John Calipari - Bounce Back: Overcoming Setbacks to Succeed in Business and in Life

OVERCOMING SETBACKS TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS AND IN LIFE

BY JOHN CALIPARI
with David Scott

Free Press
A Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com

Copyright 2009 by John Calipari and David Scott

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Free Press Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Free Press hardcover edition September 2009

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Calipari, John.

Bounce back : overcoming setbacks to succeed in business and in life/
John Calipari and David Scott.
p. cm.

1. SuccessPsychological aspects. 2. Self-management (Psychology)
I. Scott, David. II. Title.
BF637.S8C276 2009

155.2'4dc22 2009022824

ISBN: 978-1-4165-9750-6
ISBN: 978-1-4165-5946-7 (ebook)

Excerpt from The Bounce Back Book by Karen Salmansohn. Copyright 2007 by Karen Salmansohn. Used by permission of Workman Publishing Co., Inc., New York. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with the permission of Fireside, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., from The Rhythm of Life: Living Every Day with Passion and Purpose, New Edition by Matthew Kelly. Copyright 1999 by Matthew Kelly. Revised edition copyright 2005 by Beacon Publishing.

Excerpt from The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. Copyright 2005 by Jack Canfield. Used by permission from HarperCollins.

For: Ellen, Erin, Megan, and Bradleythere are no bounce backs without the support and security of my amazing family.

SECTION I
Its About You

1. THE TRIGGER EVENT
Coming to Grips with What Has Happened

2. LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE
Your First Bounce Back Is the Hardest

3. GET OUT FROM UNDER THE COVERS
You Are Not Alone

4. NEXT!
The Power of Amnesia

5. DISCOVER YOUR OWN BEST VERSION
What Will Your Bounce Back Be Made Up Of?

6. VISUALIZE YOUR SUCCESS
Be Relentlessly Positive, and Believe in Yourself

SECTION II
Go for It

7. BUILD YOUR SELF-WORTH
Help Others to Help Yourself

8. BECOME THE RECRUITER, NOT THE RECRUIT
Create Your Brand Identity

9. LET OPPORTUNITY KNOCK
Dont Settle, but Dont Fear Reinvention Either

10. CHOOSE WISELY
Target Your Reentry Opportunity, and Pursue It Diligently

SECTION III
You Made It

11. NEW BEGINNINGS
Your Second Life Can Be Better Than Your First

12. KNUCKLE BALLS, MEGA MOUNTAINS, AND CRATERS
Dont Let Bumps in the Road Detour You

13. PLAN YOUR WORK, WORK YOUR PLAN
Innovate and Experiment When You Are Prepared to Risk It All

Appendix A
Cals Elite 8 Meaningful Motivational Messages

Appendix B
Cals Bounce-Back Resources

Appendix C
Summary of PractiCal Points

Appendix D
John Caliparis Head-Coaching Record

A portion of the proceeds from sales ofBounce Backwill go to the Calipari Family Foundation for Children. For more information on the charity, please visit: www.coachcal.com .

Letter from Cal

Every summerafter Ive had time to digest the previous seasonI send a letter to all my players. In it I put forth my expectations for the season and set the tone for what we will work to accomplish when we begin play in November. For you, the reader, the following is your introductory letter to becoming a member of my Bounce Back Team.

February 2009

Dear Bounce-Back Team Member:

Who would have ever guessed something good would come from blowing a nine-point lead with two minutes and twelve seconds to go in the 2008 NCAA mens basketball championship game?

But the loss of my former team, the Memphis Tigers, in that game, the devastation of that bitter end to the 200708 season and the way we all dealt with the aftermath provided the impetus for me to write this book, which I envision helping you get through your own personal bounce back. A lot has changed since those two minutes and twelve seconds transpired. Theres been another fantastic season of college basketball played; a new and worthy champion, the University of North Carolina, won the 2009 national title; and Ive left the University of Memphis for the dream job I accepted at the University of Kentucky on April 1, 2009. But the experiences, lessons, and results of that magical 200708 campaign will live forever with me, and now, hopefully with you. Thats the silver lining Ive discovered knowing that the total, public humiliation of letting that lead slip away will now help me to touch lives in a positive way that otherwise would not have been possible.

Simply by reading and embracing the messages within this book, you will become a member of a special teammy team. The circumstances that led you to pick up this bookseparation, divorce, foreclosure, downsizing, firinghave no bearing on how you came to the team. The important thing is, you found it, and you are willing to let me coach you through this period in your life. You have already taken a huge first step by acknowledging you need some guidance and direction.

You are part of a diverse group of people, and that diversity is something Im quite comfortable with. My team at Kentucky (and before that at the University of Memphis and the University of Massachusetts) has always had players from diverse backgrounds and social levels. They come to me from various sets of life experiences. Some have been from privileged backgrounds, others were from middle-class homes, but most have been underprivileged African American adolescents whose young lives have been characterized by one bounce back after another. Im proud to say Ive been able to impact on their lives in positive ways, and I will do the same for you now that youre part of my team. Some of my guys have gone to the NBA, like Marcus Camby, Derrick Rose, and Tyreke Evans, but the majority of my former players have gone on to the real world far away from the arenas, the gyms, and the adulation. It is their stories of success and the overcoming of odds that I share most often. Nothing is more gratifying to me than having former players come back and thank me for the tough love and the coaching I provide for each and every young man.

Hopefully my impact on you will have a similar resonance. Everyone reading this book is coming to it from a different place. Some are incredibly wealthy, some are incredibly poor. Some have been knocked down before, and some are rookies entering their very first bounce-back experience. Ive had two significantpublicbounce backs in my first fifty years of life, and I fully expect there to be others. Almost no one goes through life unscathed, and the ability to overcome obstacles is often what separates the haves from the have-nots.