Page 31 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Introduction
The team had come very close to achieving the formidable task 13
of maximizing their abilities individually and as a unit. We stuck
together, worked hard, ignored what was beyond our control, and
perfected—or tried hard to—those things that were under our con-
trol. Our team achieved success.
And yet the critics were complaining. (Sam never got around to
rolling that peanut down the street with his nose.) We were a suc-
cess, but nobody understood it except us. But us is what mattered.
It’s like character and reputation. Reputation is what others per-
ceive you as being, and their opinion may be right or wrong. Char-
acter, however, is what you really are, and nobody truly knows that
but you. But you are what matters most.
In 1959–1960 only we knew that success had been achieved.
Four years later, in 1964, UCLA became one of the few teams in
college basketball history to achieve a perfect season—30 straight
victories—and, in the process, win our first NCAA national cham-
pionship. The experts now declared that I had finally become a suc-
cess. Once again the critics were wrong.
Although I was perhaps a smarter and more effective leader, I
was no more successful during 1964’s championship season than
four years earlier when we had to win our final game to stay above
.500. The critics didn’t understand this, but their standard for
measuring me—and the team—was one I had little use for.
My standard of success counted most to me. It was how I mea-
sured things. And it started with what my father taught us back on
the farm. That, in turn, led to the definition of success I conceived
and wrote down in 1934 at Dayton High School.
That is the standard I used to judge myself in all areas through-
out my adult life, including my teaching, coaching, and leadership.
It is also how I have always measured the success of those under my
leadership.