John Wooden, a legend who died before the legend expired!

In this day and age we are a little reluctant to bestow hero status on people as we have
been surprised repeatedly by politicians, business people, athletes and coaches who have been "outed" as cheaters,  liars, thieves, and addicts whether the addiction is steroids, alcohol and drugs, gambling, or sex.   Some of our most legendary public profiles have turned out to be someone we did not want them to be.  Sadly, their legend died before they did. 

We have also seen aging athletes hanging on much longer than they should have to continue to recapture the glory and extend the legend.  Unfortunately, in many of those cases, the legend died before they did. 

This past weekend, John Wooden passed away at age 99.  For those of you who do not know who John Wooden was, he was arguably the best college basketball coach ever.  He coached UCLA to 10 NCAA National Championships in 12 years.  Very few coaches ever make it to the Final Four much less win the National Championship. 

More than that though, John Wooden did more than just win basketball games.  He taught his players about life.  He taught a lot of us about life.  All of us benefited from John Wooden and who he was day in and day out.  He was who he said he was.

There are many quotes associated with John Wooden and as many of you know, I have used a lot of them through the years.  My favorite quote from John Wooden is "It is what you learn after you know it all that counts."

That quote has an incredible amount of significance over the last three years with the "great recession".   We are all having to look at what is really important in our lives and make painfully tough decisions that some of us never thought we would have to face.  Those decisions have for the most part been forced upon us by the bad behavior of a lot of organizations and individuals who have different moral compasses than the majority of U. S. Citizens.

What have I learned since I may have thought I knew it all? 

First is that I don't know it all.

Second, no matter how well we thought we planned our future actions, external events that we have no control over can force us to have to revisit our plan and make changes. 

Third, no matter how wrapped up we may get in our own situation, we have a lot to be grateful about.

Finally, we never allow ourselves to play victim.  We don't do victim well and we never will.  We will always take action rather than wait for our circumstances to get better on their own.  Life happens.  We deal with it and make it better. 

The past three years have also reinforced a belief I have always had.  My best accomplishments are still to come.  If what you did yesterday still looks big today, you have not done anything today. 

While we may have lost money in the market and in our retirement accounts and the value of our houses may be cut in half and still spiraling downward, we still have our dreams, and no one can take that away.   We continue to dream big. 

I have attached a link to Amazon.com with a link to a book by John Wooden.  I have become an Amazon Associate as it ties in with one of my dreams.  Clicking onto the link will allow you to not only order a book but shop on Amazon.com.   You will also notice that I have added a search box where if you want to search the Internet while at my site you can go direct without having to exit the site and open your browser.  Finally, please note the scrolling headlines across the top of the blog. 

In closing, I would just like to say that I really appreciate your reading my blog and I hope you find information that helps you  from time to time.  If nothing else maybe to just remind you of something you already know but may not have thought about for a while. 

While I am sad that John Wooden has passed away, I am happy that a legend has passed without the legend dieing first.  It helps to keep my faith that the good folks who do the right things with their lives win in the end.  John Wooden's legends live on. 

To close here are two more John Wooden quotes:

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

Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.

It is what you do everyday that counts!