“For me, there is a standard that ranks above winning. I would never allow the scoreboard to be the judge of whether I had achieved success."

“Teams under John Wooden’s supervision endured just one season that produced a losing record. It was his first year as a coach back at Dayton, Kentucky - the Greendevils - in 1932-33. Never again in the four decades that followed was there a losing season.

Yet all this spectacular production - winning - came from a leader and master team builder who never ever mentioned that word to his teams. Why? He wanted their complete focus on the higher standard, the one that means even more to him than winning."

“Effort is paramount.”

“Therein, perhaps, lies the leadership genius of John Robert Wooden, a leader whose teams won over and over and over again but who never mentioned winning."

“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”

“Over and over I have taught those under my supervision that we are all given a certain potential unique to each one of us. Our first responsibility is to make the utmost effort to bring forth that potential in service to our team. For me, that is success.

Then perhaps when circumstances come together, we may find ourselves number 1. If that happens, it is merely a by-product of the effort we make to realize our own competency - our full potential. Success may result in winning, but winning does not necessarily mean you are a success."

“If each of you makes every effort to develop to the best of your ability, follow the proper rules of conduct and activity most conducive to good physical condition, subordinate individual acclaim for the welfare of the team, and permit no personality clashes or differences of opinion with teammates or coaches to interfere with your or a teammate's efforts, it will be a very rewarding year."

“There is great strength in gentleness - perhaps the greatest strength of all. Without it, your leadership begins to resemble the approach of a prison guard standing watch over a chain gang. Turn your back, and they're gone."

“There are really only two things to worry about: whether you are a success or whether you are a failure. If you are a success, there is no cause for worry, and if you are a failure -

There are only two things to worry about: whether you have your health or whether you do not have your health. If you are healthy, a healthy person should certainly not worry, and if you do not have your health -

There are only two things to worry about: whether you regain your health and get well or whether you fail to regain your health and pass on. If you regain your health, there is no cause for worry, and if you fail to regain your health and pass on -

There are only two things to worry about: whether you will go to the place where we all hope to go or whether you go to that other place. If you go to the place where we all hope to go, you should not have worried, and if you go to that other place -

You are going to be with all your friends and the people here. So why worry?"

-Anonymous

“I slept well, comfortable in the knowledge that I had done the best of which I was capable. This knowledge is a very soft pillow on which to sleep."

“The next time you wake in the middle of the night, ask yourself, 'Am I fretting about the future, or figuring out what to do?' If it's the former, have a warm glass of milk and try to get back to sleep. If it's the latter, have a cup of coffee and make some notes."

“You must also be the kind of individual whose opinion means something.”

“Tough times make you tougher. A free ride isn’t free.”

“Unity produces our greatest strength.”

“Pressure is healthy. It can lead to improvement. Stress is unhealthy. It can lead to mistakes. I wanted our team members to feel pressure so that their opponents would feel stress.

I applied this pressure on the practice floor by creating a buzzing businesslike atmosphere that had an intensity and focus equal to an actual game. I removed stress - the kind that comes from a fear of losing or an overeager appetite to win - by focusing exclusively on improvement and teaching the team that ongoing and maximum progress was the standard, our daily goal. I never mentioned winning or beating an upcoming opponent.

While there might be some incidents of levity during practice - and certainly I don't object to humor if done in an appropriate manner at a suitable moment - I expected nothing short of total effort and concentration in all ways on the practice floor.

Those under my supervision were not there just to loosen up and run through their paces. Not at all. They did that before I blew the whistle signifying that class was in session - that the pressure to improve was about to be applied."

“If you looked at my outline and organization plan for a practice in 1949 and compared it to its counterpart in 1975, you'd wonder how I got anything done in 1949. Year to year there were changes, little improvements, seemingly inconsequential adjustments, that gradually added up to big changes."

“I focused our team’s attention on 'us' to the exclusion of everything else. Virtually no mention was made of the upcoming opponent - its style, tendencies, or key players. Nor did I talk about the standings or the consequence of other games being played in our conference.

A joke even circulated that UCLA's team manager would go out into the lobby before a game and buy an official program so our players would know who the opponent was."

“The leader uses his heart as well as his head. After he has considered the facts with his head, he lets his heart take a look too."

-Wilfred Peterson

“You become weaker as your need for praise becomes stronger.”

“Turn a deaf ear to praise and criticism, and you’ll hear all you need to hear of both.”

“Be the kind of leader whose team you'd like to be a member of."

“We used to pray for the game to come because practices were so demanding. But it paid off."

-Ray Regan

“Afterward, Coach Wooden said he was proud of us, how we gave it everything we had, that we could hold our heads high. There was disappointment in our locker room, but I don't believe any player felt like a loser. We had given it our best."

-Ray Regan

“One bad apple is one more than most barrels can stand.”

“The competitor with the will to win also has the will to work.”

“Finding real talent is tough. Getting that talent to sacrifice for the welfare of your team can be even tougher. For me, the solution was simple. I never forgot that a great player who couldn't make the team great wasn't so great after all."

“You may not be able to run as fast as somebody else, but that shouldn't prevent you from trying to run as fast as you can. Prior to the race, plan, prepare, and practice to execute at your highest level.

And then, even if you're not the fastest runner in the field, try your hardest to run your best race. Who knows? On race day your opponent may have a sore foot."

“Role players must understand that their jobs count - that they contribute in a meaningful manner to the success of their team. I don't believe there are any small jobs or inconsequential roles on an efficient and productive team. There are only those few who think their job is small or their role inconsequential. A leader must change the person's thinking - or change the person."

“Balance means not permitting the things over which you have no control to adversely affect the things over which you do have control, and it means retaining your poise during times of turmoil and triumph."

“Give each individual a fair chance and every opportunity he or she earns.”

