Who would you put as wrestling’s equivalent to John Wooden?
But why am I writing about John Wooden? I suck at basketball. I am slow with no vertical and I get blown up after a couple of trips up and down the court. But even with no basketball acumen, John Wooden was, is and will continue to be very influential as a teacher for me because John Wooden’s legacy goes beyond 88 consecutive wins… beyond the 10 National Championships… beyond the basketball court.
John Wooden’s brilliant work, most famously his “Pyramid for Success” can be applied to everyone, regardless of how bad their jump shot is. Doctors, lawyers, housewives, phlebotomists, truck drivers, janitors… and every profession in between. Everyone can learn from Wooden because his principles can be applied to any walk of life. I invite you to follow this link in a separate window and follow along through the next section… http://www.coachwooden.com/
The Pyramid for Success is a blueprint for life. It begins with Industriousness… “You can work without being industrious but you can’t be industrious without work” because Coach Wooden believed that you can’t “just go through the motions”.
The Pyramid continues upward, outward and onward… Each block necessary for what it means to all the other blocks, like a teammate to a team, a husband to his wife and kids, a factory worker to his co-workers. I can write about John Wooden all day and night but I’ll boil it down to this…
After I got fired from the WWE, I spent years hating everyone and everything, blaming everyone and everything but reading Coach Wooden’s books re-shaped my thinking. I learned that I was the cause of my own demise because I didn’t understand what was required to reach the top of the pyramid called “Competitive Greatness”.
