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Some Favorite
Maxims, by John Wooden
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Happiness begins where
selfishness ends.
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The best way to improve the
team is to improve ourselves.
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Ability may get you to the
top, but it takes character to keep you there.
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I will get ready and then,
perhaps, my chance will come.
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If I am through learning, I
am through.
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If you do not have the time
to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over?
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The man who is afraid to
risk failure seldom has to face success.
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Don't let yesterday take up
too much of today.
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Time spend getting even
would be better spent trying to get ahead.
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It is what you learn after
you know it all that counts.
Goals achieved with little
effort are seldom worthwhile or lasting.
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What is right is more
important than who is right.
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Tell the truth. That
way you don't have to remember a story.
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Although there is no
progress without change, not all change is progress.
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If we magnified blessings as
much as we magnify disappointments, we would all be much happier.
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The worst thing you can do
for those you love is the things they could and should do for
themselves. (Abraham Lincoln)
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It is one of the most
beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely help
another without helping himself. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
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Do not permit what you
cannot do to interfere with what you can do.
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Be more concerned with your
character than with your reputation. Character is what you really
are; reputation is merely what you are perceived to be.
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Love is the greatest of all
words in our language.
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Much can be accomplished by
teamwork when no one is concerned about who gets credit.
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Never make excuses.
Your friends don't need them and your foes won't believe them.
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Be slow to criticize and
quick to commend.
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Be more concerned with what
you can do for others than what others can do for you. You'll be
surprised at the results.
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Don't permit fear of failure
to prevent effort.
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We are all imperfect and
will fail on occasions, but fear of failure is the greatest failure of
all.
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Being average means you are
as close to the bottom as you are to the top.
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The time to make friends is
before you need them.
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Nothing can give you greater
joy than doing something for another.
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You cannot live a perfect
day without doing something for another without thought of something in
return.
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Do not mistake activity for
achievement.
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The more concerned we become
over the things we can't control, the less we will do with the things we
can control.
Forget favors given;
remember those received.
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Make each day your
masterpiece.
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Acquire peace of mind by
making the effort to become the best of which you are capable.
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Attitude
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The longer I live, the more
I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me is more
important than the facts. It is more important than past, than
education, than success, than what other people think or say or do.
It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will
make or break a company... a team... a family... a home.
The remarkable thing is you
have a choice everyday regarding the attitude you will embrace for that
day. We cannot change our past... We cannot change the fact
that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the
inevitable... The only thing we can do is play on the one string
we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that it's 10%
what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with
you. "You" are in charge of your attitudes.
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I've Two Choices
Jerry
was the the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a
good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would
ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would
be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who
had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the
waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural
motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling
the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing
this
style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked
him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to
myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a
good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood." I choose to be in a
good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim
or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time
someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their
complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the
positive side of life."
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes it is," Jerry said, "Life is all about choices. When you cut away
all
the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to
situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to
be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you
live life." I reflected on what Jerry said.
Soon thereafter, I left the
restaurant
industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but often thought
about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never
supposed to do in a restaurant business, he left the back door open one
morning and
was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open
the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the
combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found
relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours
of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the
hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he
was, he said, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds but did ask him what had gone through his
mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my
mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then,
as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices - I could
choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you
scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was
going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I
saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really
scared. In their eyes, I read, "He's a dead man." I
knew I needed to take action. "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big, burly
nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. She asked if I was
allergic to anything. "Yes," I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped
working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled,
"Bullets!"
Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his
amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice
to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
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