Crawford Eric - The one-day contract: how to add value to every minute of your life

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To my five children, Michael, Chris, Richard, Ryan, and Jaclynthe one fist that always stays together. To my wife, Joanne, whose laughter has always taught me the meaning of a good life.

Rick Pitino

To my mother, Jackie Crawford, and my grandmother, Lucille Crawfordwomen who fought off cancer with toughness and grace.

Eric Crawford

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Best. Week. Ever.

Those were the three words I kept hearing, on television and during interviews, as well as from fans and friends, even before our University of Louisville basketball team beat Michigan for the NCAA Championship. Its true, I had an amazing week. Our team made it to the Final Four, and while I was learning via phone call that Id been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, my son Richard called to tell me he had been hired at Minnesota, becoming the youngest head coach in the Big Ten Conference. On top of all that, a horse in which I was part owner won the Santa Anita Derby to punch his ticket for the Kentucky Derby.

People were marveling at my good fortune. And Ill be honestI was marveling at my good fortune. A lifetimes worth of blessing, it seemed, was bestowed during one wondrous week. I was incredibly grateful, and it was more than I deserved. After we won the championship game, I was asked repeatedly to reflect on the preceding week, and what it had been like to have the best week ever.

Looking back on all of it, the things everyone was talking about were not, in themselves, what truly made it great. In fact, it wasnt so long ago that the media was reporting Id had the worst week ever. What happened between the worst of times and what wound up as the best of timesand what made our championship run possible in the first placegets at the heart of this book.

This book is unlike any other I have undertaken. I began writing it the summer before our championship season, and was piecing it together in my mind long before that. While others have been focused on career, basketball, and success, this book began with just one goal. Plain and simple, it began as an instrument to help people through the most difficult times of their lives. Theres no question we live in trying days, just look at a newspaper or watch the nightly news. But most of us dont have to do that. We can see the evidence in our own lives. We all know about tough times. In this book, I will talk to you about mine.

A remarkable thing happened while this book was being put together. As I was writing about overcoming adversity, the power of focus, dealing with doubt, the importance of humility, prospering through pressure and the other ideas here, my team was putting each of those principles on display. The special young men I was coaching were putting into practice many of the precepts I will share in this book. They, in essence, wrote the conclusion, provided the happy ending. They proved that these principles work.

They are fundamentals that are badly needed today, by all of us. A basketball season on the mountaintop for me does not change the fact that for many people these remain the most challenging, even desperate, of times. And the memory of adversity is never far away in my own life.

We live in an age warped by worry. Whether through foreclosure, stock market difficulties, or downturns in the housing or job markets, people who never thought they would have to deal with the crushing weight of financial uncertainty have found themselves facing that very problem. Bankruptcies are widespread. Others take retirement, and then find themselves struggling to live off the interest of their savings. Many reaching retirement age arent sure whether they should stop working. Conservative investments are no longer reliable sources of income. Guarantees are gone. So many people of all ages in many walks of life feel there is nowhere to turn. A 2011 survey by the American Psychological Association listed money as the No. 1 cause of stress in the United States, with the economy at No. 3 and housing costs at No. 7. Economic changes have many worried about the stability of their situation.

We live in a time troubled by tragedythe Sandy Hook shootings, the Boston Marathon bombing. Places never before associated with violence now exist under a shadow that affects us all. Random violence is on the rise. When terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, something changed in our national psyche. A sense of security was shattered. For those of us who suffered personal losses that day, life has never been the same, and the ramifications will last forever. My whole perspective on life changed after 9/11 and the death of my brother-in-law, Billy Minardi. Ive said it many times: Our life as a family, and particularly my wife and I, will never be the same. It has affected us like nothing else. It has changed the way we think, the way we view the past and the future. Even for those who havent lost people close to them, such senseless acts take a toll.

We are a society sapped by stress. We sleep too little and eat too much. Every day you see itpeople are on edge, angry and frustrated, or depressed and even hopeless. Most of us have an idea how to handle adversity. But stress is a different matter. It is like a poisonous pill that you take in a daily dose. As the stress of life has increased, we have become an increasingly overweight and unhealthy nation. We must immediately focus on stress relief so we dont suffer its debilitating side effects. Health and health care have become major sources of worry, and one of the most heated subjects of our national debates.

And above all elsebecause of everything we are facingwe are distracted. Our children cannot pay attention. Our adults are looking for escape.

All of these things will sap you of your energy, rob you of your resilience, and distract you from the focus that can be the lifeline that pulls you through the difficulties and back onto the road to your goals. So many times, whether in public life or on a smaller scale, I have seen people struggle when circumstances have overtaken them. I have experienced it in my own life.

This is not a book about how to avoid difficult times, though many of the chapters here may help you do just that. Instead, this is a book about what to do in the midst of the storm. What to do when the mistakes have been made, when you face the full-court press, when the bills pile up, the job interviews dont come, the investments tank, or the public embarrassment strikes. It is a book about keeping life together when it seems to be falling apart, whatever the reason, and emerging victorious on the other side.

My goal in writing this book is to share some of my experience in these areas. When I wrote Success Is a Choice in 1998, I received more than a thousand letters from people saying the book had made a difference in their lives. That book was about overachieving. This book is about overcoming. It is a message that is needed today in many areas of life by a wide range of people.

I have been through periods of great personal grief, professional and personal failure and frustration, as well as great prosperity and career accomplishment. At the University of Louisville, Ive faced adversity from outside circumstance and of my own making, and Ive experienced the rewards of strong friendships and great success.