Issue 711 - "Friendship 2025: Sincerity Keeps Friends"


Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 13	Issue 711
Craig Impelman Speaking \| Championship Coaches \| Champion's Leadership Library Login
"FRIENDSHIP 2025: SINCERITY KEEPS FRIENDS" John Wooden Video Clip (1 min. 36 sec.): Coach Wooden is asked: "Please share with us the poem Don’t look back?" Coach Wooden felt that we can accomplish a lot if we open our lives to others. When speaking about friendship, Coach described the importance of initiating the effort to make friends; in his own words, "You may have to prime the pump first." I never knew anyone who had as many friends as Coach Wooden. He was always friendly to everyone. His phone number was always listed in directory assistance (818 343 2266). He returned all his calls and tried to make time for anyone who wanted to visit him in person. At the Final Four (National Coaches Convention) Coach and his wife Nellie would sit in the hotel lobby and visit with anybody who wanted to. Coach was known to encounter a group of young coaches eating lunch and ask if he could join them. Over his lifetime, he personally mailed out more than 75,000 Pyramids of Success. He responded by hand to all correspondence, usually within 24 hours. When Coach started winning National Championships(1964-1975) the means of communicating were postal mail, land line telephones, and in-person meetings. If he won championships from 2024-2035, I believe he would still make himself available to everybody and be equally enthusiastic about making friends. In his original Pyramid of Success Coach Wooden said: "Sincerity makes friends." I don’t know how Coach would use today’s communication tools, but I do believe he would be responsive, reliable and kind. Applying his character and habits here is what I think he would do if used any of these platforms: ✅ Reply quickly to emails, texts and direct messages, never leaving people on "read." ✅ Put only thoughtful positive comments on Instagram, X or Facebook posts. ✅ Respond to messages on LinkedIn promptly and congratulate young professionals without being asked. ✅ Always make time for FaceTime’s or calls. ✅ Share others’ successes far more than his own. Coach wouldn’t argue in comment sections or post negativity. He wouldn’t chase likes or ghost people. Coach Wooden put it this way: "Be more concerned with loving than being loved, giving than receiving, being a friend than having a friend." What are you concerned about? Click here for personal development exercise: Issue 711. Click here for Printable Poetry: Issue 711. Yours in Coaching, Craig Impelman www.woodenswisdom.com Follow @woodenswisdom	COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE Good Books Good books are friendly things to own. If you are busy they will wait. They will not call you on the phone Or wake you if the hour is late. They stand together row by row, Upon the low shelf or the high. But if you're lonesome this you know: You have a friend or two nearby. The fellowship of books is real. They're never noisy when you're still. They won't disturb you at your meal. They'll comfort you when you are ill. The lonesome hours they'll always share. When slighted they will not complain. And though for them you've ceased to care Your constant friends they'll still remain. Good books your faults will never see Or tell about them round the town. If you would have their company You merely have to take them down. They'll help you pass the time away, They'll counsel give if that you need. He has true friends for night and day Who has a few good books to read. Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
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