by Craig Impelman | Feb 23, 2021 | Blog
This favorite quote of Coach Wooden’s is from Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanac. The idea was a key component in how Coach approached life, personally and professionally. In the Pat Williams and David Wimbish book How to Be Like Coach Wooden: Life Lessons...
by Craig Impelman | Feb 17, 2021 | Blog
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. In his book with Steve Jamison, Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan for Success: 12 Lessons for Extraordinary Performance and Personal Excellence, Coach commented on this quote—a favorite of his:...
by Craig Impelman | Feb 10, 2021 | Uncategorized
If we fear the test, then we will never get a chance to develop the talent.” Churchill’s talent in leading Great Britain in WWII was developed because he had the courage to test it first. “A great deal of talent may be lost for the want of a little courage.” This...
by Craig Impelman | Feb 3, 2021 | Blog
“The more concerned we become over the things we can’t control, the less we will do with the things we can control.” —Coach Wooden When Coach was asked what one of the most important things his father taught him, he replied: Never try to be better than somebody else....
by Craig Impelman | Jan 27, 2021 | Blog
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” —Lao Tzu “Kindness in words creates confidence” was such an important part of Coach Wooden’s communication style, which was effective in helping his...
by Craig Impelman | Jan 20, 2021 | Blog
It’s not what you think you are, but what you think. In his book Wooden on Leadership, Coach Wooden described how a change in his thinking had a profound effect on his future: At the beginning of the 1961-62 season, I’d been coaching basketball at UCLA for 13...
by Craig Impelman | Jan 13, 2021 | Blog
“He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” —Friedrich Nietzsche This quote from the 19th-century German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was a favorite of Coach Wooden’s. It is usually referred to in the context of directing your life in pursuit of a noble...
by Craig Impelman | Jan 6, 2021 | Blog
“Dwelling in the past prevents doing something in the present.” —John Wooden Coach Wooden’s quote is usually applied to encourage people not to focus on past disappointments. On another level, Coach used this approach for himself to make sure that although he was...
by Craig Impelman | Dec 30, 2020 | Blog
The following is an excerpt from Coach’s preseason letter to the team in 1970 (UCLA had won its sixth national championship in seven years) in which he communicates his goal for the upcoming season to his players: It has been almost four months since our basketball...
by Craig Impelman | Dec 23, 2020 | Blog
“The important thing in life is not what belongs to us, but what we belong to.” —John Wooden The central idea behind this favorite quote of Coach Wooden’s was that it is not material possessions (what belongs to us) that are important in life but rather what our...
