This week's Pep Talk: Perseverance and Principle

It was a Saturday morning, a buddy who takes care of my lawn sprinklers and yard lights is making a few minor adjustments to each, I’m chatting with him while picking weeds when the conversation turns to John Wooden. The legendary basketball coach, who won ten national titles with UCLA, had died the day before. “Do you realize Wooden did not win his first national title at UCLA until his 16th season?” my buddy suggested.

I paused with the pulling and pondered that fact. “Really?” was my surprising response. I instantly thought of perseverance, defined as: “to continue steadfastly, especially in something that is difficult or tedious.”

We often get frustrated don’t we, when things don’t happen as quickly as we would like? Wooden in 29 years as a basketball coach never had a losing season, but it took him 16 years at UCLA to take the Bruins to a national title. There’s a good lesson in that for each of us. If we are engaged in work that we love, but the expected success has been elusive, persevere – continue steadfastly – toward the goal! Victory might be right around the corner with the next sale, the next book, the next relationship, the next job, the next exercise routine. Persevere.

John Wooden was known for many things: discipline, wisdom, graciousness, humility to name a few. Perseverance should also be on that list. It should be on ours too.

Another descriptive word that defines Wooden is principled. In reading the various accounts of his life, a story from his coaching days at Indiana State – his job before UCLA – really stands out. It was 1947, the school, then called Indiana Teachers College, had been invited to a prestigious post-season tournament. But there was a caveat. The tournament organizers said Wooden’s team was welcome, except for its lone black player. Wooden told the tournament that was unacceptable and Indiana Teachers College stayed home in support of its teammate. Principle won over prestige. There’s another good lesson that would serve each of us well – choose principle - a personal code of right conduct - over prestige.

In all my years of athletics, sportscasting and admiration for coach Wooden I was not aware of these examples of this wonderful man’s perseverance and principle.

Respectfully known as the “Wizard of Westwood”, the coach is universally regarded as the greatest collegiate basketball coach of all time. But you know what? The qualities and characteristics that provided the foundation to his success are present, and available, for each of us!

We might not be able to coach basketball worth a darn but we can decide that embracing perseverance and principle can help us play like champions in the game of life - home, work and elsewhere.