for advanced wisdom, I am often asked, “What can be done about the breakdown of ethics and behavior we see around us—corporate misdeeds, political scandals, the subversion of honest competition in sports?” If I knew the answer, I’d be rich.
What I do know is that we each have control of our own behavior, or should, and the principles we choose to abide by, or don’t.
How do we keep others from doing bad things? Perhaps by properly tending to our own business—by running an honest shop—we exert the greatest power of all.
The greatest teacher of all, Jesus, taught by example. His words, as they have come down to us through the ages, are important. His example affects me even more deeply.
What to do about the wayward behavior and tattered ethics of others? Be true to yourself. Others are watching. Do your job the way you’re supposed to do it.
You give strength by being strong.
AN HONEST LOSER
Is there a difference between robbing a bank for money and breaking the rules to win? How can one be theft but not the other?
Ill-gained profit is no different from ill-gained victory. Neither means much except to a thief.
I’d rather be an honest loser than a dishonest “winner” and rather have an honest dollar than a false fortune.
You haven’t won a thing when you have broken the rules to do it.
CHARACTER IS MORE THAN HONESTY
You can be as honest as the day is long and still be short on character. How? You can be honest and selfish, honest and undisciplined, honest and inconsistent, honest and disrespectful, honest and lazy.
For a leader, honesty is a strong start, but you can’t stop there. There’s more to character than just being honest.
SOMETIMES THERE’S NO SOLUTION
A leader will occasionally do the right thing, and it will still turn out very wrong. In 1968 during the so-called Game of the Century between UCLA and Houston, I took Edgar Lacey out of the game because we had a disagreement on how to cover Houston’s superstar Elvin Hayes.
Much later in the game I decided to put Edgar back in, but when I looked for him, he was sitting near the end of the bench. It appeared to me that he was almost disinterested in what was happening on the court—as if he didn’t want to play or didn’t care about the game.
Seeing this, I changed my mind and kept him on the bench.
Afterward, reporters asked me about this, and I told them what I saw: “Edgar gave me the impression he didn’t want to play.”
In fact, Edgar did want to play. He just didn’t look like it. Unfortunately, in the heat of the game I had no way of knowing this.
When we got back to UCLA, Edgar came into my office and told me to tell reporters that I had been wrong. I couldn’t do that because I had told them the truth, namely, that it appeared to me that Edgar didn’t want to play.
I was sorry he was upset, and I could understand why he was displeased, but I wasn’t going to retract what I said. What I said is what I saw—an honest statement.
Unfortunately, because I wouldn’t publicly retract the statement and apologize, Edgar quit our team. If I had known this was going to happen, I never would have answered the reporter’s question. But I had no way of knowing what my answer—an honest opinion—would do.
Sometimes there’s no solution—only consequence.
MAXIMIZE YOUR ASSETS
I intensely dislike being judged on those things over which I have no control. Perhaps that’s why I have a near-fetish about trying to perfect those things that are under my control. This concept is deep-rooted in my approach to competition. Here’s a simple example.
I wasn’t tall for a basketball player—less than six feet—but I was quick. I recognized that there was nothing I could do about my height disadvantage, so I worked on improving the asset I did have: quickness.
I made sure I was in the best condition possible so that late in the game I’d still be quick when others were slow. Basketball games are usually decided late in the game.
For good conditioning to mean anything, my feet had to be in good shape. I used a solution to toughen them up, and I put powder over the solution. I wore two pairs of socks—one thin pair and regulation sweat socks over them. I put the socks on carefully and laced and tied my shoelaces correctly.
Simply put, I maximized my asset to minimize my liability: I was in top condition, took care that my equipment didn’t let me down, and toughened up my feet.
Any aspect of the game that was under my control received similar treatment.
As a coach I eventually learned to do the same. I worked very hard to perfect all things over which we had control and wasted little time stewing over other issues—those that were beyond my power to change.
