I’ve encouraged those of you who read this regularly to read books about (and by!) successful people. I read a lot of biographies when I was young. They taught me to dream big! Since my professional career began, I’ve focused more on books by successful coaches. I also like to read books on leadership. You should too!
One of my all-time favorite coaches is the former UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden. I know he coached in a different culture than we have today but… his philosophy is timeless. I think if more coaches/leaders were to adopt Coach Wooden’s principles of success, our society would be a better place to live.
I was thinking about my post from last week— focusing on perseverance and self-discipline— when something about Coach Wooden popped into my head. I want to share it here as a great example of why “stickin’ to your knittin’” will bring forth success!
The first time that Coach met with his UCLA players… the first thing he would do was: demonstrate how to put on their socks correctly!!! What??? Yep! He would show them how to put on their practice/game socks correctly so they wouldn’t cause blisters!!! Can you believe it?! Here are 12-13 of the best college basketball players in the country. They’ve played B-ball since they could probably just start to walk! And Coach is showing them how to put on their socks so they won’t get blisters!!!! THAT is crazy!
Why would he do this? More importantly… why would he do it at the beginning of every season? Because Coach Wooden knew that taking care of the little things is a key to success! He was disciplined enough to never over-look this “little thing.” He did it cuz he cared about his players but… I also think he did it to show them that taking care of something that appears rather insignificant can help them succeed in big ways!
