John Wooden is a legendary college basketball coach from UCLA. He is famous for instilling life lessons into his players’ head, lessons that have since spillover to other walks of life.
Coach Wooden’s core philosophy centers on a redefinition of success, focusing on what they can control: personal character, effort, and preparation instead of external accolades. He prioritized character and discipline above all else, including above reputation and comparing ourselves with others. He never even talked about winning with his players, instead he taught them how to maximize their potential.
This create an interesting reality, where you could lose a game but still be a “success” if you gave 100% of your effort. And by contrast, you could win a game but still be a failure if you underperform your own potential capabilities.
And no matter how talented a player is, coach Wooden still enforce 3 non-negotiable rules to maintain unity in the team: 1. Never be late (respect other people’s time) 2. No profanity (practice emotional self control) 3. Never criticize a teammate (that’s the coach’s job, players on the other hand must support each other).
As you may have guessed, coach Wooden’s philosophy became a mighty formula to success: In the span of 12 years (1964-1975) he won 10 NCAA national championships, while setting an all-time record for 88 consecutive victories. His UCLA teams also won 38 straight playoff games (a record) and played in the Final Four 12 times during a 14-year period (also a record).
And along the way, Coach Wooden produced numerous professional basketball players, such as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, Jamaal Wilkes, Willie Naulls, Walt Hazzard, Marques Johnson, and Sidney Wicks. Coach Wooden also took an immense pride for producing successful students that did not go on to play professional basketball, but became successful in their own fields. Students such as Mike Warren (critically acclaimed actor), Dr. Ralph Drollinger (government and ministry leader), Raymond Lewis (corporate executive and philanthropist), Andy Hill (Emmy-winning producer and author), and Dr. George Stanich (Olympic Medalist and educator), among others.
This particular book was first published in 2009, and it consists of a mix of biography, the analysis of his core principles, his many famous sayings (and their elaborations), and testimonies from his former players. It is written in an easy to digest format, where Coach Wooden’s abundant wisdom are broken down and organized into neat little short chapters, complete with the backstories of how and when and where Coach Wooden first learned about the lessons.
It is such a compact book for everything there is about John Wooden’s philosophy. Deep enough that it can inspire us, but light enough to be read in one single sitting.
THE CHAOS THEORY 