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Sunday, December 4, 2022

What Is Success? It's Nuanced, Personal, and Relative.

Success is no monolith. It's personal and worth reflection. 

I'll start with Coach John Wooden's definition because it's thoughtful and durable. “Success is peace of mind that is the direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

But it's different for each of us. Here are a few excerpts from Christian Klemash's How to Succeed in the Game of Life:


Some measure success by wins and losses, improvement, power, prestige, money, and more. The coaches Klemash interviewed had nuanced opinions. 


Coach Bowden had a religious perspective. Does that mean his program was squeaky clean and immune from temptation? I don't know. 


Jon Chaney adopted the long-term view as well. What kind of adults are we developing? He believed in an approach similar to Jackie Robinson - a life has meaning according to its impact on other lives. 


Anne Donovan's approach had merit, too. It's about the process...the Bill Walsh, "The score takes care of itself." 

With so much 'cheating' going on in college sports, trying to separate the 'good guys' from the 'bad actors' seems like a fool's errand. In a Bob Cousy book he said that neither he nor BC could compete with schools offering jobs to parents and 'girls' to recruits during visits. 

Columnist David Brooks wrote The Road to Character. He distinguished "resume' virtues" from "eulogy virtues." One could be an exceptional person doing societal good without having an expansive resume. That doesn't preclude a coach like Dean Smith from having an abundance of both. 

What does coaching success mean to me? 
  • As a 'youth' coach, I measure success by player improvement.
  • That means improvement relative to potential. Everyone improves but not everyone becomes the player they 'could' be. 
  • Success for teams meant improvement in understanding and executing the game. Be worthy opponents and competitors. Do not quit. 
  • Everyone likes to win. In theory, one can 'always' compete by playing hard and smart, but talent usually defines extremes of wins and losses. 
  • But mostly, I measure progress by the people former players become. That's nebulous. If a woman became a starving, happy artist then that's cognitive dissonance. Happy, good. Starving, not good.
So, I guess I'm figuring it out. 

Lagniappe. Response to pressure partly defines us. 
Lagniappe 2. I never invest much time in behind-the-back dribbles. I went behind-the-back twice in high school and scored both times... so maybe I should have done more. 










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