John Wooden - A Game Plan for Life: The Power of Mentoring

BY JOHN WOODEN

They Call Me Coach (with Jack Tobin)

Practical Modern Basketball

Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections on andoff the Court (with Steve Jamison)

Coach Wooden One-on-One: Inspiring Conversations onPurpose, Passion, and the Pursuit of Success (with Jay Carty)

My Personal Best: Life Lessons from an All-American Journey (with Steve Jamison)

Coach Woodens Pyramid of Success Playbook: Applying thePyramid of Success to Your Life (with Jay Carty)

Coach Woodens Pyramid of Success: Building Blocks for aBetter Life (with Jay Carty)

Wooden on Leadership (with Steve Jamison)

The Essential Wooden: A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders andLeadership (with Steve Jamison)

BY DON YAEGER

Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton (with Walter Payton)

Running for My Life: My Journey in the Game of Footballand Beyond (with Warrick Dunn)

Its Not About the Truth: The Untold

Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives

It Shattered (with Mike Pressler)

Turning of the Tide: How One Game Changed the South (with Sam Cunningham and John Papadakis)

Ya Gotta Believe!: My Roller-Coaster Life as a ScrewballPitcher and Part-Time Father, and My Hope-Filled FightAgainst Brain Cancer (with Tug McGraw)

A Game Plan for Life

THE POWER OF MENTORING

John Wooden

and

Don Yaeger

To my daughter Madeleine. I hope you will find mentorsin your life that will have as positive an impact on you asCoach Wooden has had on me. Always remember to surroundyourself with friends who are headed in a positivedirection. And one last thought from Coach to you: Makeeach day your masterpiece! Don Yaeger

John C. Maxwell

I HAVE ADMIRED John Wooden for as long as I can remember. Growing up, basketball was my passion. From the time I was ten years old until I graduated from high school, playing ball was the only thing I ever really wanted to do. I could find any excuse to shoot some baskets or to play in a pickup game. I captained my high school team as a se nior, and I went on to play ball for a small college.

While I was playing on that very small stage in central Ohio, Coach Wooden was leading some of the greatest college teams of all time on the national stage. He set the gold standard as a coach and leader. My respect and admiration for him are hard to express. He has not only achieved the heights in his profession, having won ten national championships and being named ESPNs Greatest Coach of the Twentieth Century, but he has also lived with integrity and honor. Never in the world would I have guessed back then that I would someday get to meet Coach Wooden. Its even more astounding that he would agree to mentor me.

Mentoring has always been critical to me. My first mentors were my parents. My father, Melvin, mentored me in character and work ethic when I was a boy, just as John Woodens father mentored him.

When I got started in my career, I went looking for other mentors to teach and guide me. I wanted to learn things I couldnt find in any books back then. For several years my wife and I planned our summer vacations based on which leaders agreed to give me thirty minutes of their time in exchange for what was then a large sum of money for me. As time went by, I was able to find other significant mentors.

When I was in my early thirties, I started mentoring members of my staff. And at about that time others began asking me to teach and mentor them, too. Thats how I got started as a conference speaker and writer. And I continue to personally mentor a handful of individuals on a regular basis.

Im more than sixty now, and I still seek out people from whom I want to learn. And my favorite person to meet with is John Wooden.

For the past several years, Ive had the privilege of spending a day with Coach Wooden every six months or so. We usually eat lunch at his favorite restaurant, and then we retreat to his apartment. He is such a gracious man, humble, and still as sharp as can be. And he is always committed to teaching. I have learned a lot from him in a short time.

Whenever one of my meetings with Coach Wooden approaches, I spend a lot of time thinking about the questions I will ask him. I practice my 10x principle. I spend ten minutes preparing for every minute I expect to spend with him. I want to glean every bit I can from him during our time.

Recently when I was with him, Coach looked at my yellow legal pad full of questions and realized that as much as I was enjoying just chatting with him, he sensed that I wanted to get to the questions Id prepared.

John, lets just get on it, he said with a smile as he pointed to my pad. And then he told me, Of all the people who come to me, no one prepares like you prepare, and I want to talk about everything you have there.

Thats an incredible compliment coming from the man who planned down to the minute every basketball practice he ever led. I found it very humbling.

I was humbled again when Coach Wooden invited me to write the foreword to A Game Plan for Life. Ive read and reread every book he has written. They mentored me long before I got to meet Coach Wooden face-to-face. So of course I told him I would be honored to do so, not only out of love and respect for him, but also because the subject is so important.

As you read this book, you will greatly benefit from Coachs wisdom. In the pages that follow are practical tips on how to approach the art of mentoring as both a mentor and recipient of mentoring. The first half of the book tells the stories of seven mentors who impacted Coach; the second half shares stories about seven people whose lives he has helped to shape.

Theres so much to learn from this man who has had such a great impact on so many lives. He knows how to teach, and even at more than ninety years of age, he continues to learn. Those qualities have made John Wooden an American treasure and a great mentor to me. And now thanks to this book, he can be a mentor to you.