Feb. 4, 2025
MM#387 -- Time Fears the Pyramid: Wooden Wisdom
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Discover the timeless wisdom of the legendary John Wooden as we unpack how his Pyramid of Success can transform your leadership approach. Imagine leading with the precision and endurance of the Great Pyramid of Giza, applying Wooden's 15 fundamental values as the building blocks for unparalleled success. By tuning in, you'll learn how to harness these principles to develop not only winning teams but also a winning mindset that emphasizes character and continuous improvement.
As the greatest basketball coach of all time, Wooden's achievements on the court were legendary, yet his legacy extends far beyond victories and trophies. Through today's exploration, you'll grasp how he crafted a leadership model that empowers others to reach their full potential, both individually and as part of a team. This episode is packed with insights that transcend sports, offering a roadmap for anyone seeking to lead effectively in any competitive arena. Join us on this journey to reshape your understanding of success and leadership through the lens of Wooden’s powerful teachings.
Key Points from this Episode:
- Exploration of John Wooden's impactful coaching legacy
- Breakdown of the 15 foundational blocks in the Pyramid of Success
- Importance of character values such as friendship and loyalty
- Understanding the significance of self-control and lifelong learning
- Discussion of the apex concept: competitive greatness
- Highlighting faith and patience as essential supporting qualities
Join us as we reflect on how these insights can be applied to our own journeys and endeavors.
Other resources:
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Transcript
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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life.
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Now here's your host, david Kaiser.
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Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute.
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Let's begin with a quote from our book of the day.
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I remember reading about the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt when I was a student at Purdue.
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It was the last of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
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Built with blocks of red granite and pure limestone, some weighing up to 60 tons, the Great Pyramid was constructed on a massive foundation, whose huge cornerstones were the biggest and most important of the whole structure.
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Additional blocks, each carved with a specific purpose and position in mind, were then painstakingly ramped and hoisted into place, creating successive tiers, each one supported by what had come before.
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There was a center, or a heart of the Great Pyramid, which then rose to an apex that towered 481 feet above the sands of the desert.
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For 4,300 years it remained the tallest structure on earth.
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And despite its size, the Great Pyramid was built with such precision that, when it was completed after decades of labor, you couldn't slide a single playing card between its huge blocks of granite limestone.
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Even in the 21st century, it is considered one of the sturdiest and best playing structures ever built, and I'm not alone in this thinking.
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The great management writer and analyst, peter Drucker, when asked who was the greatest managers of all time, answered the builders of the Great Pyramids.
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An Egyptian proverb says man fears time, but time fears the pyramids.
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The Great Pyramid of Giza was built to last, and it did.
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The symbolism of all this effort seemed very practical to me, and that quote comes to us from John Wooden in Wooden's On Leadership how to Create a Winning Organization.
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Despite what the legendary coach Bob Knight says regarding John Wooden, right now he is arguably the greatest basketball coach of all time.
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Wooden's success is unmatched.
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He had UCLA teams achieve an unprecedented success during his 27-year tenure 10 NCAA championships, including seven consecutive titles from 1967 to 1973, an 88-game winning streak spanning over four seasons, four perfect 30-0 seasons, 38 straight NCAA tournament victories, an overall record of 620-147 for a winning percentage of 808.
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Now Wooden's influence extends far beyond the wins and losses.
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He developed during his coaching career the pyramid of success, a motivational model used by leaders in various fields.
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He focused specifically on character development and life lessons, alongside developing basketball skills.
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He emphasized teamwork, preparation and continuous improvement.
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And in speaking of this pyramid of success, let's take a deeper dive into this.
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We heard in our opening quote about the Great Pyramid of Giza, and that's one of the inspirations for Wooden's infamous Pyramid of Success.
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So let's go back to the book for another great nugget of wisdom.
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Back to the book.
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I soon adopted the pyramid structure as my teaching tool.
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At first I didn't know how many blocks it would contain, what the blocks would consist of or in what order they would be positioned.
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All I knew was that success would be found at the apex and that each block leading to the top would represent a personal quality necessary for getting there.
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The pyramids, blocks and tiers would be my specific directions on how those under my supervision could achieve success by realizing their own potential, both individually and as part of the team.
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Along the way, I came to see that it would also provide the directions for my own coaching, a leadership guidebook of sorts, offering a code of conduct for those given the privilege of leading others into the competitive arena.
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However, first I faced the task of determining what individual characteristics were required to reach the top.
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I took this responsibility seriously and, during the winter of my first year as a teacher and coach, began reflecting on what the answer was.
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What precisely did it take to become a success?
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For many years afterwards, I evaluated and then carefully selected the values necessary for success as I defined it, as well as the location each would occupy in the structure, and, after much reflection, trial and error and some soul searching, I chose 15 fundamental values as blocks for my pyramid of success.
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I believe they are the prerequisites for a leader in an organization whose goal is to perform at the highest level of which they are capable.
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And again, this quote comes to us from our book of the day, wooden, on Leadership.
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So do you know what is pretty cool Of these 15 blocks that make up the wooden success pyramid?
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Arguably, most of them, a great majority, are virtues, some sort of fashion we could plug whatever the value is from wooden into an old school, classic virtue, which I think is pretty cool, because we're always talking about developing a flourishing life here on the podcast and living that virtuous life, and here we have sort of a modern day roadmap, if you will.
