|
SOMETIMES REJECTION IS JUST A NUMBER (JIA JIANG AND JOHN WOODEN)
John Wooden did not win the first of his ten National Championship until his eighteenth season at UCLA (his 33rd year of coaching). In his first seventeen seasons at UCLA his teams appeared in the NCAA Tournament five times and posted a record of three wins and nine losses. https://coachwooden.com/the-journey
Coach Wooden’s attitude was that: "We should welcome adversity as a learning experience, that when met with effort, increases our capability."
"I wondered how many times famous authors had been rejected by publishers before one of them finally accepted their first book. The numbers were astonishing:
Lord of the Flies by William Golding: 20 rejections – sold over 25 million copies.
The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank: 15 rejections - sold over 30 million copies.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J. K. Rowling: 12 rejections - sold over 120 million copies.
Carrie by Stephen King: 30 rejections - sold over 350 million copies.
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig: 121 rejections (a record in the Guinness Book of World Records) – sold over 5 million copies.
All these authors had to push beyond dozens of rejections until they found the right person who agreed to publish their work. Rejection is human, is an opinion, and has a number."
In his book Pyramid of Success, with Jay Carty, Coach Wooden summed it up this way:
"An overarching truth in life is that worthwhile accomplishments and acquisitions take time. Usually the better the reward, the more time it takes to acquire it."
Are you rejection proof?
Yours in Coaching,
Craig Impelman
|
COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE
The Glory of Age
What is the glory of age?' I said,
'A hoard of gold and a few dear friends?
When you've reached the day that you look ahead
And see the place where your journey ends,
When Time has robbed you of youthful might-
What is the secret of your delight?'
And an old man smiled as he answered me:
'The glory of age isn't gold or friends,
When we've reached the valley of Soon-To-Be
And note the place where our journey ends;
The glory of age, be it understood,
Is a youngster out there who is making good.
'The greatest joy that can come to man
When his sight is dim and his hair is gray;
The greatest glory that God can plan
To cheer the lives of the old to-day,
When they share no more in the battle yell,
Is a youngster out there who is doing well.'
Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
|
