The John Wooden Pyramid of Success is No Scheme!

You may or may not be familiar with the concept of pyramid schemes. In a nutshell, they are business models that are fraudulent in nature where participants are promised payments to recruit other participants instead of being paid on commission or sales. Pyramid schemes are sometimes passed off as multi-level marketing by incorporating unmarketable services or products into the scheme.

When he read the first draft of this blog post, my co-blogger Howie was a little concerned that some may see this post as a type of pyramid scheme. I assured him and assure you it is not and will explain why later in the post!

And while I maintain that this blog post is not a pyramid scheme, it does involve a pyramid and it does involve a wizard.  But you will have to trust me, there is no hocus-pocus here, hopefully just some learning and possibly some inspiration…

When I say this post involves a wizard…

I am referring to a man who was known simply as “the Wizard of Westwood”. An American basketball player and coach, his men’s basketball teams at UCLA won 10 NCAA championships in a 12-year period, including a record 7 straight, as well as a record 88 games straight. He also won the Henry Iba Award for national coach of the year a record 7 times and AP coach of the year 5 times.

While his on-court accomplishments were unparalleled, it is possible that the late, great, legendary coach John Wooden’s most impressive accomplishments came off the court. His wisdom and mentorship not only fostered amazing loyalty and admiration from former players such as Bill Walton and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) but also made him one of the most revered coaches in the history of sports. One of his biggest fans is your truly as I have studied his career and read his biography ‘They Call Me Coach’ several times.

And when I say this post involves a pyramid…

I am referring to one of the things he was most famous for, which is the subject of this blog post – and that is the John Wooden pyramid of success.

When he was a young man, one of his teachers gave him an assignment which was to define success. While he went through high school and college, he pondered it many times but never had the time to delve into it deeply. Eventually, when he became a teacher at South Bend Central he finally put pen to paper and tried to develop a paper that would allow his students to understand success.

After a few years and several hundred hours of effort, he developed what is now known as the John Wooden pyramid of success.  While the pyramid certainly served as a way for Wooden to mentor his players and players at his camps into fine young men, it served a broader purpose. Its popularity outside of sports was significant as Wooden received request after request from all types of organizations to speak on the John Wooden pyramid of success as it as appropriate for life as it is for athletes.

With that said, this blog post is going to take you through the John Wooden pyramid of success and discuss how you can make it actionable in your life.

Let’s start by looking at the pyramid itself:

Before we look at the John Wooden pyramid of success itself, let’s first review Coach Wooden’s…

Definition of Success:

“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” ¹

Make it Actionable: As Coach Wooden said, “only you know if you goofed off or not.” His definition is simple yet powerful – do your best every day. You can fool others, but only you really know if you are doing your best.

Next, let’s move to the pyramid, starting with the base.

Wooden believed that no building was better than the structural foundation it was built upon. With that being said, he believed that man was no better than his mental foundation, which consisted of two cornerstones:

Industriousness – which involved hard work, (which he believed there is no substitute for) and planning.

and

Enthusiasm – truly enjoying what you are doing, which can be contagious and help you work up to your maximum ability.

The next 3 attributes on the base that appeared between the cornerstones were all similar and illustrate that it takes a united front to tie in the two cornerstones:

Friendship: which comes from mutual esteem and devotion and must be not be taken for granted.

Make it actionable: Friends are important, and friendships take work to make them flourish.

Cooperation: with all levels of your coworkers, family, and friends be interested not in your way, but instead in finding the BEST way, listen if you would like to be heard.

Make it actionable: Put your ego aside and do what is best for the team.

Loyalty: to not only those around you but also to yourself – keep your self-respect!

Make it actionable: Treat others with respect, just as importantly treat yourself with respect!

Moving to the second tier, you have 2 anchor blocks, which are:

Self-control:  you need to keep your emotions under control or else everything else will fail.

Make it actionable: understand there will be ups and downs in your journey – that is part of life. Don’t get too high with the highs and don’t get too low with the lows.

Intentness:  you need to have a purpose and intent and know where you are going. Otherwise, distractions can easily knock you off course.

Make it actionable: Know where you are going, have goals and a plan to reach them. Also, having a personal mission statement so you don’t get distracted by attractive distractors.

The middle two attributes on the second tier are:

Alertness: being alive and alert and always looking for different ways to improve.

Make it actionable: Keep learning, be curious and always be trying to improve.

Initiative: having the courage to act alone and make decisions.