“It is better to trust and occasionally be disappointed than to mistrust and be miserable all the time."

-Abraham Lincoln

“I believe that all prayers are heard and answered, even though the answer may be ‘no.’”

“Others may be faster than you are, larger than you are, and have far more ability than you have - but no one should ever be your superior in team spirit, fight, determination, ambition, and character."

“Total effort is success.”

“No opponent deserves to be feared.”

“Every opponent deserves respect.”

“Don’t draw attention to yourself; don't be like the fellow in church who coughs loudly just before he puts a coin in the collection plate."

“Meticulous planning is meaningless without hard work.”

“Promise to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Promise to be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are of your own. Promise to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the press of trouble."

“I never even permitted the players to charge out onto the court all fired up. I didn't want them all fired up and jumping up and down. I wanted them bristling with intensity, finely focused, and in control of themselves.

When these attitudes are combined with talent and good teaching, you may find yourself leading a team competing and prevailing at the highest levels. This will not occur if you are a slave to passion. Passion is temporary."

“The next time you’ve worked hard, done your best, and still find that someone is unhappy with you, remember the Pacific Ocean. It too had failed to meet someone's expectations."

“Sometimes we get so concerned with making a living that we forget to make a life.”

“What to do about the wayward behavior and tattered ethics of others? Be true to true yourself. Others are watching. Do your job the way you're supposed to do it. You give strength by being strong."

“The Four Laws of Learning have been around for a long time: Explanation, Demonstration, Imitation, and Repetition. I like to tell people there are actually Eight Laws of Learning: Explanation, Demonstration (your own example), Imitation, and Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, Repetition."

"The heights by great men reached and kept,

Were not attained by sudden flight.

But they, while their companions slept,

Were toiling upward in the night."

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The journey is better than the inn.”

-Miguel de Cervantes

“Make each day of your journey a masterpiece.”

“It’s only one game…until you miss the playoffs by only one game.”

“Winning is not a marathon; it’s a sprint with no finish line.”

"Your mind is your area to dominate, and if you don’t dominate it, someone else will."

“At the core of this idea of self-mastery is an instinctive reaction against anything that masters us. Who can be free when they have lost, as one addiction specialist put it, ‘the freedom to abstain?’”

“Think about it: Most people don’t even show up. Of the people who do, most don’t really push themselves. So to show up and be disciplined about daily improvement? You are the rarest of the rare.”

“How much progress could you make if you made just a little each day over the course of an entire life? What might this journey look like, where might it lead, if each bit of progress you made presented both the opportunity and the obligation to make a little more progress, and you seized those opportunities, you lived up to those obligations, each and every time?”

“Real toughness is experiencing discomfort or distress, leaning in, paying attention, and creating space to take thoughtful action. It’s maintaining a clear head to be able to make the appropriate decision.

Toughness is navigating discomfort to make the best decision you can. And research shows that this model of toughness is more effective at getting results than the old one.”

“Our ability to be ‘tough’ and handle adversity starts well before we even encounter any difficulty. It starts with embracing the reality of the situation and what you’re capable of.”

“The old model of toughness, in essence, throws people into the deep end of the pool but forgets that we need to first teach people how to swim.”

“The first and most fundamental threat to your Future Self is not having hope in your future. Without hope, the present loses meaning. Without hope, you don't have clear goals or a sense of purpose for your life. Without hope, there is no way. Without hope, you decay."

“If you’re around people who have low expectations for you, you'll fall to those standards. If you're around people with high expectations, you'll rise to those standards."

“The more conscious you become of how everything you do right now impacts the person you are in the future, the better and more thoughtful your actions will be."

"Wooden met his future wife, Nellie "Nell" Riley, when he was a freshman in high school. They were both 21 years of age when they married in a small ceremony in Indianapolis in August 1932 and afterward attended a Mills Brothers concert at the Circle Theatre to celebrate.

The couple had a son, James Hugh Wooden, and a daughter, Nancy Anne Muehlhausen. Nellie died on March 21, 1985 from cancer at age 73.

Wooden remained devoted to Nellie's memory until his own death 25 years after her passing. He kept to a monthly ritual—health permitting—on the 21st of every month, when he would visit her crypt in the mausoleum, then write a love letter to her.

After completing each letter, he placed it in an envelope and added it to a stack of similar letters that accumulated over the years on the pillow she slept on during their life together. Wooden stopped writing the letters because of failing eyesight in the last months of his life."

"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”

#1: "Have you ever considered yourself to be a leader before? How did/does the experience of knowing that people are paying attention to your every word and action change the way you move through the world?"

#2: "When was the last time you gave your absolute best to something that was important to you? Did you even think you were capable of giving that much? How did it feel? Can you do it again?"

#3: "Who have you inspired today, either through your words, your actions, or both? Who can you inspire tomorrow?"

#4: "How can you help someone else win today?"

#5: "What are the fundamentals of your chosen sport or activity? Do you execute the fundamentals each and every day?"

#6: “If you don’t have time to do it right the first time, when will you have time to do it over?”

#7: "How and where can you squeeze even more seconds out of every minute? Do you know where your seconds and your minutes are going currently? How can you get back on track and stick to a fixed, disciplined schedule that will get you to where you want to be?"

#8: "Which block of John Wooden's Pyramid of Success is missing right now in your approach? Which blocks are a solid piece of your personality already? How can you shore up your weaknesses while doubling down on your strengths?"

#9: "How can you best help others climb the Pyramid of Success with you? How can you reach Competitive Greatness together?"

#10: "What does Competitive Greatness look like in your field? Who exactly do you need to become in order to reach this highest standard every single day? Are you willing to go there? Is there a better time to start than right now?"

"Judge a man by his questions, rather than by his answers."

"The path to success is to take massive, determined action.”