Wooden's Wisdom | Leadership Resource Center

Issue 136 - The Harder You Work the More Luck You Will Have

Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 3

Issue 136

Craig Impelman Speaking | Championship Coaches | Champion's Leadership Library Login

THE HARDER YOU WORK THE MORE LUCK YOU WILL HAVE

This favorite quote of Coach Wooden's has its roots in Thomas Jefferson's statement: I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it.

How does luck play a role in companies or people that have great success?

In the fantastic book Great By Choice, Jim Collins and Morten T. Hansen researched seven companies who delivered a return on investment ten times greater than the industry average between 1973 and 2003. They refer to these companies as 10xers (10 times better). Below is a table from the book detailing their results:

Company	Dynastic Era of Study	Value of $10000 invested after 30 yr. period (1972 to 2002)	Results Compared to the Stock Market	Results Compared to Same Industry
Amgen (Biopharmaceutical company)	1980-2002	$4.5 million	24 X the market	77.2 X its industry
Biomet ( Medical Device Manufacturer)	1972-2002	$3.4 million	18.1 X the market	11.2 X its industry
Intel (Semiconductor Chip Maker)	1968-2002	$3.9 million	20.7 X the market	46.3 X its industry
Microsoft	1975-2002	$10.6 million	56 X the market	118.8 X its industry
Progressive Insurance	1965-2002	$2.7 million	14.6 X the market	11.3 X its industry
Southwest Airlines	1967-2002	$12.0 million	63.4 X the market	550.4 X its industry
Stryker (Medical Devices and Equipment Manufacturing)	1977-2002	5.3 million	28 X the market	10.9 X its industry

The book also statistically compared the number of significant good luck events and bad luck events each company had during this period compared to their much less successful competition in the same industry.

The authors defined luck this way:

We defined a luck event as one that meets three tests: (1) some significant aspect of the event occurs largely or entirely independent of the actions of the key actors in the enterprise, (2) the event has a potentially significant consequence (good or bad), and (3) the event has some element of unpredictability.

The good luck and bad luck events came in a variety of types for all the companies ranging from a key hire to a bad court ruling to an unexpected swing in the general economy. The following table from the book details the results:

Matched Pairs (1st Company at least 10x more successful than 2nd company)	Number of Significant Good-Luck Events (highly successful 10x company)	Number of Significant Good-Luck Events (significantly less successful company)	Number of Significant Bad-Luck Events (highly successful 10x company)	Number of Significant Bad-Luck Events (significantly less successful company)
Amgen and Genentech	10	18	9	9
Biomet and Kirschner	4	4	7	4
Intel and AMD	7	8	14	11
Microsoft and Apple	15	14	9	7
Progressive and Safeco	3	1	8	10
Southwest and PSA	8	6	13	13
Stryker and USSC	2	5	5	6
Total	49	56	65	60
Averages	7.0	8.0	9.3	8.6

Both the successful and unsuccessful companies (at the time of this study Apple was struggling to stay in business prior to Steve Jobs return) had about the same amount of good luck and bad luck.

The successful companies were prepared through hard work, careful planning and attention to detail to take full advantage of good luck and not let bad luck put them out of business, and in some cases took the bad luck as a learning experience that turned it into good luck.

The less successful companies were not prepared to take full advantage of good luck and were devastated (going out of business in some cases) by the bad luck.

After 29 years of coaching, in 1964 Coach Wooden was very lucky to have three future terrific NBA players (Walt Hazzard,Gail Goodrich, Keith Erickson) on his team.

He was also fully prepared to utilize their talent.

The combination led to his first national championship.

He kept working and continued to have more good luck.

As Coach liked to say: I will prepare and perhaps my chance will come.

Yours in Coaching,

Craig Impelman

www.woodenswisdom.com

Twitter: @woodenswisdom

COACH'S
Favorite Poetry
AND PROSE

Columbus

Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind the Gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: "Now we must pray,
For lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Admiral, speak, what shall I say?"
"Why, say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!' "

"My men grow mutinous day by day;
My men grow ghastly wan and weak."
The stout mate thought of home; a spray
Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.
"What shall I say, brave Admiral, say,
If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"
"Why, you shall say at break of day,
'Sail on! sail on! and on!' "

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,
Until at last the blanched mate said:
"Why, now not even God would know
Should I and all my men fall dead.
These very winds forget their way,
For God from these dead seas is gone.
Now speak, brave Admiral, speak and say" --
He said, "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate:
"This mad sea shows his teeth tonight.
He curls his lip, he lies in wait,
With lifted teeth, as if to bite!
Brave Admiral, say but one good word:
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The words leapt like a leaping sword:
"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then pale and worn, he kept his deck,
And peered through darkness. Ah, that night
Of all dark nights! And then a speck --
A light! a light! at last a light!
It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!
It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.
He gained a world; he gave that world
Its grandest lesson: "On! sail on!"

Joaquin Miller

For more information visit www.Woodencourse.com