Selfishness is the greatest challenge for a coach. Most players are more concerned with making themselves better than the team.
If pursuing material things becomes your only goal, you will fail in so many ways. Besides, in time all material things go away.
I believe we are most likely to succeed when ambition is focused on noble and worthy purposes and outcomes rather than on goals set out of selfishness.
I’ve never stopped trying to do what’s right. I’m not doing it to earn favor with God. I’m doing it because it’s the right thing to do.
There are little details in everything you do, and if you get away from any one of the little details, you’re not teaching the thing as a whole. For it is little things which, together, make the whole. This, I think, is extremely important.
I believe correcting is the positive approach. I believe in the positive approach. Always have.
The person who is afraid to risk failure seldom has to face success. I expected my players to make mistakes, as long as they were mistakes of commission. A mistake of commission happens when you are doing what should be done but don’t get the results you want.
We can become great in the eyes of others, but we’ll never become successful when we compromise our character and show disloyalty toward friends or teammates. The reverse is also true: No individual or team will become great without loyalty.
Make no mistake, I always want to win, but I never fight with an opponent. My fight is within me it is the struggle to be the best I can be at whatever I do.
It’s always about focusing not on the mistakes but on the lessons learned from them.
I worry that business leaders are more interested in material gain than they are in having the patience to build up a strong organization, and a strong organization starts with caring for their people.
Success is a personal matter – only you as an individual can tell if you did everything within your power to give your best effort.
Stay the course. When thwarted try again; harder; smarter. Persevere relentlessly.
The life lessons taught by John Wooden have become legend. Here’s a collection of some of the greatest ‘Woodenisms.’
How you run the race – your planning, preparation, practice, and performance – counts for everything. Winning or losing is a by-product, and aftereffect, of that effort.
We should never let ambition cause us to sacrifice our integrity or diminish our efforts in other areas. However, we need to remember that we never reach a serious goal unless we have the intention of doing so.
If a player’s not doing the things he should, put him on the bench. He’ll come around.
The best players don’t win championships. The best team players win championships.
The courageous struggle for a noble cause should be considered success itself.
Joy makes the longest journey too short.