The Difference Between Winning and Success

John Wooden

John Wooden created his own definition of success way back in 1934 as a high school English teacher.  We complain about the entitlement that students and their parents have now like it is a new phenomenon, but Coach Wooden was dealing with it back in the 1930’s and ‘40’s.  He said that his parents just expected their students get an A or a B, and when a student didn’t receive and A or B, the parents placed blame on the teacher instead of the student.

He said that he believes that the Lord did not create everybody equal, and that includes size, athleticism, and intelligence, and that he believed that not everybody could earn an A or B and that he didn’t like that way of judging.  

"Success is a piece of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable."

"My father tried to teach me and my brothers that you should never try to be better than someone else.  Always learn from others and never cease trying to be the best that you can be.  That’s under your control, and if you get to engrossed and involved and concerned with things in which you have no control, it will adversely reflect the things over which you have control."

"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.”

“No printed word, nor spoken plea can teach young minds what they should be. Not all the books on all the shelves – but what the teachers are themselves.” – Rudyard Kipling

"In whatever you’re doing, you must be patient.  You have to have patience.  We talk about our youth being impatient a lot, and they are.  They want to change everything.  They think all change is progress, until we get a little older and we tend to let things go and we forget that there is no progress without change.  So you must have patience."

"I believe that we must have faith.  I believe that we must truly believe; not just give a word service but believe that things will work out as they should providing we do what we should.  I think our tendency is to hope that things turn out the way that we want them too much of the time, but we don’t do the things that are necessary to make those things a reality."

"Don’t wine, don’t complain, don’t make excuses.  If you get out there and whatever you’re doing, do it to the best of your ability.  Nobody can do better than that."

"If you always do the best you can, the byproduct, the results, will generally be what they should be.  It won’t always be what you want, but it will be what should be."

"The journey is better than the end. 
Sometimes when you get there, there’s almost a let down, but its getting there that’s the fun."