Make it actionable:  Take action and just do it!

Moving to the third tier, you have:

Condition: by this Wooden didn’t only mean being in peak physical condition! He also meant being in peak mental, spiritual, and moral condition as you cannot attain and maintain physical condition without the others.

Make it actionable: This is exactly what I was talking about in a previous blog post on sharpening your saw. Stephen Covey discussed taking time every day to sharpen the saw in 4 dimensions of your life – physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional/relationship – Wooden is talking about the same thing with the only difference being semantics.

Skill: with respect to basketball he meant having the knowledge and ability to properly execute the fundamentals. He thought that players be able to do them quickly and properly – almost instinctively. This comes from being prepared and with lots of practice.

Make it actionable: Hone your craft, whatever it is and always be prepared. Which reminds me of a great quote – “failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

Team spirit: being ok with sacrificing personal achievement or glory for the success of the team.

Make it actionable: Sometimes you have to ‘take one for the team’.  Realize that sometimes we need to sub-optimize individually to optimize things for our organizations, families or other areas of our lives.

On to the fourth tier, which has two attributes:

Poise: which simply means being yourself and being at ease in every situation, as Wooden says, “never fighting yourself.”

and

Confidence: being respectful but not fearing anyone or anything and keeping things in perspective.

Make it actionable: While it is easy to say, just be yourself (poised) and just be confident, Wooden believes that poise and confidence are a function of condition, skill, and team spirit. If you are in good condition, are fundamentally sound and have a good team attitude you will be poised and confident because not only are you prepared, but you know that you are prepared!

Finally, we come to the pinnacle…

of the John Wooden success pyramid, which has at its apex…

Competitive Greatness: This attribute cannot be attained without first possessing poise and confidence. By competitive greatness, he simply means being your best when your best is needed and being ready for challenges.

Make it actionable: Again, this one is a function of being poised and confident. Being poised and confident will ensure you are ready to kick ass when the time comes and always ready for a challenge!

Those are the attributes or blocks of the pyramid, but Wooden wasn’t done! He believed there are

10 Other Qualities

That are needed to tie everything together to create the ultimate definition of success. Those 10 qualities are:

Ambition: which he believed can be a huge asset if focused but a huge detriment if out of focus.

Adaptability: being able to meet the challenge of different situations and work well with others.

Fight: not giving up and being prepared to endure tough battles.

Faith: believing in your objectives and in yourself.

Patience: knowing the road will be tough and not expecting too much, too soon.

Integrity:  being pure in your intention and doing what you say you are going to do.

Reliability: others knowing they can count on you which creates respect.

Honesty: in both your thoughts and your actions.

Sincerity: being genuine will help you build and maintain relationships.

So, that’s it! The John Wooden success pyramid.

Before We Go…

I need to address Howie’s concern with this being a pyramid scheme. There are several telltale signs of a pyramid scheme which I will address one at a time.

#1 – Your income is dependent on the number of participants you recruit – FALSE!

Now, while we may ask you to share our blog posts with those you love, we are not paying you and we will never pay you! So, only recruit others to read this if you think our posts will add value to their lives.

#2 – We require you to buy lots of inventory – FALSE!

While there is a large inventory of great blog posts on Prime Your Pump, they are all free! You don’t have to buy anything! Not only that, but they are free to share!

#3 – You are forced to buy other things to stay in good standing with Prime Your Pump – FALSE!

We aren’t forcing you to do anything, all we want you to spend is a bit of your time learning and enjoying our blog posts!

So, there you go!  Not a pyramid scheme, just a pyramid of success.

By the way, if you are free this weekend, I am having a bunch of people over to my house to discuss an amazing “business opportunity”!

JUST KIDDING!

Until next time, keep scaling the John Wooden pyramid of success, watch out for pyramid schemes and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

Use It or Lose It – The John Wooden Pyramid of Success

Incorporate the components of the John Wooden pyramid of success into different areas of your life as you see fit.

When to Use It:

As you reflect on your life – looking at where you have been, where you are, and where you are headed.

What Do You Think?

What do you think of the John Wooden pyramid of success – do you have a similar definition of success? Do you incorporate many of these components into your life? Please share in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, it would mean the world to us if you shared it with people you care about via any of the social media platforms below!

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References

1 Wooden, J., & Tobin, J. (1988). They Call Me Coach. Chicago: Contemporary Books.

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2014/05/telltale-signs-pyramid-scheme