Success

I watched a talk by John Wooden today on TED, and one thing stood out to me.

For those who don’t know, John Wooden is considered to be the best college basketball coach of all time.

John Wooden told the audience that his father told him to never compare himself to someone else. Success is not defined by your accomplishments in contrast to your peers and neighbors. It is defined by the achievement of your potential.

So, with this in mind, John Wooden believes that you can lose despite scoring more points than the other team, and you can win when you are outscored. The media and critics may tell you otherwise, but you as long as your play and perform to your potential; you have nothing to be ashamed of.

And this made me think of a Bible parable which never made much sense – until now.

The Bible has a parable which began with a master who gave three servants a task of holding onto money in the amount of 10, 5 and 1 respectively – the currency standard is irrelevant at this point. When the master came back, the servants entrusted with 10 and 5 were able to double their amount and returned their master 20 and 10 monies. However, the servant given 1 took it and buried it in the ground, and only returned the master 1 when it came time to return it to the master. The master berated this servant and cast him away from his resources and protection.

I thought that was harsh and unfair, as it wasn’t like he lost it or spent it – and he was given very little to begin with. But now I realize why he failed. He made no effort to reach his full potential and do the best with what he was given. It was unlikely that he was going to give back the master 10 or 20, but he could have given back 2 or 3.

Don’t define your success by comparing yourself to others, just do the best you can – and you will still be considered a success.

Some other rules and ideas he shared:

1. Never be late. So you can start on time, and more importantly, end on time.
2. Never use profanity.
3. Never criticize a teammate, that’s your coaches/supervisors job.

He also said that the journey is far more important than the destination and gave the example of how he enjoyed the practice sessions far more than the games.

Finally, I wish to leave with this thought that Wooden shared. “Your reputation is what others believe about you, and your character is who you really are. Hopefully they are the same.”