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If you’ve followed sports over the past few weeks, you know that John Wooden, the legendary men’s basketball coach at UCLA, passed away on June 4th at the age of 99. John Wooden coached at UCLA from 1948 until his retirement in 1975, and during his tenure his team set records that are unlikely to ever be broken. Coach Wooden’s career spanned some of the most turbulent years in our country’s history. We had the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Sexual Revolution and the Drug Revolution. How did anyone manage to gain the respect of college-age men when their every instinct was to rebel against authority? How was anyone able to take players during a time of extreme individualism and turn them into a team?
Here’s how he did it. At the beginning of the first practice each year, he brought all the players on to the floor and taught them how to put on their socks and tie their shoes. Throughout the year, he would feed them sayings like;
Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.
Be quick, but don’t hurry.
It’s not so important who starts the game, but who finishes it.
It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.
It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.
Never mistake activity for achievement.
Coach Wooden constantly preached effort and never talked about winning or losing. He only asked that his players strive to reach their potential, and that was how he judged success. As a result, his teams won 10 NCAA Championships in his last 12 years coaching. His teams also had a record winning streak of 88 games and four perfect seasons. When one opposing coach was asked what it was like to play against UCLA, his response was that it was like being locked in a coffin for 6 hours.
Obviously, there was more to Coach Wooden’s success than putting on socks and tying shoes. Coach Wooden was a strategic genius. It also helped that some of the greatest players in basketball history played for UCLA. However, there have been plenty of smart coaches and great players who never won a single championship. At this point, you’re probably wondering where my ramblings are headed this month.
I think that Coach Wooden’s real genius was in his ability to recognize that the foundations of basketball, or business, or life are simple and universal. It’s attention to the smallest detail so you don’t get a blister from a wrinkled sock. It’s integrity which leads to a long-term relationship of trust. It’s the belief that success is a byproduct of effort, not the other way around. It’s the ability to work as a team. I believe that these are qualities that also define ComNet. There are strategies in ComNet’s business, just like there are zone presses and triangle offenses in basketball. Coach Wooden’s genius was realizing that strategies didn’t dictate success. The same holds true in ComNet’s world. If success was dictated by the number of MBAs on staff, or the size of the advertising budget, or the amount of annual revenue, then IBM, AT&T and Verizon would control every Fortune 500 customer. If you’ve been around ComNet for more than a week, you know that exactly the opposite is true.
One last thing…you may think that this was all easy and obvious to a man who had 10 championship teams in his last 12 years of coaching. You should also know that he coached UCLA for 15 years before he won his first championship and he never wavered in his core beliefs.
Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
John Wooden
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