John Wooden Quotes

Failure isn't fatal, but failure to change might be

You never fail if you know in your heart that you did the best of which you are capable. I did my best. That is all I could do.

You cannot have a perfect day without helping others with no thought of getting something in return.

And that, in my opinion, is the first goal of leadership — namely, getting the very best out of the people in your organization, whether they have talent to spare or are spare on talent.

You can't live a perfect day unless you do something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

I never dreamed about winning a national championship. What I was dreaming about was trying to produce the best basketball team we could be. My thoughts were directed toward preparation, our journey, not the results of the effort. That would simply have shifted my attention to the wrong area, hoping for something out of my control.

There are no big things, only an accumulation of many little things. Remove enough rivets and the wing falls off. However, it is up to you, the leader, to identify the correct rivets and determine how much attention each will be given. Do this correctly and your organization will survive flying through even the most turbulent competitive storm.

Never lie, never cheat, never steal.

Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal; never whine, never complain, never make excuses.

Reputation is what others perceive you as being, and their opinion may be right or wrong. Character, however, is what you really are, and nobody truly knows that but you. But you are what matters most.

I’m very proud of the fact that while all the records were being set at UCLA by our basketball teams, I felt exactly the same way. Family is first. Always. Always.

There is no education like adversity.” However, to gain this education you must be tough enough to overcome adversity rather than allowing adversity to overcome you.

I eventually became adept at wearing many different hats: teacher, of course, but also disciplinarian, demonstrator, counselor, role model, psychologist, motivator, timekeeper, quality control expert, talent judge, referee, organizer, and more.

Don’t think you can make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow. If you have it within your power to work twice as hard, why aren’t you doing it now?

It’s friendship when you do good things for each other. It’s showing concern and consideration.