John Wooden on Teamwork, Winning and Effort

Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable.

Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.

Nothing will work unless you do.

The main ingredient of stardom is the rest of the team.

You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Ability is a poor man’s wealth.

There are three things an athlete must do. You must be in physical condition … You must execute properly and quickly the fundamentals … and you must have eagerness to sacrifice personal interests or glory for the welfare of the team.

There is no substitute for hard work. If you’re looking for the easy way, if you’re looking for the trick, you might get by for a while, but you will not be developing the talents that lie within you. There is simply no substitute for work.

Don’t be afraid to fail. The greatest failure of all is failure to act when action is needed. Use the information that you’ve acquired in the past through the experiences you’ve had and act with self-control — but act.

If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?

Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.

Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but what you should have accomplished with your ability.

Never mistake activity for achievement.

Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there.

A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment.

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Much can be accomplished by teamwork when no one is concerned about who gets credit.

The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.

Although I wanted my players to work to win, I tried to convince them they had always won when they had done their best.

Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.