John Wooden: “There is No Substitute for Work.”

John Wooden shares his timeless definition of success and the foundation behind it — the Pyramid of Success. True success isn’t measured by results, but by effort, character, and personal growth. Through principles like industriousness, enthusiasm, and cooperation, Wooden shows how to build a life rooted in purpose, discipline, and inner fulfillment. Want Ad-Free Episodes? Join QOD Club and hear zero ads inside our Circle community. Plus, book clubs, mentorship calls, weekly business trainings, and new likeminded friends. Get started for only $9. Source: Wooden's Wisdom: John Wooden Pyramid of Success at Tampa Bay 1998 All Poetry IncludedHosted by Sean CroxtonFollow me on InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  You wonder how they do it. And you look to see the knack. You watch the foot in action, or the shoulder, or the back. But when you spot the answer, where the higher glamors lurk, you'll find in moving higher, up the laurel-covered spire, the most of it is practice, and the rest of it is work.

• 0:35Speaker 01

  Welcome back to the Quote of the Day Show. I am your host, Shawn Croxton, of seancroxton.com. We've got Coach John Wooden back on the show today. He is going to remind us of his definition of success that he revealed to us a couple of weeks ago. He's also going to discuss the cornerstones of his Pyramid of Success. Enthusiasm, and the one that I love the most, which is industriousness. And his quote of the day is this: "There is no substitute for work." Coach John Wooden's coming up.

• 1:11Speaker 00

  I defined success in 1934 as peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you're capable. We can't do, none of us can do, all we're capable, because that's perfection, and none of us are perfect. But we can all make the effort to do that, and that's exactly what we should. But after a while, it didn't seem to me that this idea was having much of an impact on either myself or those under my supervision. And I tried to analyze the situation to determine why, and eventually I came to the conclusion

• 1:53Speaker 00

  that it's because this is something abject. A definition, you can't see it. And I think things you see tend to make a better impression, become a little more meaningful than things about which you only hear. So I wanted to come up with something that you could see. And then I recalled something that years before I had had seen and had forgotten, but somewhere in the hidden recesses of the mind, I guess it popped out. Someone had taken a ladder with five rungs in the ladder, and had named each rung of the ladder some particular trait or characteristic that this individual felt was necessary to get to the top of the ladder, where we'd all like to get, even though we might disagree

• 2:36Speaker 00

  on what we consider the top of the ladder to be.

• 2:41Speaker 00

  But they gave me an idea. And at that particular time, I started working on something that I chose to call a pyramid of success. I worked on it for the next fourteen years and eventually completed it when I was teaching at Indiana State University, just prior to going to UCLA. But in the very beginning, I had no idea how many blocks would be in this structure. All I knew was at the apex, at the very top, was going to be success, according to my definition. Now, how to get there was the point. I placed at the very beginning two blocks as the cornerstones of this structure without having any idea about how many blocks I'm going to use. Now, I never changed my mind about.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  I had a lot of ideas. I discarded some, I kept some, but perhaps changed their position within the structure, but never the cornerstones. One cornerstone for success, in my opinion, is industriousness. And the other is enthusiasm. You have a little enthusiasm with this group. I've been with it several times before in different groups. And yes, you have enthusiasm. Industriousness. There is no substitute for work. There is no shortcut. There is no easy way. You may use a trick and get by for a while, but you will not be developing the talents that lie within you if that's what you're looking for all the time.

• 4:09Speaker 00

  Grantland Rice, I consider to be the greatest sportswriter of all time. He was probably born, wrote before any of you were born, but I, I remember him very well. He wrote many things in verse to illustrate points. And he wrote something called How to be a Champion and said, in part, "You wonder how they do it, and you look to see the knack, you watch the foot in action, or the shoulder, or the back. But when you spot the answer, where the higher glamors lurk, you'll find in moving higher up the laurel-covered spire, that most of it is practice, and the rest of it is work." I believe that's true. There is no substitute for industriousness.

• 4:58Speaker 00

  The other, the other cornerstone, remembering that if any structure is to have any strength and solidity, it must have a strong foundation, and these cornerstones anchor the foundation. Enthusiasm, enthusiasm. You have to enjoy what you're doing. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, you may be talented, and you may be able to do right well in the eyes of others. But if you're not enthusiastic about it, you're not going to be able to affect others. Enthusiasm brushes off upon those with whom you come in contact. Any person that dealing with others, and this is a people-oriented world, we're dealing with others all the time in one way or another.