UNDERDOGS HAVE MORE FUN
The most fun of all is when you’re the underdog. That’s when you’re playing to win. When you’re the big favorite, you’re playing not to lose. It’s much more fun playing to win.
When you are the underdog, don’t feel sorry for yourself. Relish the opportunity it offers—the opportunity to play to win.
YOUR LEGACY IS IN THE CUPBOARD
It was important to me that I didn’t leave the cupboard bare. When I retired in 1975, my decision was made easier knowing that the returning players as well as those just coming in—David Greenwood, Roy Hamilton, Brad Holland, and Kiki Vanderweigh—were top student-athletes.
I felt in my own mind that UCLA would be a threat to win titles for the next three years after I retired and that it would continue to attract top talent. And I was correct. In fact, UCLA won the conference title in each of the four years immediately following my departure.
I believe a leader should, as much as possible, provide for the future of the team. How it does when you’re gone is a reflection of how you did while you were there.
How can a leader with integrity just walk away and leave the cupboard bare?
PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
Recently a young man asked me, “Are you afraid of death, Mr. Wooden?” Well, I had to chuckle because at my age—I was born in 1910—that could be a touchy subject. But it’s not.
“No,” I replied, “I have no fear of death because my life has been blessed in too many ways: my family, especially Nellie before I lost her; a wonderful, fulfilling life in coaching; all of my friends and acquaintances; and, except for bad knees because of basketball, good health. I’ve been given so much for so many years.
“But I also do not fear death because I know out yonder I’ll be with Nellie again. But not until after death. I look back on my life with appreciation and out yonder with anticipation—although I’m not going to do anything to speed things up.”
THE SUM OF THINGS
Perhaps you think that’s an unusual way to conclude a book on leadership—reflections on life and death. Nevertheless, my words to the young man are relevant here. They go to the sum of things—my life so far—and the comfort I take in knowing what’s ahead out yonder.
I have been blessed in too many ways, and one of the greatest blessings of all has been my profession: teaching, coaching, and leadership.
HAPPINESS
“A day lived without doing something good for others is a day not worth living.” Mother Teresa wrote those words—and I believe those words to be true.
Furthermore, it has been my experience that doing good for others brings great inner peace, even joy, especially when done without thought of getting something back in return. Expecting so much as a thank-you diminishes the joy of giving and helping others. At least it does for me.
There are many ways of doing something good for others. Teaching is one of those ways. As a part of good leadership, it’s a powerful way of doing good for many others.
Perhaps that’s why being a coach has delivered such happiness to my door. It has allowed me the opportunity to help others—not only in basketball but in their lives.
I took this opportunity to be a teacher, leader, and coach quite seriously. Leadership is a trust—a sacred trust in my opinion.
Honor it and you can find happiness, experience true inner peace, and find real joy.
MY PERFECT DAY
If I could go back and pick one single day in my life—in sports—to live over again, my choice might surprise you.
It would not be that day in 1927 when our Martinsville High School basketball team won the Indiana state championship. Nor would it be any game I played as a member of the Purdue Boilermakers or coached at Indiana State Teachers College or UCLA.
Here’s the day I would pick if I could go back in time: I would like to conduct one more day of practice in the gym.
Each day of practice was, by far, the most fulfilling, exciting, and memorable thing I did as a coach—teaching those under my supervision how to achieve success as members of a team.
“The journey is better than the inn,” Cervantes wrote. The struggle, the planning, the teaching and learning, the seeking (which, of course, is the journey) surpass all else for me, including records, titles, or national championships.
The awards and acknowledgment, the final score, all have their respective place, and I do not discount them. But, for me, Cervantes had it right: My joy was in the journey.
Perhaps you might examine the source of your own happiness—joy. Is it in your journey or only in the prize, the inn?
THE GOAL AND THE PROMISE
I believe success comes to you as an individual and leader only when you acquire 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.
