I’ve been studying the life and philosophy of John Wooden, and this week I’m going to share some of the stuff that I’ve learned from that.
(The guy knows a thing or two about success. His teams won 10 NCAA national basketball championships in 12 years, and they once won 88 straight games – both are records).
One of the big things that Wooden taught his teams was to not get too emotional. He didn’t want his players being thrown off their game, and his demeanour courtside was compared to a “dead fish” (which he took as a compliment).
Wooden once let his emotions get the best of him when he was a new coach for a high school basketball team.
One of the player’s fathers demanded that his son get a letter in basketball (even though the kid technically didn’t qualify for one). Before the incident, Wooden was going to use his discretion to put the boy on the list, since coaches were allowed to make exceptions for players who had the right attitude and worked hard.
But after he was threatened by the father, he changed his mind. Over 70 years later, near the end of his life, Wooden wrote that he still regretted letting his emotions get the best of him and for punishing his player because he was mad at the father.
I’ve seen coaches who let emotions cloud their judgement too:
Last year, a past guest of Natural Born Coaches messaged me to ask if I would interview her friend for the podcast.
I declined – I get a ton of these pitches and my show was booked solid then (it still is).
The coach persisted, probably thinking because she was a past guest and I had once been an affiliate for one of her launches that I would make an exception.
After a number of requests over a month, it was getting annoying and I gave a firm “no”.
It shouldn’t have been a big deal, but the coach got upset and unfriended me on Facebook … today’s version of “taking your ball and going home”.
She made the mistake of letting her emotions cloud her judgement. She shot herself in the foot for us doing any joint ventures down the road or for her getting an encore appearance on my show since I don’t reward temper tantrums.
Stupid move, but she’s free to run her business the way she wants to.
I think it’s better to not take things too personally or be thrown into a tizzy when things don’t go your way. If you’re overly-sensitive, you’re going to have a tough time building a successful business – since lots of things don’t go the way entrepreneurs want!
If you want to make it, keep those emotions in check …
If you aren’t an emotional train wreck, or you want to stop becoming one, check out my 10 Clients In 90 Days program. It’s all about taking action and staying so busy that little things won’t bother you anymore.
Lace up your sneakers and hop onto the court here:
