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BELIEF REQUIRES PATIENCE AND FAITH
John Wooden Video Clip (3 min. 45 sec.): "Considering your Indiana origins, how did you get all the way to UCLA?" Great clip that shows how John Wooden’s actions reflected his beliefs.
John Wooden and Angela Duckworth—though separated by generation, profession, and setting—arrived at the same understanding about belief and achievement: success requires a long-term commitment sustained by patience in the present and faith in the future.
Coach Wooden said Patience and Faith are necessary foundations for Success. Duckworth arrived at the same conclusion through rigorous research. She calls it "Grit".
Angela Duckworth is a bestselling author, psychologist, researcher, and former management consultant whose work focuses on why some individuals, teams, and leaders sustain effort over time while others fade. Her research is grounded in years of empirical study across high-performance environments, including business leaders, elite students, educators, military cadets, and professionals operating under prolonged pressure. Rather than studying talent or intelligence alone, Duckworth examined what actually predicts long-term success when progress is slow and obstacles are unavoidable.
What Duckworth found was both simple and challenging: the people who succeed over time are not those who believe most strongly in immediate outcomes, but those who maintain belief when outcomes are delayed.
In Duckworth’s research, belief was never passive optimism. It was an active commitment to continue making the effort even when results were uncertain. Her highest performers shared a common trait: they trusted that sustained effort would matter eventually, even when evidence was incomplete. That trust required faith. And because meaningful goals unfold slowly, that faith had to be paired with patience. She observed, "Enthusiasm is common. Endurance is rare."
Belief is tested most when reinforcement is absent. In her book "Grit" she describes belief with faith and patience this way: "Grit is sticking with your future, day in and day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years."
In his book "Wooden on Leadership" Coach wrote:
"On the journey to Success, you will face frustration and fatigue, setbacks and serious obstacles; but a leader must remain undaunted. Thus, I added mortar at the top of the Pyramid of Success in the form of Patience and Faith. These two qualities must be present throughout the Pyramid, holding the blocks and tiers firmly in place."
A leader must have Faith that things will work out as they should—a boundless belief in the future. A wise leader also knows that accomplishing important things takes time."
Reflect on this idea of belief. How are you doing? Write it down. Share it with someone on your team.
Yours in Coaching,
Craig Impelman
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COACH'S FAVORITE POETRY AND PROSE
"An enterprise, when fairly once begun, should not be left till all that ought is won."
William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
"Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged."
Thomas A. Edison (1847–1931)
"Excellence is never granted to man but as the reward of labor. It argues no small strength of mind to persevere in habits of industry without the pleasure of perceiving those advances, which, like the hand of a clock, whilst they make hourly approaches to their point, yet proceed so slowly as to escape observation."
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792)
"There are but two roads that lead to an important goal and to the doing of great things: strength and perseverance. Strength is the lot but of a few privileged men; but austere perseverance, harsh and continuous, may be employed by the smallest of us and rarely fails of its purpose, for its silent power grows irresistibly greater with time."
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)
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