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EARN THE RESPECT OF EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY OF YOURSELF
At his annual preseason meeting with the team, Coach Wooden distributed a handout to the players entitled: Re Your Education. The handout contained ten specific instructions. Number ten was: Earn the respect of everyone, especially of yourself.
The first nine items told the players how to accomplish number ten. These instructions were for his basketball players as it related to school. With a little modification they would be a great checklist for the work place. I have listed Coach Wooden’s original list in Italics and my modified workplace suggestion in block lettering in parenthesis.
- You are in UCLA for an education. I want every boy to earn and receive his degree. Keep that first in your thoughts, but place basketball second. (We are here to provide our customers with the best experience possible - let’s keep that first in our thoughts.)
- Do not cut classes and do be on time. (Be at work when scheduled and be on time.)
- Do not fall behind and do get your work in on time. (Complete your assigned tasks as scheduled.)
- Have regular study hours and keep them. (Create an efficient daily routine.)
- Arrange with your Professors in advance when you must be absent. (If you must miss work please advise us well in advance.)
- Do not expect favors. Do your part. (Do not expect favors. Do your part.)
- Boys on grant-in-aid should arrange for tutoring through the Athletic Department at the first indication of need. (If you don't understand something ask for help, don’t guess.)
- Work for a high grade point average. Do not be satisfied by merely meeting the eligibility requirements. (Do not be satisfied to just clock in and merely meet the job requirements. Take initiative, think outside the box and work to become the very best team member you are capable of becoming.)
- Those on campus jobs for grant-in-aid must arrange to get in the required hours. Do your assignment without comparing it with that of another boy. (Do your assignments with a positive attitude and without comparing them to those of a coworker. It has been said comparison is the root of unhappiness.)
- Earn the respect of everyone, especially of yourself.
Coach Wooden’s formula for earning the respect of everyone, especially of yourself was simple and straightforward. It was based on best effort, hard work and reliability. What’s your formula?
Yours in Coaching,
Craig Impelman
Twitter: @woodenswisdom
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COACH'S
Favorite Poetry
AND PROSE
Some Favorite Thoughts from Coach Wooden’s Library
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
William Blake
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Matthew 7:7
I told God that I had done all that I could and that now the result was in His hands; that if this country was to be saved, it was because He so willed it! The burden rolled off my shoulders. My intense anxiety was relieved and in its place came a great trustfulness!
Abraham Lincoln
One sure way to forgive and forget our enemies is to become absorbed in some cause infinitely bigger than ourselves. Then the insults and enmities we encounter won’t matter because we will be oblivious of everything but our cause.
Dale Carnegie
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