John Wooden

John Wooden John Wooden who was an extraordinary coach, won ten national championships in men’s’ college basketball. This great man was different than any other sport coaches. He had a unique way in training his team and teaching them how to become successful players that we don’t see in any other basketball coaches who use physical work in disciplining their athletes. His priority as a coach wasn’t wining. He wanted to give his players something that was more beneficial and to impact them for the rest of their lives. Wooden had a different perspective on success. When he was a sophomore at Martinsive High School in Indiana, his math teacher, Mr.Shidler, asked his students to write an assignment defining success and whether it meant being rich and well-known or winning a basketball game. Wooden thought about this question for a long time until he found the answer and he believed that Mr. Shidler played a big role in his success. While teaching English, Wooden kept thinking about success and what it means. As a teacher, he didn’t like parents who thought about a C as failure and an A or B as success. According to him, each person had a limited capability and when a student works very hard and tries to do the best he can and still gets an average grade doesn’t count as a failure. Wooden accepted that success is measured by effort not by the outcome. He wanted his students to be intrinsically motivated and to try to be the best they could other than just looking for a higher grade. In Drive, Pink believed that each person will reach his personal best when he is intrinsically motivated. Wooden and Pink had similar ideas about Motivation 3.0. They both weren’t pleased when people worked on something just for the sake of getting a reward. This kind of motivation which relies upon rewards and punishment doesn’t work as Pink discussed in his book. In case of a student, he might resort to cheating in order to get a good grade and