Lessons from John Wooden - Coach and Teacher

Hall of Fame basketball coach and player John Wooden passed away yesterday at the age of 99. Wooden is best known for leading UCLA to ten basketball national championships in twelve years. But if you watch and read interviews with his former players and associates you'll learn that Wooden rarely talked about winning. Instead he focused on teaching lessons of character, preparation, and doing things "the right way."

Here's Coach Wooden's 2001 TED Talk on Winning vs. Success. One of his rules for players that he shared in the talk, "no criticizing of teammates, I'm paid to do that," is a great rule that translates well to the classroom and the workplace.


Here's a video from ESPN about Coach Wooden featuring comments from his former players and sports journalists.