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So what are these 15 values or virtues that Wooden has perfected on his pyramid?
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Well, like we said, the pyramid of success contains and consists of 15 fundamental behaviors with additional elements known as the mortar holding it together, kind of the stuff around the sides.
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At the foundation, at the base of the pyramid are two cornerstone behaviors Industriousness, which is hard work and careful planning that are essential, and enthusiasm, a genuine enjoyment of what you're doing which influences those around you.
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Then, as we move up correction, not as we move up, but still on the base level we have the values of friendship, loyalty and cooperation.
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Then, as we move up, we have self-control, alertness, initiative and intentness.
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Then, at the heart of the pyramid, lies the 10th skill, the 10th value, and that is skill.
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This emphasizes the importance of mastering the details of your craft and being what we regard here as the pinnacle of all personal development.
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You are a lifelong learner.
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Now, the upper levels of the pyramid include condition, not conditioning, but condition.
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Think about this as the physical and the mental and the moral condition.
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I love how John Wooden, even though he's teaching basketball, he says there is a mindset, a mental component to this as well as a moral component Very key.
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So condition is the 11th value.
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Team spirit is 12.
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Then we have poise and confidence at the very top, reaching the apex, the peak and the top of the pyramid is the 15th attribute, which is competitive greatness, which is defined as being your best when your best is needed.
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In fact, here's Wooden's definition Competitive greatness.
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Is this a real love for the hard battle, knowing it offers the opportunity to be your best when your best is required.
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How cool is that?
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You can just imagine playing basketball for Coach Wooden in the 60s and 70s and hearing this pyramid referred to constantly off the court and on the court.
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And after some time, coach added what he called the mortar, the two qualities.
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The first two qualities are around the outside of the virtues of faith and patience.
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Here is how he describes that On the journey to success, you will face frustration and fatigue, setbacks and serious obstacles, but a leader must remain undaunted.
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Thus I added mortar to the top of the pyramid in the form of patience and faith At the apex.
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They are symbolic and remind us that these two qualities must be present throughout the pyramid, holding the blocks and tiers firmly in place.
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A leader must have the faith that things will work out as they should.
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A leader must have the faith that things will work out as they should, a boundless belief in the future.
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A wise leader also knows that accomplishing important things takes time.
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If difficult goals could be achieved quickly, more people would be achievers, but most people and many leaders lack the real patience.
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Benjamin Franklin understood this virtue quite well.
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He says Genius is nothing but a greater aptitude for patience.
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Success is always attainable when defined correctly, that is, as making the effort to do the best of which you are capable With that standard.
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With that as your standard, you will not fail.
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The 15 personal qualities, these durable blocks of the pyramid, if embraced and acted upon, will elevate you and your organization to success.
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My father's words described it quite well when you've done your best, you may call yourself a success.
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You may also call yourself a great competitor, a leader who resides at the top.
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So one might ask why?
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How does all this represent success?
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How does it actually win basketball games?
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Well, first, here is how Coach Wooden defined success, way back at his first coaching job outside Cincinnati, ohio, in a small town called Dayton but it was Dayton, kentucky, small little burg across the Ohio River from Cincinnati.
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That is where John Wooden first blew his first coaching whistle.
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That's when he started to develop this curriculum of the Pyramid of Success.
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For Coach Wooden, here's how he defined success.
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As a teacher, coach and leader, my goal was always to help those under my leadership reach the ultimate level of their competency, both individually and as protective members of our team.
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Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best of which you are capable, to do your best of which you are capable.
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So again, one might ask how does this represent success and how does it actually win basketball games?
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Well, if you have eyes to see, you can connect the dots that creating a good character in men on the basketball team ultimately would lead to some pretty good teams, and by having some pretty good teams, coach Wooden's status as a great coach would rise to the surface, and that is ultimately what happened.
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He was named the greatest coach of all time by the Sporting News in 2009.
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He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player in 1960 and as a coach in 1973.
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He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2003, and he continues to inspire coaches daily and leaders decades after his retirement.
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That's not to mention that the actual accolades did come 10 NCAA National Championships, including those seven consecutive titles from 67 to 73.
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That 88-game winning streak spanning over four seasons, unmatched since then, four perfect 30-0 seasons, 38 straight NCAA tournament victories and again that overall record of 620-147 for a winning percentage of 808.
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Unheard of.
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So in today's Mojo Minute, let's put theory to action on just one of these 15 qualities we heard about from Wooden's Pyramid of Success, which one resonated with you when you heard it?
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Let's act on that today Because, as the great 19th century poet Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us, the force of character is cumulative.
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Wooden's combination of on-court success and lasting impact on his players' lives and the enduring influence on the leadership philosophy in basketball makes him a compelling case for the greatest basketball coach of all time.
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And as we know from that Egyptian proverb, man fears time, but time fears the pyramids.
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The Great Pyramid of Giza was built to last and it did.
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And some 91 years later, wooden's Success Pyramid is aging quite well.
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We would do well to learn from it, especially if we are building a flourishing life.
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Thank you for joining us.
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We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast.
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Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources.
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Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.
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