Wooden's Wisdom - Volume 3 | Issue 135 |
Craig Impelman Speaking | Championship Coaches | Champion's Leadership Library Login | |
SUCCESS IS NEVER FINAL, FAILURE IS NEVER FATAL, IT'S COURAGE THAT COUNTS
This famous quote, most often attributed to Winston Churchill, was used by Coach Wooden as the epigraph to introduce Chapter 17 of his book They Call Me Coach. In that chapter, Coach discusses his years of coaching at UCLA before his teams had won a national championship.
It has been frequently mentioned that Coach Wooden’s teams won 10 national championships in his last 12 years of coaching.
It is important to remember that he coached 29 years before he won the first one.
The earliest recorded evidence of this quote was in 1938 in an advertisement for Budweiser beer, which was printed in multiple newspapers. This very famous, often used quote was probably constructed by a copywriter for an advertising series of the Anheuser-Busch brewing company.
The following is the original text of the ad:
Men with the spirit of youth pioneered our America…men with vision and sturdy confidence. They found contentment in the thrill of action, knowing that success was never final and failure never fatal. It was courage that counted. Isn’t opportunity in America today greater than it was in the days of our grateful forefathers? Good!
A newspaper ad written in 1938 still provides a great perspective today!
It has been said that courage, like love, must be nourished with hope. The following is a story Coach Wooden gave me which combines courage, love and hope with an amazing result:
A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win; all, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry. The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back, and then they all turned around and went back -- every one of them. One girl with Down’s syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, “This will make it better.” Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes.
Courage and love nourished by hope is an amazing combination.
Yours in Coaching,
Craig Impelman
Twitter: @woodenswisdom
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Nobility
True worth is in being, not seeming,— Alice Cary
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