Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

There was also no place for the games. For the first few years, they had to use the B.O. Barn, and then for fourteen more years, they had to travel around the region borrowing gyms from schools and towns.

Then there were the players. When he put them through their first practice, he was shattered. They were so bad that if he’d had an honorable way to back out of the job, he would have. The press had (perceptively) picked his team to finish last in their division, but Wooden went to work, and this laughable team did not finish last. It won the division title, with twenty-two wins and seven losses for the season. The next year, they went to the NCAA play-offs.

What did he give them? He gave them constant training in the basic skills, he gave them conditioning, and he gave them mindset.

THE HOLY GRAIL: FULL PREPARATION AND FULL EFFORT

Wooden is not complicated. He’s wise and interesting, but not complicated. He’s just a straight-ahead growth-mindset guy who lives by this rule: “You have to apply yourself each day to becoming a little better. By applying yourself to the task of becoming a little better each and every day over a period of time, becomwill become a lot better.”

He didn’t ask for mistake-free games. He didn’t demand that his players never lose. He asked for full preparation and full effort from them. “Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.”

He was not a softy. He did not tolerate coasting. If the players were coasting during practice, he turned out the lights and left: “Gentlemen, practice is over.” They had lost their opportunity to become better that day.

EQUAL TREATMENT

Like DeLay, Wooden gave equal time and attention to all of his players, regardless of their initial skills. They, in turn, gave all, and blossomed. Here is Wooden talking about two new players when they arrived at UCLA: “I looked at each one to see what he had and then said to myself, ‘Oh gracious, if he can make a real contribution, a playing contribution, to our team then we must be pretty lousy.’ However, what I couldn’t see was what these men had inside.” Both gave just about everything they could possibly give and both became starters, one as the starting center on a national championship team.

He respected all players equally. You know how some players’ numbers are retired after they move on, in homage to their greatness? No player’s number was retired while Wooden was coach, although he had some of the greatest players of all time, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton. Later on, when their numbers were retired, he was against it. “Other fellows who played on our team also wore those numbers. Some of those other players gave me close to everything they had.… The jersey and the number on it never belong to just one single player, no matter how great or how big a ‘star’ that particular player is. It goes against the whole concept of what a team is.”

Wait a minute. He was in the business of winning games. Don’t you have to go with your talented players and give less to the second stringers? Well, he didn’t play all players equally, but he gave to all players equally. For example, when he recruited another player the same year as Bill Walton, he told him that he would play very little in actual games because of Walton. But he promised him, “By the time you graduate you’ll get a pro contract. You’ll be that good.” By his third year, the player was giving Bill Walton all he could handle in practice. And when he turned pro, he was named rookie of the year in his league.

PREPARING PLAYERS FOR LIFE

Was Wooden a genius, a magician able to turn mediocre players into champions? Actually, he admits that in terms of basketball tactics and strategies, he was quite average. What he was really good at was analyzing and motivating his players. With these skills he was able to help his players fulfill their potential, not just in basketball, but in life—something he found even more rewarding than winning games.

Did Wooden’s methods work? Aside from the ten championship titles, we have the testimony of his players, none of whom refer to firearms.

Bill Walton, Hall of Famer: “Of course, the real competition he was preparing us for was life.… He taught us the values and characteristics that could make us not only goodplayers, but also good people.”

Denny Crum, successful coach: “I can’t imagine what my life would have been had Coach Wooden not been my guiding light. As the years pass, I appreciate him more and more and can only pray that I can have half as much influence on the young people I coach as he has had on me.”