• 5:41Speaker 00

  And, and we must be enthusiastic about the things that we're doing if we hope to come close to realizing our particular, own particular level of competency. Not, not better than someone else, but the best of which we're capable. Only we will know that. It's like reputation and character. Your reputation is what others perceive you to be. Your character is what you are. And you're the only one that really knows your character. I, when I think of enthusiasm, I think of my first year at UCLA, when I attended a meeting one evening and hear a gentleman speak on a topic which I had no interest at all, and you may say, "Why did you go?" I wouldn't be surprised, the same reason as some of you are here, I don't know.

• 6:24Speaker 00

  It was my first year at UCLA. I'd already had a good look at the basketball players with whom I was going to be working, and I thought it might be, might be wise for me to try to, well, set myself in some other areas because it didn't look too promising. So I was there, I sat close to the front, I hoped you wouldn't talk very long. But he changed my mind shortly by his enthusiasm. He wasn't loud, he wasn't bombastic, which you could tell by the sparkle of his eye, by his countenance. He loved his topic, he knew his topic. And I was sorry when he brought his remarks to a close. A few days later, I'd been over to the administration building on the UCLA campus.

• 7:07Speaker 00

  And with no intention whatsoever of doing so, on my return, I came by our Powell Library, and it seemed like I was drawn in there. I found myself browsing around the stacks, seeking additional information in regard to a topic about which only a few days before I'd had absolutely no interest at all. A topic that has given me a lot of pleasure in all the ensuing years. Enthusiasm brushes off upon those with whom you come in contact. Between the cornerstones, I had three blocks. I consider each block to be strong because each block includes others, and we include others, we're adding strength. One is friendship, one is loyalty, and one is cooperation.

• 7:50Speaker 00

  Friendship, work at it, please. Don't take it for granted. Friendship is like marriage, it's two-sided. It cannot be successful if only one person is working at it. If some person is doing something very nice for you, that's not friendship, that's a nice person. It becomes friendship when you do for each other. And just like marriage, it'll fall unless each side works at it. I was speaking at an IBM convention a number of years ago in San Francisco, and a college classmate of mine came up to me afterwards, and he said, Johnny, people in California certainly aren't friendly like they are back home in Indiana, are they? And I said, well, what do you mean, Bob?

• 8:34Speaker 00

  He said, coming over here this morning, I met a lot of people, and not a single person spoke to me. That would never have happened back in Indianapolis. I said, did you speak to any of them? And he said, I didn't know any of them. Well... If we wait for the other person to speak, no one is going to speak. Then loyalty. I don't see how anyone can come close to making the most of their potential unless they have someone to whom they must be loyal and something to which they must be loyal. We need someone and something to whom, to which we must be loyal if we expect to come close to realizing anything near our true potential. And then the next block is cooperation.

• 9:17Speaker 00

  Modern science and technology continues to make this world of ours smaller and smaller. And because of that, it makes cooperation even more essential. With the things that we see done now in outer space and the other things, we see things happening on the other side of the world as they're happening. That wasn't true when I was younger at all, but now we see them, and it's making the world so much smaller. So cooperation we need, and like so many other things, you give it, you'll receive it in return. The next tier, I placed four blocks. One is self-control, one is alertness, one is initiative, and one is intentness.

• 10:01Speaker 00

  You must maintain self-control. Now, I was talking with several people here that played some golf this morning, in spite of the fact that they were up pretty late last night, but they were out playing golf this morning. And whether you're playing golf or whatever you're doing, if you lose your self-control, I know what's going to happen. I know where that golf ball's going to be. Probably going to be there anyway for most of you, but... But if you lose your self-control, it's going to be a little further out there, a little further out here.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  That was Coach John Wooden. His website is coachwooden.com. You can watch today's talk on YouTube. It's called Wooden's Wisdom: John Wooden, Pyramid of Success at Tampa Bay, 1998, All Poetry Included. All right, my friend, I'm gonna see you tomorrow. We've got Dave Ramsey on tomorrow, Thursday, Brian Tracy. Then we wrap things up on Friday with the Rappin' Dad, Derek Clark. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a good day. Peace.