Page 213 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Seek Significant Change
REMOVE EXCUSES TO BE SATISFIED 195
Once I realized our practice facility did not preclude a national
championship, it shook me out of some form of complacency or
perhaps subconscious excuse making. It’s hard to describe except
to say that I came to recognize that issues I couldn’t control—the
Men’s Gym and what it forced upon us—had interfered with those
things I could control, such as ceaselessly and creatively searching
for ways to improve and reach the next level of competition.
By giving myself that crutch, I may have gotten comfortable
with the way things were—not happy, but comfortable. I would
never again allow myself to be satisfied that UCLA had gotten as
good as we could get, improved as much as we could improve.

There would be no excuses in the future, only a ceaseless search
for solutions. Following that startling breakthrough in 1962, I
began an intense and comprehensive review of what I was doing
and how I could do it better. Meticulously I began searching for
changes that would allow UCLA to consistently be more compet-
itive in postseason play with the sure belief that the answers would
take us to the next level. Those answers came both from within and
from outside.
I reviewed absolutely everything going back to day 1 at
UCLA—my notebooks, my 3 × 5 cards, practice and game sta-
tistics, and much more—in an attempt to determine if there were
things I had done that were holding us back. Soon enough, I
found them.