It sounds so simple: Give it your best; that is success. But it is not simple; it’s very hard. Attaining success, as I define it, in leadership or anything else, is elusive, complicated, and extremely difficult. Thus, I created the Pyramid as a practical guide for achieving success and competitive greatness. Winning, however you define it, in whatever context you seek it, is a by-product of success.
For me, success comes before victory. It is the first priority, the great goal. You must make the absolute effort to bring forth your own potential and teach your organization how to do the same. This is the philosophy I adhered to for 40 years as a teacher, coach, and leader.
Seek success with all you’ve got, and you’ll do just fine. Teach the same to those in your organization, and they, too, will have the tools necessary to achieve competitive greatness. That’s my promise to you. I can make that promise because that’s exactly the way I did it.
THE WAY OF WOODEN
ANDRE McCARTER
UCLA Varsity, 1974–1976 one national championship
No Secret to Perfection
There are no secrets in basketball—none. Everybody knows everything. Everybody has the same information. Coach Wooden just used the information better, taught it better.
In every area of the game there is a correct way, a perfect way, of doing it.
The Wooden system was to teach the highest form of execution of those fundamentals.
Everybody knows the correct form for shooting a basket-ball—balance, finger placement, arm extension, and the rest of it. The same applies to everything else: defense, dribbling, passing, blocking out, all of it. There’s a perfect form for doing those things.
Coach Wooden’s preparation and teaching were so good that he got the closest to the perfect form from his players—especially under pressure when it counted. That was the difference he had over everybody. And he accomplished it because he had such a high level of love and determination and energy that it’s hard to comprehend.
He was trying to teach the perfect form, and we were always trying to do it our way—like kids who wear their parents down by asking over and over and over again. Pretty soon the parent gives in. Coach Wooden didn’t give in when it came to fundamentals.
One day in practice with [Bill] Walton, I did this move—a superb move running down the court toward the basket and then passing the ball behind my back. Before Bill had finished shooting the shot, Coach blew his whistle, and I could hear his footsteps marching across the court at me.
Fancy play like passing behind the back, even in a scrimmage, was almost treason because we knew he didn’t allow it. It wasn’t the right way, the perfect form.
By the time he got up to me, Coach was so upset by what I’d done he couldn’t talk straight; the words wouldn’t come out, and he just kind of stammered and fumed at me. The whole team just fell out because it was so funny.
Well, I didn’t think it was funny. It was a great move I had just done, and that night I got madder and madder as I kept thinking about it.
The next day I stormed into Coach Wooden’s office to let him have it. He was very polite.“Well, Andre, come in, sit down. What’s on your mind?” And I told him in no uncertain terms what was on my mind: “That was a superb move I got criticized for yesterday in practice!”
But he didn’t fight me about my move. He agreed it was a great move, but then he said if he allowed me to do it, others who didn’t have that skill for passing behind the back would start doing it. Pretty soon everybody would be passing behind their back.“Where would we be then, Andre?” he asked.
But this didn’t satisfy me. I told him if other guys couldn’t execute the move, that was their problem, not mine. Why should I be punished?
Then he started digging around in his desk looking through those notebooks and little three-by-five cards of his. Pretty soon he found what he was looking for and read it to me: “Andre, statistics show there’s a 78 percent completion rate with a behind-the-back pass and a 98 percent completion rate doing it the correct way, the chest pass.”
That took it away. I had no argument left when there was a 20 percent difference in completion rate. He won the argument without a fight. I couldn’t wear him down. Nobody could wear him down.
Some critics say, “Wooden won because he always had the best players.” They’re wrong, but that explanation gives them solace.
Coach won five national championships with UCLA teams that had no superstar players like Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In fact, his first national champion team was the shortest to ever have won the title. How do the critics explain those five teams? They can’t unless they understand the Wooden system—what he believed in and how he taught it. And what he taught us was to pursue perfection.
I’m one of the lucky ones. I got to learn the way of Wooden.