| Coach Wooden's thoughts on Success Click HERE for some background on this truly amazing coach! The Genesis UCLA won ten national championships while I was the basketball coach, and Mr. Lawrence Scheidler played a role in all of them. How big a role did he play? Let me tell you a story and then you can decide for yourself. Mr. Scheidler was a math teacher back at Martinsville High School in Indiana when I was a sophomore. Occasionally he discussed topics other that mathematics. One day in March he instructed the class to write a paper defining success. Mr. Scheidler wanted to get us thinking about the concept of success and whether it just meant getting rich or famous or beating somebody in a ball game. Well, this got me thinking hard about the subject, and I continued thinking about it for a long time after I completed Mr. Scheidler's homework assignment. In fact, I reflected on it for decades. Later, when I entered the teaching and coaching profession after graduating from Purdue, the question continued to intrigue me because I found myself a little bit disillusioned with what seemed to be expected from youngsters under my supervision in classrooms. 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. Scheidler's assignment: what exactly is success (and failure)? Did You Really Win if You Gave a Second-Rate Effort? I didn't like these parents' way of measuring success and failure because it was unfair. I felt a child who worked very hard, tried his or her very best, and received a C grade had a higher level of personal success than a more gifted youngster who got a B but didn't put forth a full effort. I began searching for some way that would not only make me a better teacher but give the youngsters under my supervision something to aspire to that was more productive, more fair, and more rewarding. Recalling Dad's Words In struggling to find an answer to the question Mr. Scheidler had posed years before, I recalled what my dad had constantly tried to get across to us when we were growing up back on the farm: don't worry much about trying to be better than someone else. Now that may seem a little strange to you. You might not comprehend its true meaning if that was all he had said, However, Dad always added the following. "Always try to be the very best that you can be. Learn from others, yes. But don't just try to be better than they are. You have no control over that. Instead try, and try very hard, to be the best that you can be. That you have control over. Maybe you'll be better than someone else and maybe you won't. That part of it will take care of itself." Those were strong words. I remembered them in trying to give my students something to which they could aspire other than just a higher mark. I also wanted something more productive and rewarding for the athletes I was coaching in football, tennis, basketball, and baseball. I didn't want points to be the final measurement of their achievement or success. It seemed to me that it was possible to win and be outscored, or to lose even when you outscored an opponent. I thought so then and I still do. Creating My Definition of Success I thought about what my father had said, Mr. Shidler's writing assignment on success, and a verse I happened to read about this time: At God's footstool to confess, A poor soul knelt and bowed his head. "I failed." He cried. The Master said, "Thou didst thy best, that is success." Keeping all these in mind, I finally coined my definition in 1934. Success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming. Furthermore, only one person can ultimately judge the level of your success -- you. Think about that for a moment. I believe that is what true success is. Anything stemming from that success is simply a by-product, whether it be the score, the trophy, a national championship, fame, or fortune. They are all by-products of success rather than success itself, indicators that you perhaps succeeded in the more important contest. That real contest, of course, is striving to reach your personal best, and that is totally under your control. When you achieve that, you have achieved success. Period! You are a winner and only you fully know if you won. You Are Different; I Am Different Obviously, the Good Lord in his infinite wisdom didn't make everyone alike or put everyone in the same environment. Some of us are shorter or taller, quicker or slower, smarter or otherwise. Situations vary. Some people have more opportunities, some less. We are not the same in all these things, but we are all the same in having the opportunity to make the most of what we have, whatever our situation. The ultimate challenge for you is to make the attempt to improve fully and be your best in the existing conditions. I wanted to get this idea across to the youngsters I was teaching. I wanted them to know that making the very most of what you have is success and that it is something you control. I wanted the athletes I was coaching to understand this as well. The Hard Part Is Still Ahead Having defined what I believe success truly is, I recognized there was an even greater task before me: to fully understand and describe what was necessary to achieve this success, both individually and as a member of a basketball team or any other team in life. Without this second part, it would be like going on a trip in your car if you knew where you wanted to go but didn't know how to get there. You might correctly be described as going nowhere. Ten National Championships What I eventually discerned led to something that got a lot of attention-those records established by UCLA basketball teams: ten national championships, seven of them in consecutive years, the undefeated seasons, and the 88-game winning streak. But, more than that, it provided me with a guide, a standard of preparation and performance, that brought me the greatest peace of mind in all areas of my life. I believe it provided the same for many of those whom I taught. Finding the answers: The Pyramid (Click HERE to see the pyramid) One day I saw an illustration that helped lead me to the answers I was looking for. It was called the ladder of achievement. The author had taken a ladder with five rungs and had given each rung of that ladder a name describing something he thought was necessary to get to the top of the ladder. Naturally I could not use the ladder idea, and I had a completely different notion of what the top consisted of. But it gave me the idea for what became the Pyramid of Success. I decided that the individual blocks of the Pyramid would consist of those personal qualities necessary for achieving success according to my definitions: peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming. Mr. Scheidler's Question So, as you can see, I've spent most of my lifetime pursuing the issue posed in Mr. Scheidler's classroom back in Indiana: What is success? It was a question that my father had already begun to answer for me with his wisdom on our little farm. What is success? How do you achieve it? Who has it? These questions really go to what life is all about. I so believe this: A man or woman who strives conscientiously to become the best that he or she is capable of becoming can stand tall. That person will be judged a big success regardless of whether he or she has accumulated riches, glory, or trophies. The values, ideals, and principals of the Pyramid of Success are the qualities that I believe will allow you to stand tall, now and throughout your days. Furthermore, I believe that all of us have within us the building blocks of success. The potential is within each of us waiting to come forth. That's what you must always keep in mind. You have success within. It's up to you to bring it out. I've been trying to do that in my own life for over eighty years. I will continue each day to strive for that until the moment the Good Lord calls me to be with my dear Nellie again |