The passing of the Great John Wooden last week made me, like so many others, reflect on his teachings about basketball and life. One of my first memories of Coach Wooden's impact on the game came as a young child visiting the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in New Castle, Indiana. There is, and may still be, an exhibit with an electronic image of Coach Wooden teaching his team his definition of success. I still have, to this day, a copy of the "Pyramid of Success" that I picked up on one of those early visits to the HOF.

In honor of Coach Wooden, I am going to run a series of blogs on some great things that I have picked up from Coach Wooden, mostly from "Coach Wooden's Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks For a Better Life," a great book about the "Pyramid" by Coach Wooden and his writing partner Jay Carty.

Coach Wooden defined success based on a teaching from his Father and from a poem. Here they are:

What He Learned from His Father...
1. Don't try to be better than anyone else.
2. Always try to be the best you can be.

The 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."

These wise words were the premise for Coach Wooden's famous definition of success, which he first wrote in 1934...
"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."