Page 72 - How to Create a Winning Organization

Wooden on Leadership
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tle, and the test it provides against a worthy opponent. The hard
struggle is to be welcomed, never feared. In fact, when you define
success this way, the only thing to fear is your own unwillingness
to make the full, 100 percent effort to prepare and perform at the
highest level of your ability. A leader who is a Great Competitor
teaches the organization the same thing.
When you have achieved Competitive Greatness, you have ar-
rived at the top, prepared to bring out your best in yourself and
your team. You are ready for whatever the battle brings. Here is
how the American sportswriter Grantland Rice describes it in his
poem “The Great Competitor”:

Beyond the winning and the goal,
beyond the glory and the fame,
He feels the flame within his soul,
born of the spirit of the game.
And where the barriers my wait,
built up by the opposing Gods,
He finds a thrill in bucking fate
and riding down the endless odds.
Where others wither in the fire
or fall below some raw mishap,
Where others lag behind or tire
and break beneath the handicap.
He finds a new and deeper thrill
to take him on the uphill spin,
Because the test is greater still,
and something he can revel in.

The struggle itself, the test, is what gives value to the prize and
is something the competitive leader truly revels in. It is your re-
sponsibility to pass this on to those under your leadership.