Video Link (17:37): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MM-psvqiG8
John Wooden defines success as being peace of mind from the self satisfaction of knowing you did the best you possibly could. As a competitor, I know this feeling well. I have been a part of losses, where it felt like the team lost because some players did not give their full effort. However, I have also lost games thinking that my team played the best we could possibly play. Although I would rather win all the time, when I do lose I would prefer to feel like I did my best. If there is one thing I know about myself, it is that I am either 100% involved or 100% not involved. When I lose, I want to feel like I gave 100%, but also that I got 100% production out of my team. Anything less and I will know we gave away a victory.
Wooden talks about the difference between reputation and character. Reputation is what other people see you to be, and character is what you really are. In success and winning, it is important to have a both. You are not going to get better and continue to succeed if you do not have good character, you will not be able to deal with the failure and the losses. A reputation is important if you want to be liked. I would think that having a bad reputation would hurt your chances of succeeding because people don’t like you. If people don’t like you, they most definitely don’t want you to win and succeed.
Wooden has a couple rules in 3. The first list of 3 rules are never be late, don’t use profanity, and never criticize a teammate. Although these rules come from many decades ago, I think they still apply. I never like to be late, and I think it is very important to not only be on time, but be early. I think it is disrespectful to be late to anything. I cannot believe that I have showed up to interviews early before, only to wait for the person interviewing me because they were late.Those companies must not value time like I do. I think it is important to not use profanity around certain people. As a general rule, I would not use profanity around people I do not know well. However, if I know them well or if they use profanity, I may be more inclined to do so. Lastly, I think it is extremely important to never criticize a teammate. It is important to never criticize anyone, because you may not know their life experiences. As a culture, we criticize too much. Wooden’s second list of 3 rules are don’t whine, don’ t complain, and don’t make excuses. Seems fitting for leadership and responsibility.
Towards the end of the video clip, Wooden says a good quote, “the journey is better than the end.” I find this to be true, the thrill is usually in the hard work. It seems as if all of the great accomplishments in my life were more about the hard work that I put in, and not that good feeling of success at the end. In fact, that good feeling doesn’t even last that long. Looking back at the memories, I think more about the time I spent working on something then the end result of it.
harrypetersonleadership 