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5Coaching

Lessons from John Wooden: Build a pyramid of success

If I could come back in a second life, I’d be a high school or college basketball coach. First off, I love basketball, and second, few can have a greater influence on young people than a coach or teacher.

I’ve long admired John Wooden, the legendary UCLA basketball coach who won 10 NCAA championships in a 12-year period. He has won countless awards and even received our nation’s highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. Not surprisingly, Wooden was named the Greatest Coach Ever by Sporting News.

Coach Wooden was a masterful molder of young men. Bill Walton, a member of the National Basketball Association’s Hall of Fame, wrote, “After my father, Coach Wooden has had the most profound influence on me of anyone in my entire life.”

Coach Wooden, in turn, credited his father for grounding him in the principles on which he based his life and career.

“When I graduated from our little three-room grade school in Centerton, Indiana,” said Wooden, “my father gave me a little card on which he had written out his creed.” At the top of the card was written, “Seven Things to Do.” They are:

1. Be true to yourself.
2. Help others.
3. Make each day your masterpiece.
4. Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
5. Make friendship a fine art.
6. Build a shelter against a rainy day.
7. Pray for guidance and count and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Wooden remembered that all his father said to him when he handed him the card was, ...