Never Flinch At Failure
Excerpt from The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership – Coach John Wooden (UCLA Bruins 1948-1975)
“I was taught not to fear making a mistake if it was the right kind of mistake. My college coach at Purdue, Ward Lambert, often told us that the team that makes the most mistakes usually wins.
His point? If you’re not making some mistakes, you’re not doing anything — not trying to make things happen. And to win basketball games, you have to make something happen. Just like anywhere else.
Coach Lambert taught me to act, initiate, and be bold in execution rather than hang back in fear of failure. Mistakes are part of winning — not dumb mistakes or those caused by haste and sloppiness but mistakes made by intelligent and thoughtful individuals attempting to make something happen. There was never criticism for an intelligent mistake.”
