Obituary: Coach Wooden, Whose Last Book Publishes in July
Besides being one of the most successful basketball coaches ever, winning 10 national titles in 12 years for UCLA, John Wooden, who died Friday at age 99, was a prolific author whose books aimed to spread his philosophy of life, a practical, wise approach that included the concept of the pyramid of success and such widely quoted aphorisms as these (there are many more):
“It isn’t what you do, but how you do it.”
“You can’t live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you.”
“Be quick but don’t hurry.”
“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
“Don’t measure yourself by what you have accomplished, but by what you should have accomplished with your ability.”
“Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be.”
“Listen if you want to be heard.”
“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?”
His titles, many published by McGraw-Hill, have sold more than a million copies and include Wooden (1997), My Personal Best (2004), They Call Me Coach(2004), Wooden on Leadership (2005), The Essential Wooden (2007) and Coach Wooden’s Leadership Game Plan for Success (2009).