Christian Klemash wrote How to Succeed in the Game of Life: 34 Interviews with the World's Greatest Coaches. He believed that great coaches would share unique insights about success. The first question he raised was 'what is success'?
Fittingly, John Wooden was the first coach to agree to an interview with Klemash.
We should provide our interpretation without expecting consensus. Success might be emotion: happiness, satisfaction, or pride, or external like renown, influence, money, or transformation of others. "Are we building a program or a statue?"
But we can ask whether success means winning, maximizing our potential, or sometimes just surviving. And we should acknowledge that ideas flourish in differing environments. Success for Mother Teresa has different meaning than for a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
After discussing Michael Jordan's mega-contract, an interviewer asked Bob Cousy if he were born too soon, Cousy answered something like this, "I had a wonderful career at Holy Cross and enjoyed my time there. I was fortunate to have played on some great teams with the Celtics. After that, I was lucky to have coached at Boston College and in professional basketball with the Royals. I've had a wonderful broadcasting career with the Celtics and really enjoy working for the Celtics in the community. My health has been very good and I have a wonderful family. I am truly blessed." Success was not about money.
The answers top coaches provide might surprise us.
John Chaney: "The most important day of your life is today...you must win this minute. You must win this day. And tomorrow will take care of itself."
Bela Karolyi: "Success is an attitude...an attitude working day in and day out that you are sharing and influencing with your partner or student."
Herman Edwards: "I think for me, success...has nothing to do with what you gain and accomplish for yourself, it's really what you do for others that matters."
Whitey Herzog: "I think that having your health, having your friends- that's success. Success is having a wonderful family."
Bill Cowher: "I think it's finding happiness, and how many people you touch along the way."
Brad Gilbert: "Trying to get better everyday."
Dan Gable: "I look at what impact you as a person have in society."
Klemash shared Coach Wooden's poem:
At God's footstool to confess
A poor soul knelt and bowed his head
"I failed," he cried
The Master said, "Thou didst thy best
That is success."
I believe that success is about making a difference every day, about becoming our better version, and helping those around us to do the same.