Main Idea
What are the qualities of a great leader? What are the qualities of a great employee? How do you know if you are successful? How do you define success?
Expansion of Idea
About two months ago, I was having dinner with a family friend and one of my sons. We were discussing one of the weekly ideas that I had just sent out. I explained to him that this series of ideas was based on John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. I told him that I thought that this was the single best model for success that I have seen in the business or sports world. John Wooden defined success as “self satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.” Success is not measured by how many national championships you win or how many competitive sales processes that you win.
This definition of success is contrary to what most people think. Yet, this approach to personal success allowed John Wooden to become the best collegiate coach of all time. One of my biggest failures in life is the failure to apply these ideas earlier in my career. I knew about the Pyramid of Success. I just did not realize the gold that was buried there. I probably exhibited some of the characteristics but not as consistently as was required. (As a side note, during the dinner noted above, my friend mentioned that through a friend of his when he was in his 20’s, he was introduced to John Wooden and had a personal signed copy of the Pyramid of Success. I asked him what he did with it. He pitched it when he moved a year ago. I almost cried.)
Over the last couple of months, I have introduced the core concepts of the Pyramid of Success. If you follow those concepts you will achieve competitive greatness and that will translate to success. I would strongly encourage you to go to www.coachwooden.com . There is a printable version of the Pyramid of Success. I would suggest printing the pyramid and using it as a character check every day. Everyone will be successful if they follow the pyramid guidelines.
Questions to Ask Yourself
Are you successful as defined by John Wooden?
Would those around you define you as successful?
If there are differences, what are they and how do you bridge any gap in definitions of success?
What is one characteristic on the Pyramid that I can work on?