WORDS TO LIVE BY

LESSONS

Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.

-Booker T. Washington

I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

-Abraham Lincoln

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

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

Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation. Your character is what you really are while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.

-John Wooden

Failure to learn is learning to fail.

-Harvey Dorfman

Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

The average person puts only 25% of his energy and ability into his work. The world tips its hat to those who devote more than 50% of their capacity, and stands on its head for those few and far between souls who devote 100%.

-Andrew Carnegie

Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.

-Confucius

Reason, too late perhaps, may convince you of the folly of misspending time.

-George Washington

For of those to whom much is given, much is required.

-John F. Kennedy

Glory gives herself only to those who have always dreamed of her.

-Charles de Gaulle

You never achieve real success unless you like what you are doing.

-Dale Carnegie

Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals. You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

-Douglas MacArthur

Show me a good and gracious loser and I’ll show you a failure.

-Knute Rockne

Whether you think you can or think you can’t - you are right.

There will never be a system invented that will do away with work.

There is joy in work....There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

-Henry Ford

In order to have a winner, the team must have a feeling of unity; every player must put the team first - ahead of personal glory.

-Paul “Bear” Bryant

Accept the challenges so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory.

Always do more than is required of you.

If a man has done his best, what else is there?

-George S. Patton, Jr.

Leadership: the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

DETERMINATION

I do not fear failure. I only fear the “slowing up” of the engine inside of me which is pounding, saying, “Keep going, someone must be on top, why not you.”

-George S. Patton, Jr.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other thing.

I will prepare and some day my chance will come.

-Abraham Lincoln

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

-Carlos Tosca

Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory.

-Mahatma Gandhi

All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.

-Walt Disney

Without courage, all other virtues lose their meaning.

-Winston Churchill

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

-John Wooden

Discipline is doing things correctly every single time.

-Tony Muser

It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather in a lack of will.

The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.

Winning isn’t everything, but making the effort to win is.

Winning is not a sometimes thing; it’s and all-the-time thing.

We know how rough the road will be, how heavy here the load will be, we know about the barricades that wait along the track, but we have set our soul ahead upon a certain goal ahead and nothing left from hell to sky shall ever turn us back.

-Vince Lombardi

There are no gains without pains.

-Benjamin Franklin

I do not know anyone who has gotten to the top without hard work.

-Margaret Thatcher

You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessings.

-Andrew Jackson

Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.

-Henry Ford

If it’s worth playing, it’s worth paying the price to win.

When asked if he walked on water: “Well, I won’t say I can or I can’t; but if I do, I do it before most people get up in the morning.”

-Paul “Bear” Bryant

You must be single minded. Drive for the one thing on which you have decided.

-George S. Patton, Jr.

ACTION

Passiveness is easy and accomplishes nothing.

-anonymous

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.

-Teddy Roosevelt

The first man gets the oyster, the second man gets the shell.

As I grow older I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.

-Andrew Carnegie

The man who goes farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from the shore.

-Dale Carnegie

Those letters (asking how to become an NFL coach) hit me wrong. They reflect that the men’s energies were focused on getting a job rather than doing it, rather than performing.

-Marv Levy

They say I teach brutal football, but the only thing brutal about football is losing.

-Paul “Bear” Bryant

OPPORTUNITY

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

-Teddy Roosevelt

Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing.

I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour - his greatest fulfillment to all he holds dear - is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious.

-Vince Lombardi

I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

-Thomas Jefferson

I wasn’t lucky. I deserved it.

-Margaret Thatcher

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

-Albert Einstein

Everything is an opportunity for something.

-Aaron Weintraub

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success. The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way. When you’re afraid, keep your mind on what you have to do...if you have been thoroughly prepared, you will not be afraid.

We all have possibilities we don’t know about. We can do things we don’t even dream we can do.

-Dale Carnegie

There is no security in this life, only opportunity.

-Douglas MacArthur

Don’t find fault, find a remedy.

-Henry Ford

Success is peace of mind in knowing you did your best.

-John Wooden

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

-Teddy Roosevelt

The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.

-Vince Lombardi

FINALLY

If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, “Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

I cannot do it for you. Only you can do it for you.

You can do it! CoachTraub.com can help.

-Aaron Weintraub

Thank you, Coach Wooden, for your work, including your Pyramid of Success.

May we all find our way to the pinnacle!